Sauron - Physical form in The War of the Ring or not?

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

The Ainur could become incarnate however they pleased (Yavanna as a tree, for instance) but I don't think it at any stage behooved Sauron's interests to become incarnate as an isolated body part - he could not have worn his own ring had he recovered it, for starters.

Indeed. The texts you cite make this quite clear. See also the sketch by J. R. R. Tolkien of Sauron at http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/File:...n_-_Sauron.jpg .

See also Gollum’s description in The Two Towers where Gollum says, “He has only four [fingers] on the Black Hand, but they are enough.”

In the films Saruman tells Gandalf that Sauron isn’t yet able to “take physical form,” but that is an invention by the film writers.