# Sauron's escape from the wreck of Numenor



## Ithrynluin (Nov 16, 2005)

We know that as one of the Ainur (Valar and Maiar), Sauron was able to change his shape and appearance. Why then did he not fashion wings for himself and fly off when Numenor started crumbling into the abyss, rather than losing his body yet again, and having to go through the fuss of spending more innate power to create a new one back in Middle-earth?


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## Thorondor_ (Nov 16, 2005)

Well, I would say he was too much caught by surprise:


The downfall of Numenor said:


> For Sauron himself was filled with great fear at the wrath of the Valar, and the doom that Eru laid upon sea and land. It was greater far than aught he had looked for, hoping only for the death of the Numenóreans and the defeat of their proud king. And Sauron, sitting in his black seat in the midst of the Temple, had laughed when he heard the trumpets of Ar-Pharazôn sounding for battle; and again he had laughed when he heard the thunder of the storm; and a third time, even as he laughed at his own thought, thinking what he would do now in the world, being rid of the Edain for ever, he was taken in the midst of his mirth, and his seat and his temple fell into the abyss


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## Ithrynluin (Nov 16, 2005)

I suppose it boils down to these two options:

1. The Ainur need a certain amount of time and effort to change their shape or appearance. It cannot be done in an instant.

2. Not all Ainur could change shape into just anything they wished. There may have been restrictions:
- perhaps greater ones on the Maiar than the Valar, as the former are beings of lesser stature and therefore, power
- perhaps the 'repertoire' of things or beings an Ainu could change into is limited according to the 'affiliation' of this certain Ainu; e.g. only a Maia of Manwe, associated with air, could create wings for themselves. Sauron, being a Maia of Aulë, could not.

Now the problem with # 1 is that in his confrontation with Finrod, Luthien and Huan, Sauron seemed to have changed his shape with great speed, from wolf to serpent, etc, so this theory may not hold water altogether.

I find this a very interesting issue. Let's explore it!


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## YayGollum (Nov 16, 2005)

Not much to think about here, from my view of things. Sure, he probably could have shapeshifted pretty fast, but he was very distracted. A weakness of the evil mastermind. Much maniacal laughter, which usually includes closed eyes and arms outstretched. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ainur types were large fans of drowning what was most probably the worst evil still about and actually tried to suck him down quickly. Also, also, I thought of the second option thing on your list, ithrynluin person, but did he not have the ability to turn into a giant bat thing at one point? *hides*


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## Ithrynluin (Nov 16, 2005)

YayGollum said:


> Not much to think about here, from view of things. Sure, he probably could have shapeshifted pretty fast, but he was very distracted. A weakness of the evil mastermind. Much maniacal laughter, which usually includes closed eyes and arms outstretched. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ainur types were large fans of drowning what was most probably the worst evil still about and actually tried to suck him down quickly.



That is a pretty good theory. About that last part, I don't believe it was the Ainur who caused the drowning of Numenor, but Eru himself, so I don't think he would have intentionally infringed Sauron's free will by taking him down especially quickly.



> Also, also, I thought of the second option thing on your list, ithrynluin person, but did he not have the ability to turn into a giant bat thing at one point? *hides*



It's been a while since I read the Silmarillion, and though a bat came to mind in association with Sauron, I did not have the Sil handy to check. This then speaks against theory # 2.


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## YayGollum (Nov 16, 2005)

Ah. Well, whoever took him down, then. Eru or his puppets. Anyways, how is attempting to kill someone by way of an easily escapable (at least for Sauron, at the time) continent dive messing with the guy's free will? He didn't prevent the guy from trying to escape.


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## Ithrynluin (Nov 16, 2005)

You said the Valar _'were large fans of drowning what was most probably the worst evil still about and actually tried to suck him down quickly'_. I then said that it was probably Eru who did the drowning of Numenor, and though you did not say 'Eru tried to suck him down quickly', I went on to elaborate that Eru probably did not concentrate on drowning Sauron in particular, but was only concerned with sinking Numenor, no matter who was on it at the time, because if he did concentrate on Sauron particularly that would to me have been uncharacteristic of Eru since it would appear that he was intentionally messing with Sauron's free will to try and rescue himself from the turmoil and commotion. Is that a little clearer?


