Sauron

Sauron (or Þauron (Thauron); Quenya; IPA: [ˈsaʊron] or Vanyarin; IPA: [ˈθaʊron] - "The Abhorred"), the eponymous Lord of the Rings, was a fallen Maia, creator of the One Ring, and the greatest lieutenant of Melkor (Morgoth, the first Dark Lord). After Melkor's defeat by the Valar, Sauron in time became the second Dark Lord and strove to conquer Arda by creating the Rings of Power.

In the Second Age, he was defeated in the War of the Last Alliance by Elves and Men united under kings Gil-galad and Elendil. In the final battle, Isildur managed to cut off the One Ring from Sauron's finger, dismantling Sauron's corporeal form and power. After lying dormant and regaining strength for centuries, Sauron returned to power late in the Third Age, and would be permanently defeated in the War of the Ring by the destruction of the One Ring by Frodo Baggins.

He was called Gorthaur the Cruel by the Sindar.

Biography

Long before the First Age, Sauron was originally a Maia of the Vala Aulë the Smith; his name then was Mairon, meaning "the admirable". He learned much from Aulë in the ways of smithing and handiwork, becoming a great craftsman, and "mighty in the lore of" Aulë's people.[2] He was among the most powerful Maiar.

During this time, Mairon was as Eru had created him: good and incorrupt. His greatest virtue was his love of order and perfection - dislike of anything wasteful. However, this would also prove to be the cause of his downfall, for in the Dark Lord Morgoth, Mairon saw the will and power that would help him achieve his own goals and desires faster than if he pursued them alone. However, while Morgoth wanted to either control or destroy Arda itself, Mairon's desire was to dominate the minds and wills of its creatures. After Morgoth's defeat, Sauron forsook his allegiance to both him and the Valar, desiring to establish his own dominion and impose order through control by force. Nonetheless, he would later encourage and coerce Númenóreansto worship Morgoth (only because at that time he could not propound himself as a god) and presented himself to the Elves as an outright servant of the Valar. In truth, Sauron did not seek to serve, only to master those around him for his own plots (which would prove useful in understanding the mind of Saruman).

After allying himself with Morgoth, Mairon maintained his appearance of being faithful to the Valar, but secretly fed Morgoth information about their dealings. It was only when Morgoth established his strongholds in Middle-earth that Sauron left Valinor and openly declared his allegiance, thence remaining a recognized foe of the Valar and the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.

The Sindar Elves in Beleriand called him Gorthaur, meaning "dread abomination"[3], and by others of the Eldar he was named Sauron, meaning "the abhorred" or "the abominable" (a mockery of his original name).

First Age

In the First Age, the Ñoldorin Elves left the Blessed Realm of Valinor in the Utter West (against the counsel of the Valar) in order to wage war on Morgoth, who had stolen the Silmarils of Fëanor, enchanted gems that glowed with light from the now-destroyed Trees of Valinor. In that war, Sauron was counted as the "greatest of [Morgoth's] servants that have names". His only equal in rank was Gothmog, the High Captain of Angband. He was soon feared as a lord of terrible phantoms and dreadful beasts--a shape-shifter, sorcerer, and cunning servant of his master.

Before Melkor's captivity, Sauron commanded the fortress of Angband and served as Melkor's lieutenant. At the beginning of the War of Powers, the Valar forces leveled Angband with little difficulty, though it is not know for certain if Sauron was present when the fortress was attacked. When Utumno was sacked and Melkor captured, Sauron was nowhere to be found. However, in their haste to both capture Melkor and remove him from Middle-earth, the Valar paid little heed to Melkor's most terrible servants.

When Melkor left Angband much later to corrupt the newly awakened Atani (Men), Sauron directed the war against the Elves.[5] He conquered the Elvish isle of Tol Sirion, so that it became known as Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves.[6] He was the Lord of the Werewolves there, and Draugluin was the sire of the Werewolves. Sauron's herald was the vampire Thuringwethil.

