The One Ring and invisibility

[CSteefel]

Originally Posted by Raynor

Hm... strange indeed. I would guess that Cirdan requested that, giving his relative mistrust of Saruman (at least when compared to Gandalf) - otherwise I could not explain why would Gandalf be secretive towards the leader of his mission, from their, likely, first year in Middle Earth. Perhaps Cirdan knew of Gandalf's honest allegiance to Saruman and he wanted to prevent a situation where Saruman would get to own it, by requesting it - therefore, he may have forbidden such an act or anything that may lead to it. However, it is, indeed, simpler to just accept that the ring-holders kept the matter to themselves.

Or even beyond the wishes of Cirdan, there seem to be a general agreement that the whereabouts of the Three Rings was not spoken of. So when Elrond says that "we do not speak of them", this may have reflected a general agreement among the bearers of the Three Rings and Gandalf simply followed this in not revealing the fact that he had Narya to Saruman.

If this is true, presumably this dates all the way back to the Second Age, when the Three Rings were first revealed to Sauron, and then hidden away.

Otherwise, I agree that the invisibility conveyed by the One Ring has to do with transport to the Wraith world. The Three Rings never had anything to do with this power and therefore have no such effect.