# Sauron as the Necromancer



## AustintheGreen (Sep 2, 2004)

I wonder what shape Sauron had assumed as the Necromancer. I always got the feeling that he was acting as a Sorcerer, the way Gandalf described him. Wouldn't that mean that he could take up physical form? Or was the Necromancer just an entity of Mirkwood? Any ideas?


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## Aglarband (Sep 2, 2004)

He was probably cloaked like his Nazgul and simply holding himself together by another means. Of course Sauron could hold some sort of physical form, the eye for example. He just didn't think anyone was powerful enough to get so close to his new home. He probably had no idea about the 5 Istari of the West, thus keeping him from being overly cautious.


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## Inderjit S (Sep 3, 2004)

Since necromancers are commonly associated with sorcerers, I imagine he looked like a sorcerer, or sorceror-esque, just to make sure his appearance matched his name.


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## Dark_Glamdring (Sep 3, 2004)

I think Sauron and his relationship with the one ring wasn´t prepared when he wrote the Hobbit. So I think Necromancer was more alike a spirit, with no body, because Sauron lost his body when the one was stolen from him


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## AustintheGreen (Sep 3, 2004)

how was he driven from dol guldur? was it Gandalf alone or the combined powers of the white counsel?


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## Elfarmari (Sep 3, 2004)

AustintheGreen said:


> how was he driven from dol guldur? was it Gandalf alone or the combined powers of the white counsel?


It was the combined powers of the White Council, although exactly how this was actually accomplished is, as far as I know, a matter of speculation. Here's the only quotes I could find:
_



Gandalf at the Council of Elrond, "Some here will remember that many years ago I myself dared to pass the doors of the Necromancer in Dol Guldur, and secretly explored his ways, and found thsu that our fears were true: he was none other than Sauron, our Enemy of old, at length taking shape and power again. Some, too, will remember also that Saruman dissuaded us from open deeds against him, and for long we watched him only. Yet at last, as his shadow grew, Saruman yielded, and the Council put forth its strength and drove the evil out of Mirwood -- and that was in the very year of the finding of this Ring: a strange chance, if chance it was.
But we were too late, as Elrond foresaw. Sauron walso had watched us, and had long prepared against our stroke, governing Mordor from afar through Minas Morgul, where his Nine servants dwelt, until all was ready. Then he gave way before us, but only feigned to flee, and soon after cam to t he Dark Tower and openly declared himself."

Click to expand...

In the Tale of Years in Appendix B, it says (among many other events) the following regarding the Necromancer:



2941 The While Council meets; Saruman agrees to an attack on Dol Guldur, since he now wishes to prevent Sauron from searching the River. Sauron having made his plans adandons Dol Guldur.
2951 Sauron declares himself openly and gathers power in Mordor. He begins the rebuilding of Barad-dur.

Click to expand...

 _


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## AustintheGreen (Sep 3, 2004)

I wish I could read an account of Gandalfs visit to Dol Guldor. I think it's interesting how he was able to enter, remain secret and study Sauron. I believe Gandalf does say that he barely escaped with his life. That would have made quite a tale, don't you think?


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## Ronaldinho (Sep 5, 2004)

AustintheGreen said:


> I wish I could read an account of Gandalfs visit to Dol Guldor. I think it's interesting how he was able to enter, remain secret and study Sauron. I believe Gandalf does say that he barely escaped with his life. That would have made quite a tale, don't you think?


Absolutely! I can imagine it as a first hand account from Gandalf recounted in a similar style to 'The Quest of Erebor' in 'Unfinished Tales' when he describes how he persuaded the Dwarves to visit Bag End at the beginning of 'The Hobbit'.


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## FrankSinatra (Sep 14, 2004)

The more likely explanation is that Tolkien did not want to introduce the history (or had not formulated the full history) of Sauron into the childrens tale of the hobbit.


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## greypilgrim (Sep 16, 2004)

I think of sauron as a spirit living inside a puddle of black water that would ripple a little when he got mad.


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## Richard (Oct 3, 2004)

It would appear that Sauron was limited in form due to the Downfall. I wonder if he delegated most of his actions to the nazgul.Richard


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## baragund (Oct 4, 2004)

You're right, Richard. Sauron lost his physical form and any ability to appear "fair" in the downfall of Numenor. Before the downfall, he could actually appear in a form that was not horrifying and he wormed his way into the King's Court in Numenor and even some of the remaining Noldor of the 2nd Age by appearing nice and taking the name "Annatar, Lord of Gifts". And then when Isildur took the Ring on the slopes of Mt. Doom during the Last Alliance, Sauron lost a big chunk of his power.

