Sauron Diminished?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by narfforc

In the new edition of The Silmarillion there is a letter from J.R.R.Tolkien to Milton Waldman, dated 1951. In the letter Tolkien states that Sauron, when making the One Ring, let a great part of his own inherent power pass into the ring. He goes on to say that while he wore it, his power on earth was actually enhanced. But even if did not wear it, that power existed and was in 'rapport' with himself: he was not 'diminished'. In LotR (The Shadow of the Past) Gandalf tells Frodo: This is the One Ring that he lost many ages ago, to a great weakening of his power. Later he says: The Enemy still lacks one thing to give him strength and knowledge to beat down all resistance, break the last defences, and cover all the lands in a second darkness. He lacks the One Ring.

Without having the letter concerned in front of me, so this is out of context, my take is this:

Sauron has always had immense inherent power, and in the Third Age he still has immense inherent power. You could not write a character such as he is without making him as powerful and terrible as possible. But the One Ring did increase his power. As it was made to enhance his strength, and made up of his strength, then it would naturally contain his strength, even if it was not in his possession. But if he was already powerful to the degree of x, and the ring took this power up to the power of y, then looking at these statements, losing the ring would surely only still reduce his power to x? That seems feasible to me.

I think my old favourite Osanwe-Kenta ( ) might explain something of the nature of this power. If the One Ring was made by Sauron to enhance his powers of osanwe, then it would indeed enhance his power on ME while he wore it. Couple this with the fact that it enabled him to control the Nine and to affect or at least reduce the capabilities of the Three, then his power was considerably enhanced. Losing the One Ring did not mean that this power was lost, on the contrary, it was still within the ring.

However, I can see why this looks wrong, as if the One Ring merely enhanced his power, why then should its destruction result in his total downfall? What I think is that in making the One Ring, a part of Sauron's power was kept within it, and therefore when it was lost it was away from him; maybe in making something to enhance his powers of osanwe and relying upon it, he in some way damaged his natural capabilities at this skill?