Sauron

Sauron spread his malevolent corruption and oppressive influence over Middle-earth, but the Free Peoples always rose against him.

He was the greatest of the Maiar to be corrupted into Morgoth’s service. Once the wisest and craftiest of the Maiar serving the Vala Aulë the Smith, Saron became the most feared of Morgoth’s servants. He rose and declared himself the new Dark Lord after the Valar defeated Morgoth, and sought to conquer all of Middle-earth and spread his evil dominion.

Sauron’s Origins

Sauron, whose original name was Mairon, the Admirable, was one of the most powerful Maia created by Eru Ilúvatar the Days Before Days, before the Music of the Ainur. He was one of the Ainur who chose to enter into Eä, the physical universe, at the beginning of time to shape it. In Arda, Sauron became one of the followers of the Valar Aulë the Smith, and he grew in knowledge and might, surpassing all the other spirits who served Aulë. Like his master, he hungered for the ability to bring forth his creations.

Sauron also loved order, planning, and perfection and disliked wastefulness and chaos. Sauron’s love for order soon got corrupted into a desire to control the minds and wills of the sentient beings of Middle-earth and bring them to order under his domination. Because of this desire to dominate, Sauron was drawn by the power of the Valar Morgoth, the mightiest of the Valar, in whom he saw the ability to achieve his dreams of domination over the free peoples of Middle-earth.

In the Spring of Arda, when the Valar lived in peace in Middle-earth and the world was still new, Sauron acted as Morgoth’s chief spy in the Blessed Isle of Almaren. When Morgoth cast down the Two Lamps, destroying Almaren and much of the world in a storm of fire, the Valar moved to the continent of Aman where they established a Blessed Realm.

With Middle-earth left under the unchallenged dominion of Morgoth, he established his dreaded fortress in Angband, and Sauron declared himself openly as an enemy of the Valar. He soon went to Angband and swore allegiance to Morgoth, becoming his lieutenant and most feared servant. From then on he became known to the Sindarin Elves of Beleriand as Gorthaur, Dreaded Abomination, or Sauron, the Abhorred.

Sauron in the First Age

After Morgoth was unchained in Valinor, he sowed chaos in the Undying Lands, stole the Silmarils from Feanor, and killed the Two Trees. At the dawn of the First Age, the Elves of the Noldor, under Feanor, rebelled against the Valar and left the Undying Lands in pursuit of Morgoth to exact revenge on him and recover the Silmarils. This led to many wars between Morgoth and the Elves, and Sauron was the greatest of Morgoth’s captains, greatly feared by all who lived in Middle-earth.

Morgoth often left Angband and the ongoing war under the command of Sauron as he went out in secret in search of the newly awakened race of Men, some of whom he corrupted to his service.

After the Dagor Bragollach and the scattering of the Elves who had laid the Siege of Angband, Sauron conquered the Elvish fortress city of Minas Tirith, built by Finrod Felagund on the isle of Tol Sirion, renaming it Tol-In-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves. He established himself as the Lord of Werewolves and turned the once fair city into a refuge for Werewolves and Vampires.

News soon came to Morgoth about the deeds of Barahir, a Man who was allied with Finrod Felagund. He and his band of outlaws were survivors of the Dagor Bragollach, and they preyed on the agents and creatures of Morgoth. When Morgoth ordered Sauron to kill him, Sauron’s hunters caught one of his companions named Gorlim, who they tortured so he would reveal his lord’s location, but he remained faithful.

Seeing that the man would not break, Sauron obtained the truth through trickery and then sent Gorgol, the captain of his Orc warband to kill Barahir and his companions. Beren, Barahir’s son, escaped the ambush but later avenged his father’s death by killing Gorgol himself. Beren became an outlaw himself, and news of his bravery spread all over Dorthonion. When Morgoth heard of his deeds he set a large bounty on Beren’s head, and Sauron, commanding a large army of werewolves and dreadful creatures, searched for him.