After Dagor Bragollach, Sauron's hunters brought Gorlim and questioned him of Barahir's, father of Beren, location. Gorlim told them none, until Sauron himself came forth and bartered with the man. Gorlim asked for his wife Eilinel, whom he thought captured. Thus, Sauron agreed and Gorlim yielded the information. However, Sauron revealed that Eilinel was dead, and he put Gorlim to death afterward. During the Quest for the Silmaril, Beren and Finrod King of Nargothrond were captured by Sauron, who defeated Finrod in a duel with songs of power. He stripped them off their Orc disguises and cast them into the dark pits where werewolves devoured their companions. When a werewolf came to attack Beren, Finrod wrestled with and killed it, but died soon after of his injuries.

Soon afterward, Lúthien and Huan the wolfhound arrived at the bridge of Tol-in-Gaurhoth. Sauron sent wolves to capture Lúthien, but all were slain by Huan. One of them was Draugluin, but he fled and told his master that Huan was there. Therefore, Sauron disguised himself as a werewolf and leaped to attack Lúthien. Huan sprang and subdued Sauron. He yielded the tower to Lúthien and escaped in a form of a "vampire".

After his defeat by Lúthien, Sauron played little part in the events of the First Age (possibly hiding from Morgoth's scorn or wrath), and after his master was defeated and taken to Valinor in chains, Sauron seemed to repent and plead to Eönwë and the victorious Host of the West for mercy, although he may have been daunted by their triumph. Despite this, Sauron was unwilling to return to the Utter West for judgment out of pride, and so he fled and hid somewhere in Middle-earth.

Second Age

Forging The One Ring

After lying hidden and dormant for five hundred years, Sauron returned to his devices and began revealing himself once more, and by SA 1000 he gathered his power and established himself in the land of Mordor in eastern Middle-earth and began building the dreaded Dark Tower of Barad-dûr near Mount Doom. Sauron, like Morgoth, soon began raising massive armies of Orcs, Trolls, and possibly other creatures, as well as corrupting the hearts of Men with delusions of power and wealth, chiefly Easterlings and Southrons (the Haradrim).

Although Sauron knew that men were easier to sway, he sought to bring the Elves into his service, as they were far more powerful. By about SA 1500, Sauron put on a fair visage and called himself Annatar, the "Lord of Gifts". He befriended the Elf smiths of Eregion, including Celebrimbor(greatest of craftsmen, as he was descended from Fëanor), and counseled them in arts and magic.He brought a Gift to Lord Celebrimbor, a special incredibely powerful Mithril Hammer, Turánn. With it Celebrimbor forged all Rings of Power, but Three most powerful Rings Vilya, Narya and Nenya he created in secret.Not all the Elves trusted him, particularly Lady Galadriel, Elrond, and Gil-galad, High King of the Ñoldor.

To the Elves who listened, Sauron gave knowledge and encouragement in forging the Rings of Power.Upon that ring Sauron wrote in Tengwar the Black Speech inscription, Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. In Westron the inscription translated into: One Ring to Rule Them All, One Ring to Find Them, One Ring to Bring Them All, and in the Darkness Bind Them.

However, as soon as Sauron put on the Ring the Elves sensed his treachery, and removed their rings and hid them. Enraged, Sauron came against them in open war and demanded that all Rings of Power be given to him. The Elves managed to hide the three greatest of the Rings from him, but the other sixteen Rings of Power were either captured by Sauron, destroyed, or lost. To the Dwarves he had given Seven, but to Men he had given Nine, knowing that they would be the easiest to corrupt. The Dwarf Lords who received the Rings proved to be very resistant to their power, and neither "faded" nor became enslaved to Sauron's will. The Rings, however, created in them an insatiable lust for gold, which ultimately caused a great deal of grief for the Dwarves.

