Why did Sauron want the Seven Rings back after his return?

Question

Sauron in the second age gave seven rings to the dwarf lords. This had many effects with the main one being greed and avarice.

The reason he gave the dwarves these rings was presumably so that he could corrupt and control them whilst he wore the one ring. If this was not his objective then why give the rings to them in the first place?

Sauron was actively searching for the one ring when he returned, to the extent that the Nazgûl were an inch away from making Frodo into a ringwraith, which would no doubt have ended with Sauron getting the ring eventually.

Sauron being an archetypal dark lord would have been cocky enough to believe that there were no circumstances under which he would not eventually get the ring back.

My question is: if he expected to get the ring back, wouldn't it have been better to leave the dwarves with their remaining rings?

My reasoning: surely he would have been able to carry on the corruption more easily through the ring than by manually finding the dwarves and destroying them with armies.

(BTW I accept that Thrain just happened to come to Dol Guldur and retrieval of the ring may have been a happy coincidence for Sauron).

Answer 1

Because as Himarm mentions above, they couldn't be enslaved via the rings, and in fact (from Sauron's point of view) the only effects they had on the dwarves were positive:

For the Dwarves had proved untameable by this means. The only power over them that the Rings wielded was to inflame their hearts with a greed of gold and precious things, so that if they lacked them all other good things seemed profitless, and they were filled with wrath and desire for vengeance on all who deprived them. But they were made from their beginning of a kind to resist most steadfastly any domination. Though they could be slain or broken, they could not be reduced to shadows enslaved to another will; and for the same reason their lives were not affected by any Ring, to live either longer or shorter because of it. All the more did Sauron hate the possessors and desire to dispossess them.

From Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, part III: "Durin's Folk", emphasis mine.

Answer 2

Because Sauron is stronger with them. Tolkien stated explicitly in one of his letters (number 131; see e.g. the accepted answer to "What are the powers shown by the Rings of Power?") that all of the Rings of Power "... enhanced the natural powers of a possessor". Though Sauron was no longer intending to use them for their original (failed) purpose of creating Dwarvish ringwraiths, and even if he hadn't been motivated by spite to take them from the Dwarves, he would still have wanted them to make himself stronger. It seems likely to me that gathering the Rings of Power over the years was a big part of his recovery after losing the One.

Answer 3

My question is if he expected to get the ring back, wouldn't it have been better to leave the dwarves with their remaining rings?

Just because the rings were given to the dwarves doesn't mean that they stayed with them. After so many years most of the rings would have ended up in lost treasure chests or kept by powerless dwarves; it would be much better to retrieve them and either redistribute them to influential dwarves or keep them/give them to humans.

Answer 4

I've only been into the series for about a year now, so I am still learning. This is all speculation. Sauron lost his physical form when killed by Isildur, but being a Maia his soul is immortal. However, unlike Gandalf, who gets to "Jesus it", Eru ain't giving him another body to go mess stuff up even more, so all he has is magical influence on the world.

Seeing that the rings themselves make the wearers "corruptible," but really meaning that Sauron can control them, my guess is that this goes even more for the One Ring, and it probably has a pretty high cap on what creatures it can effect, thus why Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel won't touch it. Granted, someone like Tom Bombadil could wear it, for he is more powerful than the most powerful Maia.

Either way, my guess is that he wanted the ring, and he was planning on giving it to Saruman, who would then eventually give Sauron full control of a Maia body, as he once had, restoring him to his peak power. The dwarves and elves were never going to get controlled by him, and he already had full control of the Ringwraiths, so I honestly don't see any other reason why he would need the ring.

Answer 5

I think Plutor hits the nail on the head ... the Seven didn't work to his ends, so he wanted them back (like a child who wants to take his football and go home). While this may seem like a pithy comparison, do not forget the jealous nature of men ... (and Sauron, by extension, is a classical representation of a jealous, pouty greek deity).

The ring is allegorical of addiction, and grants its bearer all the pain and perceived power therein. If the ring drew Isildur, Deagol, Smeagol, Bilbo, Frodo, Galadriel, Boromir, Sam, Faramir, and Gandalf, why would Sauron's thirst for it be any less (he is a pusher snorting his own junk, Gandalf just says no) ... To me, that is the allegory (whether Tolkien admits to allegory or not).

Sauron's life force was not only dispersed in the One, but in the Seven and the Nine as well ... see 'Morgoth's Ring'.

Answer 6

We read that the Seven (along with the Nine) were "sullied" by Sauron's touch. In Tolkien's legendarium, this means that he put a bit of his corrupt spirit into them.

This sort of thing happens at various points in the legendarium; Morgoth diffused his spirit into Arda, the Eldar put a bit of themselves into their works (so that ropes can do interesting things, even when a Man is using them), and the spirit of an Elf who remains in Middle-Earth for too long will dissipate into the world, causing that Elf to "fade".

We read that some of the Seven were consumed by dragon fire; unlike the One Ring, they could be destroyed by this means. With the loss of each such ring, the bit of his spirit that was in each was destroyed (just as the vast portion that he put into the One would be destroyed when Gollum had his oopsie). It was now clear to Sauron that allowing the Dwarves to retain any of the remaining Seven left him vulnerable (with, as others have pointed out, not much gain), so he retrieved them and kept them.

With the Nine things were different. The Nazgul had different motivations than the Dwarves (power vs. material gain). They were working very effectively against Sauron's enemies, and were less likely to build up a hoard that would attract a ring-destroying dragon, and therefore allowing them to keep the Nine presented much less risk and much more gain.