# Why can Sauron sense when someone is wearing the Ring sometimes but not others?



## BalrogRingDestroyer (Mar 16, 2018)

Proximity to Sauron doesn't seem to be a factor either.



When Sauron did NOT sense someone had the Ring:

1.) All the years Gollum had it.
2,) When Bilbo wore it in Mirkwood (despite Sauron being in Dol Goldor.) 
3.) When Frodo wore it in Bree.
4.) When Sam wore it right at the entrance to Mordor and, if I recall correctly, right into Mordor itself.


When Sauron DID sense it:


1.) When Frodo wore it near Rauros after Boromir tried to take the Ring.
2.) When Frodo put on the Ring on Mount Doom


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## Alcuin (Mar 16, 2018)

At Amon Hen, Frodo was wearing the Ring when he arrived, having put it on to escape Boromir.


> [H]e came … [to] the summit of Amon Hen, and … saw as through a mist a wide flat circle, … and … a high seat, reached by a stair of many steps. …
> 
> At first he could see little. He seemed to be in a world of mist in which there were only shadows: the Ring was upon him. Then here and there the mist gave way and he saw many visions: small and clear as if they were under his eyes upon a table, and yet remote. … He was sitting upon the Seat of Seeing, on Amon Hen, the Hill of the Eye of the Men of Númenor.
> …
> ...


Then Sauron began searching for him, while Gandalf helps him resist. 

Amon Hen was a special place: the Númenóreans in Exile built it: for lack of a better word, it was “magic”, so that a person sitting on the seat could see far and wide. 

“At first he could see little. He seemed to be in a world of mist in which there were only shadows: the Ring was upon him.” The Ring interfered with his vision; and as depicted in the movies, the “other side” or “wraith-world” was filled with shadow, reminiscent of Limbo, Sheol, or the Greek land of the dead. His vision cleared as the power of the ancient Númenóreans began to work on him; but his “unwilling” attention “was drawn” eastward: the Ring redirected him. It is no doubt the Ring that cries out in his mind, “_Verily I come, I come to you_”, seeking its maker, Sauron. Frodo could _see_ Barad-dûr. It should not be surprising that Sauron responded to the Ring, his principal work, the receptacle of “the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning.” Gandalf told Frodo at Bag End that Sauron “is exerting all his power to find [the One Ring] or draw it to himself.” I think the Ring “saw” Barad-dûr, whether on its own or, more likely, by interacting with Frodo’s mind, and it alerted Sauron to its presence; from that, Sauron could make out its direction (we hear sounds and can make out their directions, or feel the heat of the sun and can determine its direction) and approximate distance. Sauron searched for Frodo, but missed: “A black shadow seemed to pass like an arm above him; it missed Amon Hen and groped out west, and faded.” Later, though, when Aragorn sat on the seat, “the sun seemed darkened, and the world dim and remote.” Very likely, Sauron had returned his attention to Amon Hen, perhaps using the purloined palantír of Minas Ithil, and found a Man whom he later saw again and again. 

On the road to Sammath Naur, Frodo again saw Barad-dûr, and at the same time “from some great window ... there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye;” but Sauron’s attention and malice were focused completely upon Aragorn and his small army at the Black Gate: he ignored all else. Frodo nearly put on the Ring before Sam held his hands, but unlike the situation at Amon Hen when he saw Barad-dûr before, he wasn’t wearing the Ring, though it tried to make him put it on. 

But inside the Sammath Naur, “Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own.” In Sammath Naur, “the very heart of [Sauron’s] realm,” Frodo not only put on the Ring, but “claimed it for his own,” exercising its power to the extent of his ability. In the end, his ability did not prevent Gollum from biting off his finger (just as Isildur cut off Sauron’s finger), but he _was_ wearing the Ring, he _did_ claim ownership of it, and he _was_ in the place of its making, a place that _by design_ had _direct line-of-sight_ to the Window of the Eye in Barad-dûr. 

In both cases, *(a)* Frodo was wearing the Ring, and *(b)* he was in sight of Barad-dûr. It sounds as if in both cases, the Ring was trying to contact Sauron: _it_ caused Frodo to look at Barad-dûr on Amon Hen; and if Celebrimbor could hear the Ring-spell when Sauron first put on the One Ring, surely Sauron knew that Frodo placed the Ring on his finger _and claimed it_ (“The Ring is mine!”) in Sammath Naur.