As Sauron predicted, the nine Men were all corrupted by their Rings and became the Nazgûl, Sauron's deadliest and most cruel servants. Had the Elves not recognized Sauron's treachery and forsaken the power of their rings, the results would have been catastrophic for the Free Peoples of Middle-earth. It seems that most if not all of the native Men of Middle-earth succumbed to the power of the Ring once the Nazgûl were created; the Númenóreans were spared because of their distance. The Elves, had they been captured in this fashion, would have become the slaves of Sauron, and thus Celebrimbor's resistance was of immense importance in the history of Middle-earth.

In this era, during which he marshaled and commanded great armies, Sauron became known as the Dark Lord of Mordor, and his fortress of Barad-dûr was completed. He was very powerful even without control of the Elves, and he conquered nearly all of Middle-earth during the War of the Elves and Sauron. However, the armies of Númenór's King Tar-Minastir were finally able to defeat him at a last battle near Gwathló or the Greyflood in SA 1700. Defeated but not vanquished, Sauron retreated back to Mordor and began recouping his strength over the many centuries.

Towards the end of the Second Age, Sauron was once again powerful enough to raise again large armies to attempt to rule Middle-earth. By this time, he assumed the titles of "Lord of the Earth" and "King of Men". Sauron's rise in power and apparent intention to crown himself the King of all Men offended the Númenóreans; the powerful Men descended from those who had fought against Melkor in the War of Wrath. Some were the descendants, through Elros, of Beren and Lúthien.

Life in Númenor

These Men lived on the island of Númenor in the sea between Middle-earth and Valinor. The Númenóreans, who were then proud, came to Middle-earth with astounding force of arms. King Ar-Pharazôn, who desired no less than the kingship of Middle-earth, marched his troops all the way to Mordor without a single battle, and demanded that Sauron abase himself before the King. Sauron could see clearly that even the most powerful of his servants could not stand against the Númenóreans, and so came from Barad-dûr without any offer of battle. He assumed a fair form and flattered Ar-Pharazôn, but the King demanded that Sauron come back to Númenor as a hostage. Sauron feigned unhappiness at this development but secretly was delighted, for this presented him with an opportunity to destroy the Númenóreans from within. After only a few short years in Númenor he grew from captive to the King's most trusted adviser, and nearly all the King's court fawned upon him. Drawing on their fear of death, he converted many Númenóreans to the worship of Morgoth, lying that Morgoth had the power to save them from mortality. As his power and influence reached its peak, he raised a great Temple in which he performed human sacrifices to Morgoth. Finally, he convinced Ar-Pharazôn to rebel against the Valar and attackValinor itself and claim it for himself.

But here, Sauron's cunning overreached itself, for Eru then directly intervened - Númenor was drowned under the sea, and the great navy of Númenor was destroyed and the army that reached Aman was buried under mountains of falling rock and imprisoned in the Caves of the Forgotten. The world was bent, so that thereafter, only Elven-Ships could sail into the Utter West. Sauron's body was destroyed, but his spirit was not diminished, and he fled back to Mordor bearing the Ring, where he slowly rebuilt a new body and his strength during the time known as the Dark Years. From this point on, he lost the ability to assume a fair shape, and ruled now through terror and force. A few faithful Númenóreans led by Elendil were saved from the flood, and they founded Gondor and Arnor in Middle-earth.

After learning that Elendil, whom he had most hated, had survived and was ordering a realm on his borders, Sauron, after a while, made war with them. He struck too soon, however, and had not restored most of his strength, whereas the Elven-king, Gil-galad had increased his power on Middle-earth in his absence. Therefore, when Gil-Galad allied with Elendil to create the Last Alliance and together fought Sauron, they finally defeated his armies at the Battle of Dagorlad, and laid siege to Barad-dûr for seven years. Finally, Sauron himself came forth and dueled both Elendil and Gil-galad, slaying them both single-handedly. Then Isildur, son of Elendil, took up his father's broken sword, Narsil and cut the One Ring from Sauron's finger. Sauron's physical body was destroyed. With nearly all of his power stored in the ring, he was vanquished when it was cut from his finger. Without their leader's dark will driving them on, Sauron's armies were routed and fled, and thus, his campaign to defeat the free peoples was seemingly ended, and his greatest weapon taken from him.

