[The Saucepan Man]

I think we should all thank The Saucepan Man for all that hard work and investigation.

Most kind, Hookbill, but there's no need. I am currently reading (and thoroughly enjoying) the Letters and so had just come across those quotes by happy accident.

Thanks, Amarie, for the quotes concerning Sauron's fate. While the first might be construed as a mere threat by Gandalf to the Witch King, the second certainly seems to suggest that Sauron ended up with his Master in the void.

My own understanding is that the evil focussed in the Ring is disipated throughout Middle Earth - evil clearly isn't brought to an end forever with its destruction.

Evil will always be present in Arda because it is a world marred by Morgoth and thereby tainted with evil. That would have been the case regardless of the creation (and destruction) of the One Ring.

As far as the One Ring is concerned, I suppose we must distinguish between its power and its will. Its power clearly was destroyed along with it, since Sauron's powers are "diminished to vanishing point" by its destruction. But the Ring had a will too, albeit that this was originally a part of Sauron's own will. I would speculate that, upon its destruction, the will of the Ring would merge once again with Sauron's spirit (consigned, on the basis of the quotes supplied by Amarie) to the void.

But it was not the preservation of the Ring's evil will which led to the continued existence of evil in Arda. That state of affairs had been brought about a long time previously by Morgoth.