Bilbo´s treachery

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Ivriniel

And no, there's no real indication that the Ring was to be an artefact of lesser perversion because the Hobbit "was published first". Come off it.

Literally all I'm saying is that The Hobbit, including the parts about the Arkenstone etc, were written before Professor Tolkien had conceived of the idea that the Ring corrupted people.

He did not invent this idea until after he had written The Hobbit.

Prof John had Sauron's big vengeance plan ready to rock for aeons

As far as I am aware, this is not the case. Until he began drafting and planning what became The Lord of the Rings, which was after The Hobbit was initially published, Professor Tolkien had only narrated what happened after the First Age as far as Númenor was concerned.

This did involve Sauron surviving and being a character in the narrative of Númenor, but the corresponding events in Middle-earth at the same time, especially the forging of the Rings of Power, had simply not been invented yet, and were not invented until it came to drafting The Lord of the Rings. When The Hobbit was written, Professor Tolkien did not imagine that the Ring was Sauron's Ring or that it was an evil object that influenced its bearer. He had not invented those parts of the story yet.

The drafts and notes published by Christopher Tolkien in The Return of the Shadow show this, I believe.

This is all I am trying to say.

EDIT: I am not doubting that the Ring influenced people to do evil/dubious things - of course not - just trying to suggest that it probably wasn't what Professor Tolkien had in mind when he was writing The Hobbit.