You raise an interesting question about "delegating" to the Nazgul. It's true that the Witch King, head Nazgul, was behind a lot of the mischief during much of the Third Age. So why wasn't Sauron himself more active? The Nine were subservient to him throughout the Third Age just as they were during the War of the Ring, right? If he was knocked out to the extent that he seemed to be by Isildur's actions, wouldn't the potency of the Nine be similarly affected?


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## MichaelMartinez (Oct 11, 2004)

baragund said:


> You're right, Richard. Sauron lost his physical form and any ability to appear "fair" in the downfall of Numenor. Before the downfall, he could actually appear in a form that was not horrifying and he wormed his way into the King's Court in Numenor and even some of the remaining Noldor of the 2nd Age by appearing nice and taking the name "Annatar, Lord of Gifts". And then when Isildur took the Ring on the slopes of Mt. Doom during the Last Alliance, Sauron lost a big chunk of his power.
> 
> You raise an interesting question about "delegating" to the Nazgul. It's true that the Witch King, head Nazgul, was behind a lot of the mischief during much of the Third Age. So why wasn't Sauron himself more active? The Nine were subservient to him throughout the Third Age just as they were during the War of the Ring, right? If he was knocked out to the extent that he seemed to be by Isildur's actions, wouldn't the potency of the Nine be similarly affected?


Although he never possessed the One Ring again after Isildur took it from him, Sauron remained in "rapport" with it (as Tolkien put it). That means that the Ring continued to sustain Sauron and he grew stronger because it kept the greater part of his power intact. And there should have been no effect upon the potency of the Nine (or the Seven and Three, for that matter).

He took a physical shape when he became the Necromancer Circa T.A. 1050. Tolkien says he appeared in the form of a tall humanoid, dark and menacing. The idea that he assumed a shape as an eye is due to a broad reading of "Akallabeth", where Tolkien wrote:



> ...But Suaron was not of mortal flesh, and though he was robbed now of that shape in which he had wrought so great an evil, so that he could never again appear fair to the eyes of Men, yet his spirit arose out of the deep and passed as a shadow and a black wind over the sea, and came back to Middle-earth and to Mordor that was his home. There he took up again his great Ring in Barad-dur, and dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible; and the *Eye* of *Sauron* the Terrible few could endure.


The passage doesn't say Sauron appeared as an eye. It implies he may have had only one eye, but that is a literal reading of the text. Some people have argued that it is more likely the passage only means that anyone brought into Sauron's presence found him to be so fearsome and horrible that they couldn't long endure his gaze. Other people have argued that he may indeed have appeared as a floating eye.

Someone recently suggested, in another venue, that perhaps the eye was a spiritual manifestation, as when Frodo became aware of Sauron while he (Frodo) was seated upon Amon Hen, wearing the One Ring.

Gollum confirms that Sauron had nine fingers, so we know that when Gollum was brought before Sauron, Sauron at least manifested himself in a humanoid form for some length of time.

Many people believe Sauron was incapable of changing his shape in the Third Age, but there is no support for that belief in the texts. In fact, because he was able to take shape at all, we know that he retained at least some of his ability to take on a physical form of his choosing. And since he continued to grow stronger throughout the Third Age, whereas Melkor (who permanently incarnated himself) continually grew weaker throughout the First Age (by divesting himself of a great part of his native power), it follows that Sauron most likely gained greater control over his physical shape as the Third Age progressed -- though he was never again able to assume a fair and pleasing shape as he had been able to (at will) prior to the Downfall of Numenor.

Tolkien's lengthiest discussion of Sauron's shape is found in Letter 200, where he wrote:



> It was because of this pre-occupation with the Children of God that the spirits so often took the form and likeness of the Children, especially after their appearance. It was thus that *Sauron* appeared in this shape. It is mythologically supposed that when this shape was 'real', that is a physical actuality in the physical world and not a vision transferred from mind to mind, it took some time to build up. It was then destructible like other physical organisms. But that of course did not destroy the spirit, nor dismiss it from the world to which it was bound until the end. After the battle with Gil-galad and Elendil *Sauron* took a long time to re-build, longer then he had after the Downfall of Numenor (I suppose because each building-up used up some of the inherent energy of the spirit, which might be called the 'will' or the effective link between the indestructible mind and being and the realization of its imagination). The impossibility of re-building after the destruction of the Ring, is sufficiently clear 'mythologically' in the present book.


