A flexible Ring

When Sauron last took shape he was black hideous and very big. Yet the one Ring he made and wore, also fitted the Dunedain man Isildur and no less than four Hobbits. It must have been extremly elastic then, but this is a quality we never hear of.
Comments?

Actually, something like that is mentioned off and on. It's stated in the "Shadow of the Past" that the Ring could change size and weight, enough to slip off a finger where it had been tight.

Yeah, it was known to slip off when it wanted, not when the bearer wanted eg Isildur(and on when the bearer did not want to, eg Frodo at Bree, but that is really a sidetrack), I just mean the differances from Maia to Hobbit must be like 1:10 or something. Perhaps its just an odd thought, but could it really be made of metal, behaving like a rubberband?

Yes, it was the original "one size fits all".
:rollin:

At the time that Sauron forged the Ring he wore a humanoid form that was pleasing to the eye. After the Fall of Numenor his original body was destroyed and he could no longer take a fair form, but his form was still that of a normal size humanoid. At the time of LotR he had no solid form, and could not take one until he had regained the Ring and the vast amount of his power that had gone into forging it.

I'm not so sure of that. Gollum talks about him as though he has a form, though what that form is, is certainly open to arguement. There's the Red Eye, and there is also the form that Gollum talks about (The Two Towers, I think)

At the very least though his form was not that huge shadow seen when the Ring is destroyed.

Sauron probably designed the ring to change shape because he could. At the time he forged it, he was pleasant to see, although he could probably take on a Balrog's form at a moment's notice. That meant his ring had to change with him. It also meant that it could fit any ringbearer's and(until it felt it wasn't getting anywhere, when it would just drop off. It happened to both Gollum and Isildur).