"Three rings that the Dwarf-sires possessed of old shall be returned to you"

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Gloin

'As a small token only of your Friendship Sauron asks this,' he said: 'that you should find this thief,' such was his word, 'and get from him, willing or no, a little ring, the least of rings, that once he stole. It is but a trile that Sauron fancies, and in earnest of your good will. Find it, and three rings that the Dwarf-sires possessed of old shall be returned to you, and the realm of Moria shall be yours for ever. Find only news of the thief, whether he still lives and where, and you shall have great reward and lasting friendship from the Lord. Refuse, and things will not seem so well. Do you refuse?'

It seems clear that the three Sauron's messenger promised to Dain are the three remaining of the Seven Rings: Thror's, plus the two others that didn't get eaten by dragons. I've never thought about this before, but I immediately have two questions:

1. Would he have kept his word? Gloin says that "we knew already that the power that has re-entered Mordor has not changed, and ever it betrayed us of old," but last time round Sauron did hand out every Ring he had possession of apart from the One itself. It's a pretty impressive bribe - a Great Ring in the hands of a dwarf is the foundation of a hoard of gold - and Tolkien repeatedly said that the Dwarves other than Durin's Folk are historically willing to serve Morgoth and Sauron at times, so it's not impossible that three Rings could make them switch sides permanently. But on the other hand... it's Sauron.

2. Sauron took possession of "the last of the Seven" around 2845; he offered it back around 3017. He had possession of three unassigned Great Rings for nearly 200 years, and may have had two of them for a couple of thousand years. What, exactly, was he doing with them for all that time? The Seven and the Nine were identical in their creation, so we know that the remaining Seven could be used to create new Nazgul. But they... weren't?

One possibility I've seen before would be that the Mouth of Sauron had one of the rings. Another candidate would be Herumor, the never-written villain of The New Shadow. But in either of those cases, there would be no possibility of turning them over to Dain - and, dwarves being dwarves, you'd think they'd insist on seeing the Rings before they turned over any information.

hS