As Morgoth’s and Sauron’s search for Beren intensified, he had to flee from Dorthonion. He passed through the dangerous forests of Nan Dungortheb where Sauron’s sorcery and Melian’s protective magic clashed, then into Doriath, unwittingly breaching the Girdle of Melian as she had prophesied. It was in the forests of Doriath that he saw and fell in love with Lúthien, daughter of Thingol and Melian. When Beren came to Menegroth to ask for Lúthien’s hand in marriage, King Thingol proudly refused him. To discourage the mortal, he then said he would bless the marriage if Beren came back with a Silmaril from the Iron Crown of Morgoth in his hand.

Beren enlisted the help of King Finrod Felagund of Nargothrond, whose life his father had saved during the Dagor Bragollach. Together with their 10 companions, Beren and Finrod left Nargothrond disguised as Orcs. As they passed through the valley of Ered Wethrin, Sauron spied them out and had them captured and brought to him. There, Sauron and Finrod dueled with songs of power.

Finrod was a mighty Elf, but the strength of the Maiar within Sauron was mightier. In the end, Finrod was defeated, and Sauron had the companions stripped of their disguises. Because Sauron could not discern who they were and they had refused to name themselves, he had them thrown into a dark pit where they were eaten one by one by Werewolves. Sauron hoped that this would terrify them and cause them to reveal their identities and their mission, but the ploy failed.

In Doriath, Lúthien had heard of the capture of Beren and Finrod, and enlisting the help of Huan, the hound of Valinor who had been set to guard her, they soon arrived at the bridge of Tol-in-Gaurhoth. Sauron sent his minions to capture Lúthien, but Huan killed them all except Drauglin, the father of Werewolves, who fled and informed Sauron of Huan’s presence. Sauron stepped forth and transformed himself into the mightiest of all Werewolves and lunged for Lúthien, but he was intercepted by Huan, who subdued him. Lúthien forced Sauron to surrender the keys of his tower, and then he fled in the shape of a vampire.

Sauron played little part in the rest of the events of the First Age after his defeat by Lúthien, hiding himself even from Morgoth. After Morgoth’s final defeat and capture, Sauron was daunted by the might of the Valar and pleaded his repentance to Eönwë, the herald of Manwë, but when Eönwë insisted that Sauron must go to the Undying Lands to plead his case before the Valar, Sauron balked in shame and fled to Middle-earth where he hid. 

Sauron’s Resurgence in the Second Age

Forging of the One Ring

Sauron rose in in the east of Middle-earth in the year 500 of the Second Age, and once again returned to evil. He gathered the Easterlings and Southrons who had been corrupted by Morgoth under his shadow by promising them power and riches. He sought to set himself up as a god-king who wielded absolute power over the world. Sensing his shadow rising, Gil-galad, High-King of the Noldor, sent warnings to the Númenóreans.

Seeing the growing might of Númenór, Sauron established himself in the land of Mordor in the year 1000 of the Second Age and built the tower of Barad-dûr near Mount Doom. He also gathered Orcs, Trolls, and other dreadful creatures of Morgoth to himself.

Seeking to gather more powerful servants to his rule, he devised to corrupt the Elves too. In the year 500, he took up a fair form and under the name Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, he went among the Elves, claiming he was an emissary sent by the Valar. In this, he anticipated the coming of the Istari. Elrond and Gil-galad rejected him in Lindon and refused to hear his words, though they did not know him.

The Elvish smiths of Eregion were more welcoming to him, so he befriended them. When Galadriel stood against him, he turned the mind of Celebrimbor and his Gwaith-i-Mírdain, a brotherhood of Elvish master-craftsmen, against her and her husband Celeborn, and they were driven away from Eregion. Annatar taught the Noldorin smiths much art and magic, and their knowledge grew.

At the height of their knowledge, Annatar convinced them to create many magical Rings, including the Rings of Power, with which they intended to preserve their power and the beauty of their creations in Middle-earth. But Annatar deceived them, for he infused spells into the magical Rings, and then, in secret, he made the One Ring with which he intended to control the bearers of the other Rings and everything they create using their Rings. But as soon as he put on the One Ring, the Elves sensed his malice and removed their Rings and hid them.

