If the rings were given to the 🧝Elves...

[Celebthôl]

If the rings were given to the Elves before they were taken back or corrupted their masters etc, would Sauron have not been so powerful and would he have been destroyed years ago?

 

[Gothmog]

Strange question. The Rings of Power with the exception of the One Ring were made by the Elves of Erigion using the lore of Sauron. When he found that he could not control the Elves with them he demanded that they be given over to him and when they were not, he made war upon the Elves and took 16 of them which he then gave to Dwarves and Men.

Had he not gained the 16, then it is possible that he would have been less powerful in that the Dwarves would not have had their greed inflamed by the rings and there would have been no Nazgul. However, Sauron himself would have still been a very powerful Maia and would still have had the orcs and easterlings under his command. So I doubt that he would have been much if any easier to defeat.

 

[Celebthôl]

Well when you think about how the Lord of the Nazgul affected men who it came upon i.e. it scared the poo out of them which gave the Orcs/Easterlings etc a chance to over run the cowering "goodies" and destroy them with relative ease, this worked on large groups of men and caused many brave (in normal sercomstances (sp)) Gondorians to be slaughtered, and the Nazgul may have been (most likely been) the cause of the failing of the line of the Kings of Gondor by killing the last king who had no heir.

The variables are just to great, but i believe that if the dwarves and men had surrnedered the rings to the high elves then there would have been IMO less troubles by far to the free peoples of ME

Here endeth thy rant!

Thol

 

[Aulë]

he made war upon the Elves and took 16 of them which he then gave to Dwarves and Men

Hmm, I thought that one of the Dwarven rings was not taken by Sauron (Thror's).

 

[Celebthôl]

no that was the last of the rings to be taken by sauron, from Durins line, it as taken when Thrain was kidnapped by Sauron in Mirkwood, it was the last ring Sauron got, he only ever obtained 3 of the dwarven rings, the other 4 were consumed by dragons...

 

[Gothmog]

Originally posted by Pippin_Took
Hmm, I thought that one of the Dwarven rings was not taken by Sauron (Thror's).

There was something said about the ring the dwarves of Kazhad-dum being given to them by Celebrimbor and therefore was not taken by Sauron during the war against Erigion. If this did in fact happen then Sauron only got 15 of the rings from the Elves. I will have to look for the quotes to give a better answer.