L'Unique et les Neuf

[Elendil]

Je poste ça ici, car j'ai le sentiment que ça pourrait donner naissance à un essai intéressant.

La question vient d'un fuseau de TolkienFrance :

- Sauron était-il en possession de son Anneau lorsqu'il fut emmené prisonnier à Númenor ?

L'Akallabêth dit que non :

But Sauron was not of mortal flesh, and though he was robbed now of that shape in which he had wrought so great an evil, so that he could never again appear fair to the eyes of Men, yet his spirit arose out of the deep and passed as a shadow and a black wind over the sea, and came back to Middle-earth and to Mordor that was his home. There he took up again his great Ring in Barad-dûr, and dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible; and the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure.

Mais la Lettre nº211 (approximativement contemporaine) dit que oui :

Sauron's personal ‘surrender’ was voluntary and cunning*: he got free transport to Númenor! He naturally had the One Ring, and so very soon dominated the minds and wills of most of the Númenóreans. (I do not think Ar-Pharazôn knew anything about the One Ring. The Elves kept the matter of the Rings very secret, as long as they could. [...] Though reduced to ‘a spirit of hatred borne on a dark wind’, I do not think one need boggle at this spirit carrying off the One Ring, upon which his power of dominating minds now largely depended.

- Les Neuf étaient-ils toujours en possession de leur propre Anneau lors de la guerre de l'Anneau ?

Dans le SdA, Gandalf affirme que oui :

Yet it is a ring. What then? The Nine the Nazgûl keep. The Seven are taken or destroyed.

Mais dans la lettre nº246, Tolkien semble dire que non :

I do not think they could have attacked him with violence, nor laid hold upon him or taken him captive; they would have obeyed or feigned to obey any minor commands of his that did not interfere with their errand — laid upon them by Sauron, who still through their nine rings (which he held) had primary control of their wills.

Bref, ces affirmations sont-elles absolument contradictoires ? Lesquelles doivent être considérées canoniques ? À quoi Sauron emploie-t-il les Sept ?

Et si les Neuf étaient au doigt des Nazgûl lors de l'attaque au gué de Bruinen, comment ont-ils ramené leurs anneaux en Mordor, vu qu'ils étaient décorporés ?