Sauron demanded that the Elves return the Rings to him because they could not have made them without the knowledge he gave them, but the Elves refused. In the year 1600 of the Second Age, Sauron declared open war on the Elves to recover the Rings, but they had anticipated this and hid the three most powerful of them. 

Around this time, Sauron began building the Black Gate to prevent the Elves from invading Mordor, and then he called on his Southron and Easterling subjects to his banner, including his Orcs and Trolls. The War of the Elves and Sauron began in the year 1693 of the Second Age. It was a bloody conflict that destroyed Eregion and devastated much of the land of Eriador.

Celebrimbor was killed early in the war during the invasion of Eregion, and his body was impaled on a spike and paraded at the head of Sauron’s legions. The Elves were in constant retreat before the legions amassed by Sauron and were pushed back almost to the Blue Mountains, while their Dwarven allies retreated into Khazad-dûm where they hid themselves from Sauron.

With the Noldor all but destroyed, Sauron’s dominion stretched to most of Middle-earth, except in Lindon where Gil-galad still ruled, and he named himself the Dark Lord of Middle-earth. With his victory at hand, he did not expect the sudden appearance of the Númenóreans from over the sea as they responded to the Elves’ call for help.

As a united force, the Elves and the Men of Númenór drove back Sauron’s army and defeated him at the battle of Sarn Ford. When he retreated and withdrew to Tharbad, a riverside town in Eriador where he expected reinforcements, the Númenóreans had sent a fleet up the river and attacked from the rear, utterly routing Sauron’s forces. The surprised Dark Lord fled back to Mordor with little more than his bodyguard and a few Orcs, where he began to rebuild his armies.

Sauron had recovered some of the Rings of Power and some were destroyed in the War, but the three most powerful Rings eluded him. Since his plan to enslave the Elves had failed, he turned to Men and Dwarves. He gave nine Rings to three corrupted lords of Númenor, a king from the East, and the other five Men, and also gave 7 to the Dwarf lords. The Dwarves proved resistant to the power of Sauron and his Rings and did not become enslaved to Sauron’s will, but rather grew greedy for gold, hoarding it in their underground cities. This will cause the Dwarven race many great tragedies in time.

The Men who received Sauron’s Rings were far more easy to corrupt. The Rings extended their lives but in time they faded from the mortal world and turned into shades, their powerful spirits bound to the power of the One Ring. They became the Nine Nazgûl, creatures who existed only to serve Sauron’s will.

Towards the end of the Second Age, he was once again powerful enough to raise large armies to attempt to conquer Middle-earth, but his might never again reached the height it had during his War with the Elves. As the power of the Númenorians grew in the West of Middle-earth, Sauron’s expanded to the far South and East.

Sauron’s Capture and the Akallabêth

As he rose again in power, Sauron began to style himself as the King of Kings and sent threats to the Númenoreans, which angered them greatly. By this time they had begun to fall under Sauron’s shadow and had grown arrogant. Ar-Pharazôn, the king of Númenór, mustered an astounding army that rivaled Sauron’s. When they arrived in Middle-earth, Sauron’s army fled in fear. Seeing that he could not defeat the Númenorians in battle, he left his Ring behind and once again put on a fair form and went alone to the King, saying flattering words to him. He then allowed himself to be taken to Númenór as a hostage by Ar-Pharazôn.

Although Sauron was secretly delighted by Ar-Pharazôn’s decision, he acted unhappy. He had finally been presented with an opportunity to destroy the Númenorians from within. Not long after Sauron’s captivity in Númenor, he grew in King Ar-Pharazon’s counsel, becoming his most trusted adviser. He seduced the King and the people, corrupting them to the worship of Morgoth and the Darkness. Sauron led them to cut the White Tree, Nimloth the Fair, and a temple to Morgoth was built in the King’s Court where it once stood, and its wood was used as kindling to burn Sauron’s human sacrifices.

