A notable aspect of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is that its major antagonist, Sauron, doesn’t directly appear all that often. Stripped of his main source of power, the One Ring, the villain has to resort to make his presence felt as a shadowy malevolent force emanating from his dark realm, Mordor. Other than that, it’s mostly left to his monstrous army of orcs, trolls, and other creatures – not to mention his ally, the turncoat wizard Saruman – to terrorize the inhabitants of Middle-earth on his behalf.
That's not to say Sauron doesn’t get the chance to stretch his legs elsewhere in Tolkien’s writings. For starters, he’s briefly mentioned as having captured Gandalf the Grey in The Hobbit, under the guise of “The Necromancer” – something Peter Jackson’s big screen adaptation expands upon considerably. Then there’s his prominent role in The Silmarillion, which not only establishes Sauron as a Maia spirit (essentially an angel) who broke bad, but also recounts his villainous deeds dating back to the dawn of time itself. Along the way, Tolkien not only fleshes out Sauron’s character more – basically, he was corrupted by his obsession with order – but provides extra details regarding his physical attributes. We don’t learn a lot more than what was covered in The Lord of the Rings, but it’s enough to give us a general sense of the various forms he assumed and the powers at his disposal.
Updated on September 15th, 2022 by Stuart Kilmartin: The ultimate antagonist of the Lord of the Rings franchise, Sauron has already made his presence felt in Amazon Prime's new series The Rings of Power. Although the villain has only appeared once so far, in a flashback to the First Age, his presence in Middle-Earth is largely steering the action thus far. It's inevitable that the villain will appear at some point during the show's first season, but due to Sauron's reputation as a shape-shifter, fans may not immediately recognize him.
Sauron Was Originally A Shape-shifter
A major aspect of Sauron’s physiology that’s often overlooked is that he was once an accomplished shape-shifter. Long before he was the primary antagonist in Tolkien's mythology – back when he was only a servant of original big bad, Morgoth – shape-shifting was actually a key weapon in Sauron’s arsenal.
This creative inclination – coupled with his innate supernatural powers – would explain how he was able to not only take on a variety of humanoid forms, but also impersonate the various beasts of Middle-Earth
Sauron's Eyes Were Always Powerful
The Eye of Sauron, a cat-like pupil wreathed in flame, is one of the most iconic images in both Tolkien’s novels and their cinematic counterparts. Adorning the armor of Sauron’s orc hordes – not to mention serving as a substitute for his actual name, which he forbade others to utter aloud – the Eye appears prominently during the Third Age, when The Lord of the Rings takes place. Both Sauron’s eyes were noted as being daunting, even fearsome, well before this time.
Even when the Dark Lord was pretending to be on the side of the angels, the intensity of his gaze was unmistakably fierce.
Sauron Lost The Ability To Assume His Fair Form
Sauron is described at various times in Tolkien’s writings as being less than pleasant to look at. Peter Jackson’s film adaptations likewise present him as a menacing black knight. Even though he’s an unrepentant villain, fans may might still be wondering: if Sauron is so powerful, why doesn't he stay in humanoid form? The answer, he cannot.
When the island kingdom of Númenor sank to the bottom of the ocean during the Second Age, Sauron went down with it. Although he survived, it cost him the ability to assume his angelic disguise (sometimes known as “Annatar”) robbing the Dark Lord of his most effective weapon against Men and Elves.
Sauron Became Uglier When He ed Forces With Morgoth
As we’ve covered already, Sauron is essentially an angelic presence – he’s one of the second-tier order of celestial beings known as the Maiar. As such, when he first entered the physical world, his default appearance was suitably attractive, although it didn’t stay that way for long.
Once Sauron became the right-hand man of Morgoth – one of the higher-ranking Valar, and pretty much the Devil of Tolkien’s mythology – he began to give off a subtly more creepy vibe. He could still himself off as a benevolent figure, but more perceptive individuals could nevertheless detect via his overall aura that there was something evil about him.
Sauron Wasn't Just A Flaming Eyeball
It’s fair to say that Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy has had a monumental impact on more casual fans’ comprehension of the Middle-Earth canon. This has given rise to some popular misconceptions about Tolkien’s mythology – for example: the notion that Sauron could only manifest himself as a great, big, flaming eyeball. The books aren’t 100% clear on whether the Eye is meant to be taken as Sauron’s literal form, as a metaphor, or both.
They do, however, make it clear he was capable of appearing as a shadowy, humanoid figure, too. Indeed, Tolkien scholars were probably somewhat mollified when this incarnation of the Dark Lord is briefly glimpsed during Jackson’s follow-up Hobbit trilogy.
Sauron's Physical Form Was First Destroyed Before The End Of The Second Age
A big deal is made about Sauron losing his physical form after being defeated in battle at the end of the Second Age – but this isn’t even the first time that this ever occurred. Originally happened many years earlier, when the kingdom of Númenor was destroyed, and the Dark Lord’s body with it. The difference here was that Sauron wasn’t separated from the One Ring at the time.
That made pulling together a new body markedly easier than the second time around. This new body was less pleasing on the eye, but still served him well.
Sauron's Shadowy Form Was Still Missing A Finger
As fans of the books will already know, when Gollum is tormented in Mordor – a scene only glimpsed in The Fellowship of the Ring movie – Sauron is personally present. Rather than revealing himself as the big fiery eyeball that dominates the big screen version of the story, according to Gollum, the apparition he encountered was a more subtle, shadowy creature.
Interestingly, Gollum recalls seeing Sauron’s black hand, and notes that it’s still missing the finger cleaved off by Prince Isildur after the Dark Lord was vanquished. This serves as an understated illustration that Sauron has not yet regained his full might.
Sauron Could Burn His Victims With His Touch
From the fiery Great Eye to the volcanic eruptions of Mount Doom, much of the imagery associated with Sauron is fire-related. Well, it turns out it goes even further than that: Sauron’s body is itself a source of immense heat! This is first mentioned in notes made by Isildur and featured in The Fellowship of the Ring, which recount his first-hand experience of Sauron’s touch, which “burned like fire.”
In a deleted scene inThe Fellowship of the Ring, Sauron was to be seen setting immortal elven king Gil-Galad ablaze with his grasp, but the moment was cut due to time constraints. Gil-Galad finally made his cannonical live-action debut in The Rings of Power.
Sauron's Most Monstrous Form Came After The Fall Of Númenor
We've mentioned that Sauron was once a formidable shape-shifter, and that he was only restricted to stereotypical “evil dark lord” guises after his physical form was first destroyed. Although this was a tremendously helpful development from the perspective of the forces of good – they would no longer fall for Sauron’s “divine bearer of gifts” image – it also made their enemy a lot more scary.
This was especially the case after the Dark Lord first reassembled his physical form, having just escaped the doom of Númenor. Around this time, Sauron’s appearance was supposedly downright monstrous, malice and hatred personified.
Sauron Wasn't Gigantic
When you think of Sauron – a quasi-demonic presence of immense physical and unearthly power – it’s not hard to picture a towering figure of Godzilla-like proportions. Yet that’s explicitly not what Tolkien had in mind when he created the character. On the contrary, time and again, he describes Sauron’s humanoid body as being bigger than that of any man, but not by much.
It seems that Sauron’s size is one of the things that Peter Jackson’s big screen adaptation of The Lord of the Rings totally nailed. He might have been ever so slightly smaller than Jackson depicted him in The Fellowship of the Ring, but not by much.