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## Deleted member 12094 (Mar 16, 2018)

My understanding is that Sam did not use the ring in Mordor, although the events in and around Cirith Ungol are somewhat complex to realize when and where he did use it and when not. But clearly, once in Mordor Sam realized the consequences, while contemplating the temptation to claim it:

_The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command.

‘And anyway all these notions are only a trick,’ he said to himself. ‘He’d spot me and cow me, before I could so much as shout out. He’d spot me, pretty quick, if I put the Ring on now, in Mordor. Well, all I can say is: things look as hopeless as a frost in Spring. Just when being invisible would be really useful, I can’t use the Ring!’_​


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## Elthir (Mar 16, 2018)

To my mind, the suggestion in the narrative surrounding Cirith Ungol is that being in the actual land of Mordor was a notable factor.

When Sam reached the summit of the pass he looked: _"at last on the path descending into the Nameless Land"_ but then, of course, the orcs arrive. They mention the delay of an orc-patrol, and of no message being sent to the Dark Tower (the Silent Watchers being uneasy) due to a Great Signal going up, and the Eye being busy elsewhere.

Sam returns to the spot later, and now there is the suggestion that the very gloom Sauron has sent out from Mordor is aiding to hide him. And: "He ran forward to the climbing path, and over it. At once the road turned left and plunged steeply down. Sam had crossed into Mordor."

Sam took off the Ring, moved it may be by some premonition of danger, though to himself he thought only that he wished to see more clearly. And without the Ring on his finger: _"No sooner had he come in sight of Mount Doom, burning far away, than he was aware of a change in his burden."_ Then Sam has his tempting visions, overcomes his trial, and says: _"He'd spot me, petty quick, if I put the Ring on now, in Mordor."_

And in the tower itself, it appears that the Ring lends a power (of sorts) to Sam, without actually being on his finger.


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## BalrogRingDestroyer (Mar 18, 2018)

Galin said:


> To my mind, the suggestion in the narrative surrounding Cirith Ungol is that being in the actual land of Mordor was a notable factor.
> 
> When Sam reached the summit of the pass he looked: _"at last on the path descending into the Nameless Land"_ but then, of course, the orcs arrive. They mention the delay of an orc-patrol, and of no message being sent to the Dark Tower (the Silent Watchers being uneasy) due to a Great Signal going up, and the Eye being busy elsewhere.
> 
> ...



Ironically, it wasn't just the Men of the West, but Gollum may have also helped to protect them there too, not intentionally, of course. They were trying to capture him too (how did he manage to get all the way across Mordor, no disguise, mind you, without being caught??? It's a pity Sam ticked him off. He could have given them lessons on how to avoid getting caught.) so that meant another thing to distract Sauron's minions.

What about Bilbo, who DID use the Ring, in Mirkwood while Sauron was there in Dol Guldor? He was about the same distance away from Sauron as Frodo was at Amon Hen. 

Was it just an oversight by Tolkien, was it because the place wasn't magical, or was it that at that very moment, the White Council was attacking Dol Guldor and Sauron was more focused on them (we don't know the timing of the matter with the White Council. It was stated that they were in the Elven halls for many days and that by the time they were leaving the Forest in barrels, that Gandalf had just finished his assault on Dol Guldor.)?


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## Deleted member 12094 (Mar 18, 2018)

Taking as a reference my beloved "Atlas of Middle Earth" (KW Fonstad), I'd (very) roughly estimate that the distance between Thranduil's places and Dol Guldur was of the order of 400 miles. From the same source, I'd roughly estimate the distance between Amon Hen and Barad-Dur at some 300 miles. And yes: the Mirkwood is not small!

Another aspect of importance often quoted is that Sauron's capabilities grew with his power. That would include his sensing the use of his Ring.

Both aspects emerge in the story, up to some point, at least. Other aspects may indeed come into play, as you indicated, like being focused elsewhere etc.

Personally, I believe this issue has been overrated and made ink flow more than what was useful to understand the book. I do not believe JRRT had an inflexible scheme in mind, in which exact conditions Sauron would sense the use of his one Ring and in which ones he wouldn't.

The “oversight” you refer to is that TH was written many years before LotR. Do not rule this out as an aspect either…


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