At that time, many in Númenor had begun to fear their mortality, envying the Elves their immortality. Preaching that Eru and the Valar have cheated Men out of their birthright and only Morgoth can save them, Sauron heavily persecuted the Elendili, the Faithful, who still revered Eru and remained friendly with the Elves in secret. One of them, a noble called Elendil the Tall, son of Amandil, Lord of Andúnië and the leader of the Faithful, had taken a fruit of Nimlot in secret before it was destroyed. Finally, Sauron convinced the men of Númenór to rebel against Eru. Ar-Pharazôn assembled a great navy and invaded Valinor to claim the immortality of the Elves for himself.

The Númenoreans’ invasion of the Undying Lands led Eru to reshape the earth, hiding Aman from the reach of mortals. These changes led to a great cataclysmic event that destroyed the island of Númenor and the destruction of its inhabitants.

Loss of the One Ring

However, not all the Númenorians were destroyed, for as Ar-Pharazôn and Sauron were preparing their fleet to assault Valinor, Elendil’s father told him to gather the Faithful and their families and escape to Middle-earth. Elendil did as his father commanded, and they all boarded nine ships and waited just off the coast. They took the palantíri, which were given to the Lords of Andúnië by the Elves, and a seedling of Nimloth, which had grown from the fruit Elendil stole.

The waves from the cataclysm that destroyed Númenor separated the ships, with five, including Elendil’s ship, landing in Eriador, while the other four carrying his sons Isildur and Anarion landed further south. In Eriador, the Elvish High-King Gil-galad welcomed Elendil, who began setting up a kingdom in Anor, while his sons Isildur and Anarion founded the cities of Minas Anor in Anórien and Minas Ithil in Ithilen, and ruled the realm of Gondor together.

When Sauron learned of Elendil’s survival and his setting up kingdoms with his sons so close to Mordor, in his haste, he declared war on Gondor and Anor before he was able to regain his full strength. To defeat Sauron, Gil-galad, who had increased in power in Sauron’s absence, sought an alliance with Elendil and his sons. Together, they created the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, and they marched across Middle-earth to attack Sauron. They defeated Sauron’s armies in the Battle of Dagorlad, and then invaded Mordor and laid siege to his fortress in Barad-dûr for seven years.

In the year 3441 of the Second Age, Sauron himself came down from his fortress and engaged in combat with the Alliance. He dueled with Elendil and Gil-galad, killing both himself, but not before receiving fatal wounds that destroyed his body. Isildur, Elendil’s son, took up the broken shard of Narsil, Elendil’s sword, and cut the One Ring from Sauron’s finger. While the loss of the One Ring destroyed Sauron’s physical body, his spirit remained potent and he fled. He was unable to form a physical body for thousands of years. Isildur claimed Sauron’s Ring, but it betrayed him, leading to his death, and it was lost to history for many long years.

Third Age

After Sauron’s fall during the War of the Last Alliance, he was not vanquished because he poured his will, power, and strength into the One Ring, and this allowed his spirit to endure. He fled to the East, where he began to rebuild his strength and power.

Sauron was not able to regain the power to craft a physical shape until around the year 1000 of the Third Age. Seeing the prospect of Sauron’s evil returning to Middle-earth and the weakened state of both Men and Elves, the Valar sent the Istari, five spirits of the Maiar who were given the mission to assist the free peoples of Middle-earth in their fight against Sauron.

Soon, Sauron’s Shadow spread once again over Middle-earth, and the Easterlings who worshipped him and were under his power began to raid lands in the West, capturing Rhovanion.

The Necromancer of Dol Guldur

Taking the shape of a dreaded sorcerer called The Necromancer, Sauron captured the stronghold of Amon Lac, the former capital of the Silvan Elves of Greenwood, around the year 1050 of the Third Age and fortified it. It became known as Dol Guldur, the Hill of Sorcery. The Elves felt his spreading evil, but they did not yet know that it was Sauron, but thought it was one of the nine Nazgûl.

As Sauron grew more powerful in Dol Guldur, foul and evil beings multiplied in their secret places and grew bolder. The Nine Nazgûl walked openly, founding the evil kingdom of Angmar, and making war on the Númenórean exiles. He eventually destroyed the Northern kingdom of Arnor and weakened the Southern kingdom of Gondor, leading to the extinguishing of its royal line.

