Sauron
Sauron is the title character and the main antagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, where he rules the land of Mordor. He has the ambition of ruling the whole of Middle-earth using the power of the One Ring, which he has lost and seeks to recapture. In the same work, he is identified as the "Necromancer" of Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit. The Silmarillion describes him as the chief lieutenant of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. Tolkien noted that the Ainur, the "angelic" powers of his constructed myth, "were capable of many degrees of error and failing", but by far the worst was "the absolute Satanic rebellion and evil of Morgoth and his satellite Sauron". Sauron appears most often as "the Eye", as if disembodied.
Tolkien, while denying that absolute evil could exist, stated that Sauron came as near to a wholly evil will as was possible. Commentators have compared Sauron to the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, and to Balor of the Evil Eye in Irish mythology. Sauron is briefly seen in a humanoid form in Peter Jackson's film trilogy, which otherwise shows him as a disembodied, flaming Eye.
Fictional history
Before the world's creation
The Ainulindalë tells how the supreme being Eru began the creation with good, immortal spirits, the Ainur. The lesser Maiar included Sauron, under the greater Valar. The Vala Melkor rebelled against Eru, starting evils that Sauron continued. Sauron perceived Eru directly; he was "far higher" than the Maiar who later came to Middle-earth as Wizards.First Age
Sauron served Aulë, the smith of the Valar, acquiring knowledge; he was called Mairon until he betrayed the Valar by joining Melkor. In Beleriand, he was called Gorthu and Gorthaur. Sauron, hating disorder, was drawn to Melkor's power. He became a spy for Melkor on the isle of Almaren, the Valar's home, which Melkor soon destroyed; the Valar moved to Valinor, not perceiving Sauron's treachery. Sauron followed Melkor to Middle-earth, joining the Valar's enemy.Sauron helped Melkor in every kind of deceit. By the time Elves awoke, Sauron was Melkor's lieutenant with command over the stronghold of Angband. The Valar made war on and captured Melkor; Sauron escaped. He repaired Angband, and bred an army of Orcs. Melkor, now called Morgoth, murdered Finwë, King of the Noldor, and escaped to Middle-earth with the Silmarils, pursued by the Noldor. Sauron directed the war against the Elves, conquering their fortress of Minas Tirith on the isle of Tol Sirion. The elf Lúthien came there to save her lover, the imprisoned Beren, with Huan the Wolfhound. Sauron, as a werewolf, battled Huan, who took him by the throat; Sauron was defeated and fled, taking the form of a huge vampire bat. Lúthien destroyed the tower and rescued Beren. Later, the half-elf Eärendil sailed to Valinor to ask the Valar to fight Morgoth. They did so in the War of Wrath, and Morgoth was defeated and cast into the Outer Void. Again, however, Sauron escaped.
Second Age
In the Second Age, Sauron reappeared, intent on taking over Middle-earth. To seduce the Elves into his service, Sauron assumed a fair appearance as Annatar, "Lord of Gifts", and befriended Celebrimbor's Elven-smiths. He taught them arts and magic, helping them to forge the Rings of Power. Sauron then secretly forged the One Ring to rule all the others. The Elves detected him when he put on the Ring, and removed their Rings. Enraged, Sauron made war, killed Celebrimbor, and seized the Seven and the Nine Rings of Power. The Three Rings were hidden by the Elves Gil-galad, Círdan, and Galadriel. Sauron attacked them. The Elves were saved by an army from Númenor, defeating Sauron. Sauron fortified Mordor and completed the Dark Tower, Barad-dûr. He distributed the Seven and the Nine Rings to lords of Dwarves and Men. Dwarves did not submit, but he enslaved nine Men as the feared Nazgûl. Orcs, Trolls, Easterlings and men of Harad became his servants.Late in the Second Age, the men of Númenor sought to colonise Middle-earth. Led by Ar-Pharazôn, a massive army sailed to Middle-earth to battle Sauron. Dismayed, Sauron surrendered, hoping to corrupt Númenor from within. Using the One Ring, Sauron soon exerted a malign influence over the Númenóreans, undermining Númenor's religion and deceiving its people into worshiping Melkor with human sacrifice. Sauron later deceived Ar-Pharazôn into attacking Aman by sea to steal immortality from the Valar. The Valar appealed to Eru, who destroyed Númenor. Sauron's body was destroyed, and he lost the ability to appear beautiful.
Led by Elendil, nine ships escaped to Middle-earth from the Downfall of Númenór. There, the Númenóreans founded the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor. Sauron returned to Mordor, took on a new physical form, and made war on these Exiles. He captured the fortress of Minas Ithil, and Elendil's son Isildur escaped down the Anduin River. Elendil's other son, Anárion, defended Osgiliath, the capital city of Gondor, and drove Sauron's forces back to the mountains. Elendil, Isildur and Anárion formed the Last Alliance with the Elves and defeated Sauron at Dagorlad. They invaded Mordor and besieged Barad-dûr for seven years. Finally, Sauron came out to fight face-to-face, killing Elendil and Gil-galad; Elendil's sword Narsil broke beneath him. Isildur took up the hilt-shard and cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand, vanquishing Sauron. Isildur refused to destroy the Ring by casting it into Mount Doom, but kept it for his own.
