When the Nazgûl lose their bodily form, what happens to their rings?

[Pitchwife]

Actually, the idea that Sauron held the Nine Rings seems to have been the original one, going back to the early drafts.
From The Return of the Shadow (HoME VI), Of Gollum and the Ring:

[...] the men-wraiths are servants of the Lord, and they brought all their rings back to him; till at last he gathered all into his hands again that had not been destroyed by fire[...]

And from RS, Ancient History:

But all the Nine Rings of Men have gone back to Sauron, and borne with them their possessors, kings, warriors, and wizards of old, who became Ringwraiths and served the maker, and were his most terrible servants.

Curiously, Gandalf is the speaker in both cases; so what possessed him to state "The Nine the Nazgûl keep" at the Council of Elrond? Maybe just a temporary lapse of memory by Tolkien, the original idea resurfacing later in UT and Letters?

Boro:

As it was their 9 rings that that Nazgul were enthralled to, not the One.

Saruman, expert in ring-lore, thought otherwise (UT, The Hunt for the Ring):

I know what you seek, though you do not name it. I have it not, as surely its servants perceive without telling; for if I had it, then you would bow before me and call me Lord.[my emphasis, Pw.]

He may have been mistaken, of course.

TGEW:

What I mean is, the Wraiths would always want to come back to their rings in hopes that Sauron, being the nice, generous guy that he is, would give them back.

I quite like this thought. Maybe in this respect the Nazgûl weren't that much different from Gollum - addicted to their rings, and driven mad by more than an age of withdrawal?
"Please masster... give preciouss back to good Khamûl!"

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

TGEW:

I quite like this thought. Maybe in this respect the Nazgûl weren't that much different from Gollum - addicted to their rings, and driven mad by more than an age of withdrawal?
"Please masster... give preciouss back to good Khamûl!"

Ha-ha. The Ring-wraiths might actually want to come back to Sauron for more than that reason though, maybe they wanted to come back to Sauron because he gave them perks that no one else in the service of the Dark Lord got. Plus, if Sauron wasn't around then the Nazgul would just fade away and maybe actually die.

Oh yes, thank you for the compliment!

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by TheGreatElvenWarrior

if Sauron wasn't around then the Nazgul would just fade away and maybe actually die.

I doubt if they could, and they certainly didn't when Sauron was disembodied for a millennium or so between his defeat by the Last Alliance and reappearance as the Necromancer of Dol Guldur.

[Morthoron]

I don't think Tolkien reconciled the nine rings conclusively. It's one of those plot holes pitting the fabric of such a sprawling tale. And the inconsistency in the plot logic is nowhere more noticeable than after Isildur cuts the One Ring off Sauron's finger. If Sauron had the Nine, then they would have been lost in the fall of Barad-Dur (which would not be raised again for centuries).

[skip spence]

Sauron must look like a pimp with all them rings on his hands...

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by skip spence

Sauron must look like a pimp with all them rings on his hands...

I wonder if toe rings were in fashion back then.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

I don't think Tolkien reconciled the nine rings conclusively. It's one of those plot holes pitting the fabric of such a sprawling tale. And the inconsistency in the plot logic is nowhere more noticeable than after Isildur cuts the One Ring off Sauron's finger. If Sauron had the Nine, then they would have been lost in the fall of Barad-Dur (which would not be raised again for centuries).

If we accept that Sauron had the One with him in Númenor and was somehow able to trasport it with his disembodied spirit back to ME, why could he not have done the same with the Nine after his defeat by the Last Alliance?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

If we accept that Sauron had the One with him in Númenor and was somehow able to trasport it with his disembodied spirit back to ME, why could he not have done the same with the Nine after his defeat by the Last Alliance?

Ummm...if that were the case, don't you think Sauron would have levitated the One Ring out of Isildur's grasp? I mean, really, what's the point of spiriting off the Nine when his decapitated finger had the only ring that mattered? And since Isuldur was in the slice and dice mode, if the other Rings were available on Sauron's prone body, wouldn't he have lifted those as well?

Originally Posted by Galin

But why can't Sauron have taken the Nine back in the Third Age? That appears to be the indication from Of The Rings Of Power And The Third Age, as I read it anyway.

Where were they then, 'zactly?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Ummm...if that were the case, don't you think Sauron would have levitated the One Ring out of Isildur's grasp? I mean, really, what's the point of spiriting off the Nine when his decapitated finger had the only ring that mattered? And since Isuldur was in the slice and dice mode, if the other Rings were available on Sauron's prone body, wouldn't he have lifted those as well?

I believe you are correct, Sir. Touche.
Well, the only other option I can come up with is perhaps Sauron was in possession of the Nine, but did not always physically keep them on his person. I don't think it was beyond his power to have created a storage place for them where they were available to him, but inaccessable to the Nazgûl.

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Where were they then, 'zactly?

I would say they were with the Nine Wraiths until Sauron took them back in the Third Age.

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

I don't think Tolkien reconciled the nine rings conclusively. It's one of those plot holes pitting the fabric of such a sprawling tale. And the inconsistency in the plot logic is nowhere more noticeable than after Isildur cuts the One Ring off Sauron's finger. If Sauron had the Nine, then they would have been lost in the fall of Barad-Dur (which would not be raised again for centuries).

But why can't Sauron have taken the Nine back in the Third Age? That appears to be the indication from Of The Rings Of Power And The Third Age, as I read it anyway.