The Nazgûl also captured the fortress of Minas Ithil, the easternmost stronghold of Gondor, turning it into a dark staging ground for their attacks on the southern kingdom. Some Dragons of Morgoth, remnants of the War of Wrath, laid waste to many of the Dwarven kingdoms, destroying three of the Dwarf-rings with their intense fire, and claiming the riches of the Dwarves. 

As the Power in Dol Guldur grew, its shadow spread wide across Middle-earth, the alarmed wizard Gandalf infiltrated Dol Guldur, but the Necromancer fled from him. Sauron fled to the East, where he consolidated his alliances and recovered his power. He returned suddenly in the year 2460 of the Third Age, stronger and with greater power. His return coincided with the rediscovery of the One Ring by a Stoor named Déagol. The Ring easily seduced his friend Smeagol because of his greed, causing Smeagol to kill him and claim it. Tortured by his deeds and the evil of the Ring, Smeagol hid in the abandoned tunnels of the Misty Mountains as the Ring corrupted him.

When Gandalf infiltrated Dol Guldur the second time and discovered that The Necromancer was Sauron himself, the White Council finally attacked the stronghold and drove Sauron away from it. But their attack came too late as Sauron had been anticipating it. He moved back into Mordor, which had been prepared and fortified in secret and awaited his return. He declared himself in the year 2951 of the Third Age and began preparing for war once more.

War of the Ring

The creature Smeagol, now known as Gollum, was captured wandering in Mordor and was brought before Sauron who tortured him for many years and eventually learned that he once possessed a magical Ring. He also learned the names “Shire” and “Baggins” from Gollum. Sauron then sent his Nazgûl to search for these names and news of the Ring.

When Sauron discovered that Saruman had been using the Stone of Orthanc to spy on him, Sauron corrupted him and bent him to his service. Saruman created a new breed of Uruk-hai who were loyal to him, and not to Sauron. He allied himself with Orcs of Mordor, the Warg Riders of the Misty Mountains, and the Dunlendings, and spread war across Rohan, but his army was destroyed in the siege of Helm’s Deep. Saruman’s power was broken when the Ents attacked Isengard, trapping him in the tower of Orthanc.

When the Hobbit Pippin looked into the recovered Stone of Orthanc, Sauron feared that Saruman had betrayed him and now had the Ring in his possession, or knew its location. Afterwards, Aragorn revealed himself to Sauron, showing him the remade sword Anduril, which had cut the Ring from his finger. Assuming that Aragorn now possessed the One Ring and would soon unite the Men of the West under one banner against him, Sauron once again set his plans in motion before it was ready. He sent a massive force to destroy Minas Tirith and lay waste to Gondor, but his army was utterly defeated on the Fields of Pelennor. 

Despite their great victory, Aragorn and Gandalf knew that Sauron still possessed massive armies in the land of Mordor, and it was a matter of time before he attacked again. They also knew that the presence of those armies posed a great danger to Frodo and his quest to destroy the One Ring. They devised a plan to force Sauron to commit all or most of his forces to a final battle, and thereby empty Mordor of any threat to Frodo.

Their plan worked as Sauron marshaled all his forces to the Gates of Teeth, which led into Mordor as the forces of the West marched toward it. This allowed Frodo and his Samwise Gamgee to reach the Crack of Doom without being detected. Sauron only became aware of Frodo in the last moments when he put the Ring on and claimed it.

He quickly sent the eight remaining Nazgul to retrieve the Ring, but they were too late. Gollum, ever on Frodo’s heels had recovered the One Ring and in his fit of joy and jubilation, he slipped off the ledge and fell into the fires of Mount Doom, taking the Ring with him. With the Ring unmade, the massive release of power caused Mount Doom to erupt, destroying the Nazgul. Massive earthquakes shook the land, destroying Barad-dûr and all of Sauron’s fortifications in Mordor.

With the One Ring destroyed, Sauron lost the vast majority of his power, and his ability to create physical forms was also lost forever. Although Sauron’s spirit, being bound to Arda by Eru, was indestructible, he lost all the ability to project his will on the world.

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