Sauron's plan was not completely successful ; for the Elves hid their rings and did not use them while Sauron held the One, and the Dwarves ' rings did not respond to the One's control as Sauron expected.

Saruman, however, reassured the Council that Sauron's evident effort to find the One Ring ( a necessary component of his resurgence ) would fail, as the Ring would long since have been carried by the river Anduin to the Sea ; and the matter was allowed to rest.

The basis of the rumour was that Sauron's Orcs stole many of Rohan's black horses during raids, thus making black horses rare ; however, this was theft, which angered the people of Rohan.

These Rings of Power were free of Sauron's influence, as he did not have a hand in their making ; however they were still forged by Celebrimbor with the arts taught to him by Sauron and thus were still bound to the One Ring.

These were in addition to the three Celebrimbor forged, untainted by Sauron's evil, for the Elves.

The Rings of Power in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium are magical rings created by Sauron or by the Elves of Eregion under Sauron's tutelage.

Tolkien writes that the Elves made many lesser rings as essays in the craft, but eventually with Sauron's assistance they forged the Seven and the Nine.

Barad-dûr was besieged for seven years by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men and was levelled after Sauron's defeat at the end of the Second Age, but because it was created using the power of the One Ring, its foundations could not be destroyed completely unless the Ring itself was destroyed.

Originally there would be a " blinding light " and Aragorn would see Annatar ( Sauron's pleasant appearance that he had used to deceive the Elves in the Second Age ), who would then become Sauron and attack.

But secretly, without Sauron's knowledge, Celebrimbor also forged Three Rings for the Elves, the greatest and fairest of the Rings of Power.

When Annatar was revealed as the Dark Lord Sauron, the Elves of Eregion tried to keep the Rings from falling in Sauron's hands, but only managed to rescue Vilya, Narya, and Nenya ( the Three Rings of the Elves ).

The same happened after Sauron's defeat by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men: only when Sauron returned as the Necromancer of Mirkwood did the Orcs become a real danger for Middle-earth again.

During the War of the Ring the Elves and Men of Rhovanion held off an invasion by Sauron's forces, and after Sauron was defeated Mirkwood was cleansed again, and renamed Eryn Lasgalen, or " Wood of Greenleaves ".

Their fate is unknown, but they likely shared Sauron's defeat at the hands of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.

The Elves of Lothlórien and Mirkwood do withstand assaults by Sauron's armies ; but these battles occur off stage.

Upon perceiving Sauron's intent, the Elves hid the three from him.

Although he had the power of his long-built armies and the One Ring, Sauron's own dominion in Middle-earth had decreased during his absence while the Elves ´ High King, Gil-galad, had expanded his influence.

In the end, this desperation led to Númenor's destruction when Ar-Pharazôn led a battle fleet to the Undying Lands, having been convinced by Sauron's lies that they held the key to the immortality of the Elves.

It was Sauron's design to control all these rings and their bearers through the One Ring, forged in secret for this purpose, but only the Nine succumbed completely to its power and its seduction:

The men under Sauron's command that surrender are forgiven and allowed to return to their lands in peace.

Sauron's forces became afraid of the might of Númenor, and fled from the service of their master.

Sauron's desire was to destroy the Númenóreans and their proud king with the wrath of the Valar ( though not to destroy their kingdom ), although he underestimated their power.

The nine men that had received the rings became great lords, kings, and warriors of their time eventually fell under Sauron's sway, becoming in the end the Nazgûl.

Sauron encourages the Númenóreans to cast aside their traditional reverence for Eru Ilúvatar and to take up the worship of Melkor, or Morgoth, Sauron's former master, and make human sacrifices to him.

In preparation for Sauron's return, the Ringwraiths laid siege to Minas Ithil in 2000, and they took the city for their dark master two years later.

Though the Rohirrim had inflicted enormous damage on their enemies, Sauron's forces were still numerically superior, and Gothmog, the lieutenant of Minas Morgul, who had assumed field command on the death of the Witch-king, summoned reserves from nearby Osgiliath.

The Dead, invincible and unstoppable, annihilate Sauron's forces ; in the book, as well as being absent from the battle, their ability to inflict physical harm is left vague and their ability to inspire fear is emphasized instead.

Sauron's forces were probably more numerous, though the armies of Dale and Erebor would have possessed an advantage due to their superior Dwarven-made weaponry.

Though it could not change the outcome of the War of the Ring, which was tied to the fate of the One Ring, it diverted another portion of Sauron's strength from Lórien and Rivendell, and a quick complete victory by Sauron's Easterling armies would have allowed them to join up with Sauron's forces from Dol Guldur in their attacks on the woodland realm of Mirkwood.

As explained in The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf spent the years between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings travelling Middle-earth in search of information on Sauron's resurgence and Bilbo's mysterious ring, spurred particularly by Bilbo's initial misleading story of how he had obtained it as a " present " from Gollum.

According to Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the Nazgûl arose as Sauron's most powerful servants in the Second Age of Middle-earth.

* J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, remarked that the building resembled Sauron's temple to Morgoth on Númenor.

The eagle might have been speaking poetically, but as Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age in The Silmarillion says, the city is referred to Minas Anor again after Sauron's overthrow.

He refused to collaborate with Sauron, Morgoth's servant, in making the Three Rings, which were the greatest Rings except for Sauron's One and which Celebrimbor forged alone in secret.

* Nazgûl, Sauron's chief servants in the fantasy book The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R.

In, Thráin II, King of Durin's folk, the last bearer of one of the seven Rings of Power given to the Dwarves, was captured by Sauron's forces and was kept at Dol Guldur, where he yielded his ring to Sauron under torture.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the Dark Years is a term used in The Lord of the Rings for the time of Sauron's great and almost undisputed domination of Middle-earth, during which many peoples were enslaved or corrupted.

( Examples including Sauron's One Ring in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Russian folktale of Koschei the Deathless.

The Eye of Sauron as portrayed in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy as Sauron's physical form in the Third Age.

In The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, the witch-king of Angmar is the leader of the Ring-wraiths: a former human king who dabbled in sorcery and was transformed by Sauron's enchanted rings.

But Gandalf rejected Mordor's terms of surrender, and the forces of the West faced the full might of Sauron's armies, until the Ring was destroyed in Orodruin.

Sauron's forces subsequently laid siege to the refuge for three years until a relief army sent by Gil-galad attacked the besieging force in conjunction with the defenders and annihilated it.