But while Isildur had taken the ring, he could not bring himself to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom where it was forged, instead he became corrupted by the One Ring and kept it for himself. He was eventually betrayed by it a few years later, and slain by Orcs at Gladden Fields. The Ring fell into the river Anduin, and was lost for centuries before being found by the two Stoorish friends Sméagol and Déagol.

Third Age

Despite his defeat, Sauron was not vanquished permanently. Though greatly weakened, and in non-corporeal form, he still existed, due to pouring most of his native power, strength, and will into the One Ring. Thus, as long as it existed, he could never be truly defeated, and during the first thousand years of the Third Age, he lay in hiding, slowly recovering his strength until he was once again able to create a body for himself.

During the 2930's, Sauron at last began to rise again, taking the stronghold of Dol Guldur, the Hill of Sorcery, in southern Mirkwood in TA 2941. There, he was disguised as a dark sorcerer known as "the Necromancer", and the Elves did not realize at first that he was actually Sauron returned.

While Sauron continued to gather his strength, the Ringwraiths reappeared, and began steadily assaulting the Numenorean kingdoms in exile until, one by one, they fell. Whether the Witch-king was acting on his own or by Sauron's volition is not known.

Gandalf the Grey made a second intrusion into Dol Guldur, and finally discovered that the Necromancer was indeed Sauron. Eventually, the White Council put forth their might and drove Sauron from Dol Guldur permanently in TA 2941. Without the Ring in his possession, Sauron could draw on only the smallest fraction of its strength, so that his enemies were able to drive him from Dol Guldur with relative ease. However, the Dark Lord, having had ample time to prepare, was willing to abandon Dol Guldur, and returned to Mordor, where he openly declared himself in TA 2951, and began preparations for his final war against the free peoples of Middle-earth.

War of the Ring

Sauron bred immense armies of Orcs and allied with and enslaved Men from the east and south. He gathered his most terrifying servants, the Nazgûl (airi in Quenyan), or Ringwraiths, each wearing one of the nine rings designed for mortal men. He adopted the symbol of a lidless eye, and was able to exert his will over Middle-earth, so that the Eye of Sauron became a symbol of power and fear.

After the creature Gollum, originally the stoor-hobbit Sméagol who had originally found the ring, was captured, Sauron had him tortured and learned that he once had a magic ring, and, from him, he heard the words Shire and Baggins. He deduced that Gollum's ring was the One Ring, and sent his servants, the dreaded Nazgûl, to find Shire and search for Baggins, so that the One Ring might be found and returned to him.

Meanwhile, Sauron had allied with Saruman the White (another fallen Maia, or Istari), whom he had ensnared into his service, expecting the wizard to move against Rohan and thus remove one of the major threats Sauron faced in his planned conquest of Gondor and the remaining Elves. Saruman failed however, and Sauron lost one of his most potent servants as well as Saruman's massive orc army of Uruk-hai.

Shortly after Saruman's defeat, Peregrin Took looked into the Palantír that the wizard had possessed and accidentally communicated with Sauron, who believed that his treacherous servant had captured either the Halflings bearing the Ring, or some who might know of it. However, shortly thereafter Aragorn took the Palantir and revealed himself to Sauron with the intent of causing him unease. Upon seeing Aragorn, the Dark Lord realized that Saruman had fallen and concluded that the heir of Isildur carried the One Ring. Fearful that his enemies would use the Ring against him, Sauron sped up his plans and attacked the city of Minas Tirith in Gondor sooner than he had planned, seeking to raze the city and crush last true human resistance to his rule before his enemies could fortify it.

Fortunately, due to the combined efforts of Gondor, Rohan, and the Dúnedain of Arnor, Sauron's army was defeated. Despite still possessing more than enough armies to destroy Minas Tirith and enough military strength to easily conquer Middle-earth once Gondor fell, doubt began to grow on Sauron. As such, he watched and waited, hoping for a period of strife between Aragorn and other potential Ringlords in which he could move out and take the Ring for himself.