He most explicitly described Sauron (in the Third Age) in Letter 246 (written in 1963):



> ...*Sauron* should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic. In his earlier incarnation he was able to veil his power (as Gandalf did) and could appear as a commanding figure of great strength of body and supremely royal demeanor and countenance.


So, Sauron was physically active within Middle-earth from about TA 1000 onward. What did he do? Naturally, he assumed the identity of the Necromancer, but we know that he took control of the hill Amon Lanc (once a Silvan Elvish stronghold in the Second Age) and built there a great fortress, which the Elves named Dol Guldur (in Sindarin). He gathered many creatures and servants there, including (it would appear) the Nazgul.

In various texts, including "Dwarves and Men" and some texts in _Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth_, Tolkien mentions Easterlings who settle in or pass through southern Mirkwood. It appears that the chief reason the Hobbits departed from the Vales of Anduin is the increase of non-Edainic Men in the area (Easterlings).

So, Sauron was actively directing his forces in southern Mirkwood and the Vales of Anduin from about TA 1000 to TA 2060, when he fled east to avoid being identified by Gandalf. The realm of Angmar, ruled by the Lord of the Nazgul, only lasted from about TA 1300 to 1975. Sauron's last great campaign in this period prior to the Watchful Peace would have been the assaults of the Wainriders upon Gondor, the worst of which ended in 1944 (when Earnil II defeated them).

What else could Sauron have done during this period? Perhaps he awoke the Balrog, which Tolkien suggests may already have been awake when the Dwarves of Khazad-dum uncovered its hiding place in 1980.

We definitely know that he was responsible for the Great Plague of 1936, which devastated Gondor, Arnor, and many other lands. The chief effect of the Plague was the diminishment of Gondor's outlying garrisons. The Gondorian fortresses in both Mordor and Tharbad were abandoned at this time. After the overthrow of Angmar, Sauron sent the Nazgul to Mordor, where they raised an army with which they attacked Minas Ithil in 2000 (the city fell in 2002).

When Sauron withdrew from Dol Guldur in 2060, the western lands enjoyed a long respite, but that doesn't mean Sauron wasn't busy. I think he used these years to breed the Uruks, which first appeared in 2475 (15 years after Sauron's return to Dol Guldur) when they attacked Ithilien and seized Osgiliath.

Sauron could also have been partially responsible for the re-appearance of dragons in the north in the 26th century (2500s). He could have jump-started their breeding program during the Watchful Peace.

The Balchoth, related to the Wainriders, appeared in the late 25th century and attacked Gondor in 2510. Tolkien implies that their attacks against Gondor (and, later, Rohan) were orchestrated or at least inspired by Sauron.

Tolkien also mentions that Sauron began recolonizing the Misty Mountains with Orcs and Trolls (and other evil creatures) in the 25th century.

By 2758, Sauron's influence had spread at least as far south as Umbar. Haradrim attacked Gondor and Rohan by sea at the onset of the Long Winter (2758-9). Tolkien doesn't indicate whether the winter was due to Sauron's influence, but it does seem reasonable to infer that was his intention.

There is no indication that Sauron had anything to do with Smaug's attack on Erebor in 2770. Nor does Sauron seem to have had anything to do with the War of the Dwarves and Orcs (2793-2799).

Gandalf visited Dol Guldur in 2850 and discovered at this time that the Necromancer was really Sauron. He also learned that Sauron was searching for the One Ring near the Gladden Fields AND that Sauron was gathering the various Rings of Power back to him. He surely had the Nazgul's Nine Rings by this time. He had just retrieved the last of the Seven (of which he now possessed three -- the remaining four had apparently been consumed by dragons).

It would seem that Sauron's influenced declined after the Long Winter. Perhaps his strength was drawn down by sustaining the cold weather for so long. That would explain why there was a sudden burst (as it were) of stupid activity on the behalf of the Orcs, and why Smaug felt brave enough to invade Erebor.

By 2941, of course, the White Council felt compelled to take action against Sauron. Even Saruman agreed, since he was afraid Sauron might find the One Ring before he (Saruman) did. It must be that Sauron's power had grown so much that, by this time, he was stronger than at any previous time during the Third Age.


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