Sauron's ring and his form

[afro-elf]

When did Sauron forge the One RING?


before or after his imprisonment on numeor

if before how could be caputured?


if after did he resurrect himself in a pleasant form as the lord of gifts?

I thought he was burnt and blackened. Was this after is fight with Elendil and Gil-galad? Why was he burnt?


did he have a form in the 3rd age or was he always an eye?( or a presence)

[Ñólendil]

Sauron forged the One Ring in the 1600th year of the Second Age, the Year of Dread. That's when Glorfindel (and the Blue Wizards) returned from the West to Middle-earth, by the way. It was before his captivity in Númenórë. As for 'how could be caputured?', that's a question that has been asked before and answered by J. R. R. Tolkien:

This question, & its implications, are answered in the 'Downfall of Númenor', which is not yet published, but which I cannot set out now. You cannot press the One Ring too hard, for it is of course a mythical feature, even though the world of the tales is conceived in more or less historical terms. The Ring of Sauron is only one of the various mythical treatments of the placing of one's life, or power, in some external object, which is thus exposed to capture or destruction with disastrous results to oneself. If I were to 'philosophize' this myth, or at least the Ring of Sauron, I should say it was a mythical way of representing the truth that potency (or perhaps rather potentiality) if it is to be exercised, and produce results, has to be externalized and so as it were passes, to a greater or less degree, out of one's direct control. A man who wishes to exert 'power' must have subjects, who are not himself. But he then depends on them.

Ar-Pharazôn, as is told in the 'Downfall' or Akallabêth, conquered a terrified Sauron's subjects, not Sauron. Sauron's personal 'surrender' was voluntary and cunning*: he got free transport to Númenor! He naturally had the One Ring, and so very soon dominated the minds and wills of most of the Númenóreans. (I do not think Ar-Pharazôn knew anything about the One Ring. The Elves kept the matter of the Rings very secret, as long as they could. In any case Ar-Pharazôn was not in communication with them. In the Tale of Years III p. 364 you will find hints of the trouble: 'the Shadow falls on Númenor'. After Tar-Atanamir (an Elvish name) the next name is Ar-Adúnakhôr a Númenórean name. See p. 315[see Note] The change of names went with a complete rejection of the Elf-friendship, and of the 'theological' teaching the Númenóreans had received from them.)

*Note the expression III p. 364 [2nd edition p. 365] 'taken as prisoner'.

Note: In Appendix A to The Lord of the Rings (III . 315) The King of Númenor preceding Ar-Adûnakhor was Tar-Calmacil; the mention here of Tar-Atanamir seems to no more than a slip. See further Unfinished Tales pp. 226-7.

The Downfall of Númenor was published in the Silmarillion by Christopher Tolkien. This quote was taken from Letter # 211.

He was (as you seem to wonder) the Lord of Gifts before his going to Elenna ('Starwards' one of the names of the Island upon which Númenor was founded), and indeed before his making of the One Ring.

His burnt and blackened (hideous) form was simply the reflection of his personality after the Downfall of Númenor. He was unable to assume any sort of fair form after that disaster, and thus did he look during the War of the Last Alliance.

He was never the Eye itself. The Eye was something that he had (and seemingly only the one Eye) after his return from the 'death' he met at the hands of Isildur.