The accounts in 'Unfinished Tales' and LOTR are manifestly incompatible and there is nothing to be gained by far-fetched attempts to reconcile them. Saruman did not know Gandalf had the Red Ring in LOTR, or else it would have been mentioned by him, in his great outburst of resentment against Gandalf in 'The Voice of Saruman', if nowhere else. And someone as obsessed with ring-lore as he was would have tried to get hold of it, if he knew about it. Gandalf must also have had the ring on him in Orthanc - he had no home to leave it safely behind in, and no reason to leave it behind anyway. The interesting point (to me) is that the elven ring was absolutely no help to Gandalf in his captivity. This probably shouldn't be surprising, however, since we are told time and again that their purpose did not involve power and control.
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