Downfall

Despite their successful repulsion of Sauron's armies at Minas Tirith, Gandalf and Aragorn knew that the bulk of Sauron's forces remained in Mordor, readying themselves for another, deadlier strike against the city. Filled as Mordor was with Sauron's troops, Frodo stood almost no chance of reaching Mt. Doom undetected. In light of the situation, Aragorn called for a council consisting of the major commanders of all the forces present in Minas Tirith, and appointed Gandalf to be their overlord until the crisis had passed. Gandalf made it clear to all those present that, despite their great victory, they ultimately could not hope to defeat Sauron's armies by force. Therefore, they had two options available. They could station their remaining force, considerably greater than it had been before the battle due to the reinforcements from Rohan and southern Gondor, at Minas Tirith and hope to endure Sauron's next attack. Or, they could take a force to the Black Gate and attempt to challenge Sauron directly. This force, as Gandalf suggested, would only need to be great enough to challenge battle, and the rest of their forces could remain behind to garrison Minas Tirith. This option, though suicidal for all those involved, would serve to distract Sauron from gazing into his own land, through which the Ring Bearer would be trekking. Furthermore, Gandalf theorized that, once Sauron learned that a force too small to pose any real threat to him was on its way to the Black Gate to directly assault Mordor, he would likely believe that whomever was leading the attacking force would have the One Ring in their possession. Gandalf believed that Sauron would assume that the Ring itself would influence its wielder, and that, in the wielder's pride in his newfound power, he might be foolish enough to challenge Sauron's might with a force too small to assault Mordor in earnest.[9]

Their plot worked, as Sauron marshaled most of his remaining forces and marched them towards Udun to crush the Men of the West and regain his prize. This action left the Plains of Gorgoroth largely deserted and allowing Frodo and Sam to reach Mt. Doom with far less difficulty than they would have otherwise had. However, once Frodo reached the Crack of Doom, he finally succumbed to the power of the Ring. As he put it on and prepared to leave Mt. Doom, Sauron suddenly became aware of him, immediately drawing his gaze towards the mountain. Though enraged, Sauron was suddenly gripped with terror, having realized his own folly, and he frantically sent the Ringwraiths towards the mountain to retrieve the Ring. He was too late, however, as Gollum, after taking the Ring from Frodo, slipped and plunged to his death into the Cracks of Doom, and the Ring was unmade. The earth shook as a great shock wave rippled across Mordor, and the foundations of Barad-dûr were finally destroyed, causing the great fortress to fall into ruin once and for all. Mt. Doom was completely destroyed in a cataclysmic eruption that consumed the eight remaining Nazgul, who had left their combat with the Great Eagles to race to Mount Doom in its fiery ruin.

With his source of power gone, Sauron was utterly defeated and his armies were destroyed or scattered, bereft of the driving will behind their conquest. With the Ring's destruction, Sauron was permanently robbed of his physical form, reducing him to a malevolent spirit that hovered above Mordor as a "huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, ...terrible but impotent," only to be blown away by a great wind.[11]

With the destruction of the Ring, the vast majority of Sauron's being and his power was forever lost. With that, Sauron's power was forever crippled, and the threat of his dominion was forever removed.

Etymology

Sauron is the Quenya term for "the Abhorred".[3] In Sindarin, it is translated as Gorthaur from gor ("horror, dread") and thaur ("abominable, abhorrent").

His original name was said to be Mairon ("the Admirable", from maira meaning "admirable, excellent"), a name he used while in Númenor, adding the title "Tar" for "Tar-Mairon" ("King Excellent").[13] When disguising himself in the Second Age, he called himself Annatar ("Lord of Gifts"; anna = gift and tar = king, lord), Artano ("High-smith"), and Aulendil ("Friend of Aulë").

His name is sometimes seen written as Thauron (Þauron), an earlier pronunciation of Sauron.