Who Knew About Frodo’s Ring?

[Alcuin]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

I doubt it, Dwarves are jealously proud of their own secrets. It would stand to reason that they're just as careful with the secrets of others. It's also part of their trade, I take it. I can't see anyone of them sharing knowledge of something as special as Rings of Power so casually, and certainly not with non-Dwarves! Dwarves don't strike me as the gossip-y kind.

While I agree with Eärniel and her observation about jealously secretive Dwarves, Valandil is correct: at least, Sauron thought so, sending his messenger (he sounds like a Nazgûl, though there’s no proof in the published material (so far)) three times to try to wheedle or coerce them. There was a great deal of talk of Bilbo and his companions in Lake-town, and later in Dale. He seems to have tried his best to lever something out of Dáin and his folk, and his deduction that they not only knew Baggins’ whereabouts but possibly something about the Ring was spot on; though when Glóin and Gimli arrived in Rivendell, not even Glóin, part of Thorin & Co to whom Bilbo had explained that he had a magic ring that made him invisible, seemed to comprehend what was going on. After their rescue from the spiders, “very soon they began to ask questions. They had to have the whole vanishing business carefully explained,� so Thorin & Co knew all about Bilbo’s ring of invisibility, which Bilbo himself explained not only to them, but to Thorin as well while he was imprisoned in the Elven-king’s halls.

The entry for Third Age 3001 reads,

Bilbo's farewell feast. Gandalf suspects his ring to be the One Ring. The guard on the Shire is doubled. Gandalf seeks for news of Gollum and calls on the help of Aragorn.

We might consider that from at least that point forward, Elrond and Galadriel were also aware of Gandalf’s suspicions, if for no other reason than he or Aragorn might be killed or captured in the venture: the stakes were simply too high at that point. From at least that point, Elrond and Galadriel would be able to seriously contemplate having the Ring within their grasp, how they might respond, and begin forming a plan about how to keep it from Sauron.

But you may be correct, Eärniel, that Gandalf still said nothing: when the Company of the Ring reached Lórien, no one, not even Aragorn, knew what he had planned afterwards. When summoned before Celeborn a second time (beginning of “Farewell to Lórien�), Aragorn told Celeborn and Galadriel, “Beyond Lothlórien I do not know what Gandalf intended to do. Indeed I do not think that even he had any clear purpose.�

Were I to vote, I’d vote that Gandalf spoke to Elrond; but Elrond might in turn have sent word to Saruman. And I agree that Elrond must have suspected a Great Ring at work in Bilbo’s extended age. Aragorn would surely have spoken to Elrond, his beloved foster-father, unless Gandalf warned him not to; and there is Arwen to consider, who was in Aragorn’s complete confidence and surely his closest councilor: she would also tell her father. As for Elrond, he was as aware as Gandalf that “the Nine [Sauron] has gathered to himself; the Seven also, or else they are destroyed. The Three are hidden still.�

Can we reasonably doubt that Elrond knew from Third Age 3001 onwards?