Third Age
Isildur was ambushed by Orcs at the Gladden Fields. Isildur put on the Ring and attempted to escape by swimming across Anduin, but the Ring betrayed him by slipping from his finger. Isildur was killed by Orc archers. Sauron spent a thousand years as a shapeless evil.Sauron eventually reembodied as the Necromancer, hiding at Dol Guldur in Mirkwood. The chief of the Nazgûl, the Witch-king of Angmar, destroyed the northern realm of Arnor. When attacked by Gondor, the Witch-king retreated to Mordor. The Nazgûl captured Minas Ithil, renamed Minas Morgul, and seized its palantír, a seeing stone from Númenor. The White Council of Wizards discovered Sauron, and drove him from Mirkwood. He returned to Mordor, openly declared himself, rebuilt Barad-dûr, and bred armies of large orcs, Uruks.
The One Ring, lost in the Anduin, was found by the hobbit Sméagol. The Ring corrupted him. He shunned sunlight and took on the personality of Gollum. He retreated into caves, obsessed with the Ring, his "Precious". It slipped from him and was picked up by Bilbo Baggins. Gollum attempted to murder Bilbo and reclaim the Ring, but Bilbo escaped when the Ring slipped onto his finger. Many years later, Gandalf identified Bilbo's ring, now passed down to his cousin Frodo, as Sauron's One Ring. He tasked Frodo with taking it to Rivendell.
Sauron tortured Gollum and discovered where the Ring was. Sauron sent the Nazgûl to pursue Frodo, but he escaped to Rivendell, where Elrond convened a council. It determined that the Ring should be destroyed in Mount Doom by the Company of the Ring. Saruman attempted to capture the Ring, but was defeated. The palantír of Orthanc fell into the hands of the Company; Aragorn, Isildur's descendant and heir to the throne of Gondor, used it to show himself to Sauron as if he held the Ring. Sauron, troubled, attacked Minas Tirith prematurely. His army was destroyed at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Frodo entered Mordor. Aragorn distracted Sauron with an attack on Mordor's Black Gate. Frodo reached Mount Doom, but claimed the Ring for himself, revealing the Ring to Sauron. Gollum seized the Ring and fell into the Cracks of Doom, destroying it and himself. Sauron was utterly defeated, and vanished from Middle-earth.
Appearance
Physical body
Tolkien never described Sauron's appearance in detail, though he painted a watercolour illustration of him. Sarah Crown, in The Guardian, wrote that "we're never ushered into his presence; we don't hear him speak. All we see is his influence". She called it "a bold move, to leave the book's central evil so undefined – an edgeless darkness given shape only through the actions of its subordinates", with the result that he becomes "truly unforgettable... vaster, bolder and more terrifying through his absence than he could ever have been through his presence".He was initially able to change his appearance at will; however, when he became Morgoth's servant, he took a sinister shape. In the First Age, the outlaw Gorlim was ensnared and brought into "the dreadful presence of Sauron", who had daunting eyes. In the battle with Huan, the hound of Valinor, Sauron took the form of a werewolf. Then he assumed a serpent-like form, and finally changed back "from monster to his own accustomed form". He took on a beautiful appearance at the end of the First Age to charm Eönwë, near the beginning of the Second Age when appearing as Annatar to the Elves, and again near the end of the Second Age to corrupt the men of Númenor. He appeared then "as a man, or one in man's shape, but greater than any even of the race of Númenor in stature... And it seemed to men that Sauron was great, though they feared the light of his eyes. To many he appeared fair, to others terrible; but to some evil." After the destruction of his fair form in the fall of Númenor, Sauron always took the shape of a terrible dark lord. His first incarnation after the Downfall of Númenor was hideous, "an image of malice and hatred made visible". Isildur recorded that Sauron's hand "was black, and yet burned like fire".
Eye of Sauron
Throughout The Lord of the Rings, "the Eye" is the image most often associated with Sauron. Sauron's Orcs bore the symbol of the Eye on their helmets and shields, and referred to him as the "Eye" because he did not allow his name to be written or spoken, according to Aragorn. The Lord of the Nazgûl threatened Éowyn with torture before the "Lidless Eye" at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Frodo had a vision of the Eye in the Mirror of Galadriel:Later, Tolkien writes as if Frodo and Sam really glimpse the Eye directly. The mists surrounding Barad-dûr are briefly withdrawn, and:
This raises the question of whether an "Eye" was Sauron's actual manifestation, or whether he had a body beyond the Eye. Gollum tells Frodo that Sauron has, at least, a "Black Hand" with four fingers. The missing finger was cut off when Isildur took the Ring, and the finger was still missing when Sauron reappeared centuries later. Tolkien writes in The Silmarillion that "the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure" even before his body was lost in the War of the Last Alliance. In the draft text of the climactic moments of The Lord of the Rings, "the Eye" stands for Sauron's very person, with emotions and thoughts:
Christopher Tolkien comments: "The passage is notable in showing the degree to which my father had come to identify the Eye of Barad-dûr with the mind and will of Sauron, so that he could speak of 'its wrath, its fear, its thought'. In the second text... he shifted from 'its' to 'his' as he wrote out the passage anew."