There's also the case that Shippey brings up: while Shagrat and Gorbag react with apparent scorn at the "great Elvish warrior" leaving Frodo lying there- a "regular Elvish trick"- not long afterwards they gleefully share a laugh over the fate of "old Uftak," left, alive, in Shelob's larder. Again, they do have some crippled sense of morality, but then completely fail to act on it.
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it.
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