Här är ett transkript av konversationen som han hade med Frodo efter att de lagt den i eldstaden, vilket bekräftar att det var The One Ring:
Gandalf sits smoking at Frodo’s table, staring intently at the ring sitting in the middle of the table. Frodo pours hot water into the teapot on the table. Both of them watch the ring as if it might scamper away.
Gandalf: This is the One Ring, forged by the Dark Lord Sauron in the fires of Mount Doom, taken by Isildur from the hand of Sauron himself.
Frodo: Bilbo found it. In Gollum’s cave.
Gandalf: Yes. For sixty years the Ring lay quiet in Bilbo’s keeping, prolonging his life, delaying old age. But no longer, Frodo. Evil is stirring in Mordor. The Ring has awoken. It has heard its master’s call.
Frodo: But he was destroyed. Sauron was destroyed.
Gandalf: No, Frodo. The spirit of Sauron endured. His life force is bound to the Ring, and the Ring survived. Sauron has returned. His orcs have multiplied, his fortress of Barad-dur is rebuilt in the land of Mordor. Sauron needs only this ring to cover all the lands in a second darkness. He is seeking it... seeking it... all his thought is bent upon it. And the ring, it yearns above all else to return to the hand of its master. They are one... the Ring and the Dark Lord. Frodo... he must never find it.
Frodo picks up the Ring from the table and moves quickly into the next room, looking about wildly for a possible place to hide it. Gandalf follows more slowly.
Gandalfs ord visar faktiskt att han redan visste att Sauron var tillbaka och samlar kraft i Mordor. Kanske trodde han att de skulle ha mer tid sedan ringen gick förlorad, men han finner nu att den var dolt nästan i sin egen ficka hela tiden.