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## Alcuin (Nov 16, 2005)

_Silmarillion_ says in “Akallabêth” that “Sauron withdrew into the inmost circle of the Temple.” After a bit, it continues,


> For Sauron himself was filled with great fear at the wrath of the Valar, and the doom that Eru laid upon sea and land. It was greater far than aught he had looked for, hoping only for the death of the Númenóreans and the defeat of their proud king. And Sauron, sitting in his black seat in the midst of the Temple, had laughed when he heard the trumpets of Ar-Pharazôn sounding for battle; and again he had laughed when he heard the thunder of the storm; and a third time, even as he laughed at his own thought, thinking what he would do now in the world, being rid of the Edain for ever, he was taken in the midst of his mirth, and his seat and his temple fell into the abyss.


I assume this was not an eyewitness account of the events. But apparently Sauron was deep inside the Temple he had the Númenóreans construct for his heinous practices, and not only was he surprised, he was unable to escape.


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## Ithrynluin (Nov 16, 2005)

Good catch on that point, Alcuin. So it was not necessarily so much that Sauron was unable to escape per se, but rather that he could not escape because he was trapped by large amounts of brick and mortar.

Now the painfully obvious question is: Why did Sauron not transform himself into a power drill and bore his way out to freedom?!  

On a more serious note, even though it seems we've solved one aspect of the question of why Sauron perished in the decimation of the Land of Gift, it may be interesting to continue speculating on the properties of Ainuric shape-shifting.

Thoughts?


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## Arvedui (Nov 17, 2005)

I have no idea on how long it takes to change shape, but there are a couple of points that must be taken into account, I think:

1) The element of _surprise_. From _HoME X, Morgoth's Ring, Notes on motives in the Silmarillion,_ we learn that Sauron believed that Eru had more or less given up Arda. So any intervention from that part would come as a huge surprise to Sauron.
2) The _ability_ to change form. Sauron had by this time spent a lot of his power, not the least by making the One Ring. I can't check with the written stuff right now, but even if he still was able to change shape, then I would guess that it would indeed take some time because of his inherent powers being worn down.

just my 2 cents


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## Arvegil (Nov 23, 2005)

One can also look at it as a situation where normal rules might not apply. The very structure of Arda was being changed in a way that made the Drowning of Belariand look like a minor project, and Sauron was caught right in the middle of it.

Ainur are indeed powerful and masters of the matter of Ardas, but in this case, Arda itself was being reshaped by the "big guy" himself. Perhaps the forces in play overrode Sauron's great, but constrained within the Circles of the World, power.


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## Eriol (Nov 27, 2005)

We have two extremes when discussing Ainur "shape-assuming". At one end there is the "raiment" concept, in which the shape is much like clothing -- transient and easily disposable. At the other end there is the Morgoth phenomenon, in which he no longer could change shape, so much so that it was possible to "execute" him. I think that "Sauron in Númenor" was something in-between. The bad guys seem to take more "substantial" shapes, harder to discard. For example, Huan was able to _pin down_ Sauron, by the grip of his jaws. 

I believe Sauron was not as "attached" to his shape as Morgoth had become (though this would happen in the Third Age...), but he was more attached than ordinary Ainur.


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## Haldatyaro (Dec 6, 2005)

I believe Sauron was more than "surprised". After all, he was suprised at the ferocity of Huan but managed to shape-shift in order to escape. In the Downfall, he was paralyzed by fear, and _overawed_ by the immense power of Eru.


> For Sauron himself was filled with great fear at the wrath of the Valar, and the doom that Eru laid upon sea and land.



Yes, the Valar were the agents of that power, but it came from a source far greater than any Vala, let alone a Maia such as Sauron. Tolkien says in his famous letter to Milton Waldeman:


> Faced by this rebellion of appaling folly and blasphemy, and also real peril (since the Numenoreans directed by Sauron could have wrought ruin in Valinor itself) the Vala lay down their delegated power and appeal to God, and receive the power and permission to deal with the situation; the old world is broken and changed


I should think that for any creature, when the Creator "showed forth his power", escape from its effects -- especially since Sauron was, in effect one of the intended targets -- would be impossible.


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