Tolkien talar om detta i Letter # 131. Det är ett ganska långt brev, men den del som är relevant är sålunda (jag skriver ut detta och så är ett misstag mitt fel).
[Bortsett: Tolkien förklarar först hur Sauron blev nästan överlägsen i Middle-earth som bär den One Ring: han dominerade trots allt att multiplicera horder av män som inte hade kontakt med älvor och hade ett växande imperium. Då fortsätter han - Tolkien - fortsätter som nedan]
Sauron trodde verkligen att ingen kunde förstöra det, även om de gick mot Sammath Naur för att göra det: när vi ser när Frodo kommer dit kan han inte göra uppgiften. Tolkien skriver om detta även om jag inte är säker på vilken bokstav det var. Man kan argumentera för att Sauron förstår inte förstör det (som svar på den sista djärva delen av brevet) eftersom det skulle förstöra hans makt men det saknas Poängen: Ringets lock var för honom för kraftfullt och ingen kunde förstöra den. Och ju närmare - som vi ser med Frodo - kommer personen där där, desto kraftigare ringer påverkan. I slutändan skulle det vara Gollums lust för Ring och Eru Ilúvatar som gör att han faller i elden, det skulle göra det möjligt att misslyckas.But to achieve this he had been obliged to let a great part of his own inherent power (a frequent and very significant motive in myth and fairy-story) pass into the One Ring. While he wore it, his power on earth was actually enhanced. But even if he did not wear it, that power existed and was in 'rapport' with himself: he was not 'diminished'. Unless some other seized it and became possessed of it. If that happened, the new possessor could (if sufficiently strong and heroic by nature) challenge Sauron, become master of all that he had learned or done since the making of the One Ring, and so overthrow him and usurp his place. This was the essential weakness he had introduced into his situation in his effort (largely unsuccessful) to enslave the Elves, and his desire to establish control over the minds and wills of his servants. There was another weakness: if the One Ring was actually unmade, annihilated, then its power would be dissolved, Sauron's own being would be diminished to vanishing point, and he would be reduced to a shadow, a mere memory of malicious will. But that he never contemplated nor feared. The Ring was unbreakable by any smithcraft less than his own. It was indissoluble in any fire, save the undying subterranean fire where it was made - and that was unapproachable, in Mordor. Also so great was the Ring's power of lust, that anyone who used it became mastered by it; it was beyond the strength of any will (even his own) to injure it, cast it away, or neglect it. So he thought. It was in any case on his finger.
Redigera:
I en kommentar till ett annat svar noterade jag att om Sam hade förstått Gollum och Frodo förhållande bättre skulle han istället ha hjälpt dem till Mordor och skulle efter att ha tagit Ring från Frodo kastar sig in i elden. Det här är en del av ett brev som förklarar det. Som en extra bonus har det en annan bit som förklarar återigen hur Sauron inte trodde att någon skulle vara villig att förstöra ringen.
If he had understood better what was going on between Frodo and Gollum, things might have turned out differently in the end. For me perhaps the most tragic moment in the Tale in II 323 ff. when Sam fails to note the complete change in Gollum's tone and aspect. 'Nothing, nothing,' said Gollum softly. 'Nice master!'. His repentance is blighted and all Frodo's pity is (in a sense) wasted. Shelob's lair became inevitable.
This is due of course to the 'logic of the story'. Sam could hardly have acted differently. (He did reach the point of pity at last (III 221-222[4]) but for the good of Gollum too late). If he had, what could then have happened? The course of the entry into Mordor and the struggle to reach Mount Doom would have been different, and so would the ending. The interest would have shifted to Gollum, I think, and the battle that would have gone on between his repentance and his new love on one side and the Ring. Though the love would have been strengthened daily it could not have wrested the mastery from the Ring. **I think that in some queer twisted and pitiable way Gollum would have tried (not maybe with conscious design) to satisfy both. Certainly at some point not long before the end he would have stolen the Ring or taken it by violence (as he does in the actual Tale). But 'possession' satisfied, I think he would have then sacrificed himself for Frodo's sake and have voluntarily cast himself into the fiery abyss.
I think that an effect of his partial regeneration by love would have been a clearer vision when he claimed the Ring. He would have perceived the evil of Sauron, and suddenly realized that he could not use the Ring and had not the strength or stature to keep it in Sauron's despite: the only way to keep it and hurt Sauron was to destroy it and himself together--and in a flash he may have seen that this would also be the greatest service to Frodo.** Frodo in the tale actually takes the Ring and claims it, and certainly he too would have had a clear vision - but he was not given any time: he was immediately attacked by Gollum. When Sauron was aware of the seizure of the Ring his one hope was in its power: that the claimant would be unable to relinquish it until Sauron had time to deal with him. Frodo too would then probably, if not attacked, have had to take the same way: cast himself with the Ring into the abyss.
[4] Detta är en fotnot av själva brevet; Jag märkte det inte förrän jag tog en bild, mailade den till mig själv och transkriberade den. Jag tror inte att jag behöver citera det.