Why didn't Sauron lead the attacks?

sauron must have had very strange anatomy -
in LotR, he had an eye & a mouth, but no mention of anything else.

aryne *

Didn't Gollum mention his 'black hand'?

I always thought that he could take any form he wanted.

By the time of the War of the Ring, Sauron could not appear in any form he wished. He lost this ability at the end of the Second Age when he was caught in the destruction of Numenor. During the Second Age, he spent much time in Eregion in the guise of Annatar, which, if I remember correctly means `Lord of Gifts`. He also was presumably reasonably pleasing to the eye during his sojourn in Numenor.

To get back to the original thread, I think there are two main factors at work here. The first has been well covered by Stiegl, namely the fact that Sauron would been worried by the prospect of someone, probably Gandalf, using the Ring against him. I don`t doubt for a minute that Gandalf armed with the Ring would have crushed Sauron in any direct confrontation.

The other point is that Sauron had clearly lost a considerable amount of innate power between the Silmarillion and the Lord of the Rings. In the First Age he often took a direct hand in events, for example his defeat of Finrod and his transformation into wolf form in order to fight Huan. The apparent ease with which he transforms himself into the `most powerful wolf that had yet walked the earth` hints at a level of power which is certainly not apparent in LOTR.

I think that the making of the Ring, a process in which he clearly invested a great deal of his own power, combined with the destruction of his earthly form during the wrack of Numenor reduced his abilities by a large amount. At the end of the Second Age he could be defeated by Gil-Galad and Elendil, even though he possessed the Ring. A powerful Maia such as he would surely have dealt with an elf and a man with comparatively little effort if he were at full strength. Compare this with his aforementioned (fairly comfortable) defeat of the powerful elflord Finrod.

Oh.

I'm still reading the Silmarillion.

noldo

In my opinion Sauron let others do his work. He may have not been defeated if he had, but Gandalf certainly would have put up a good fight. Remember both are limited in their power on middle earth at this time.

Maybe he feared that someone like Gandalf would get the ring and use it against him. Someone powerful enough to wield the ring against him. He could not concieve of anyone wanting to destroy it, nor probally he could not concieve that his enemies would not wish to use it against him.

Also remember Saruman told Gandalf that they would deal with Sauron one way or another. What if two Istari, the two most powerful no less, went up against Sauron? Sauron may fear that.

With out the Ring Sauron was scared plain and simple. Once he got it he would then emerge from Mordor to claim his prize of Middle-Earth. However then the Valar probally would have came over to defeat him and in the process destroy half of Middle Earth

He was a bit knackered after working on the wiring for his lighthouse which looks like a big red eye from a distance...he was busy adding a new 500 watt red lightbulb...

Visit the The Green Dragon - Keeping the Hobbit population intoxicated since 1167

Oh, come now. All good generals stay in the rear. Alexander, Ceasar, Hitler, Montgomery, Swartzkopf
ad. infinitum. It's simply strategically and tactically sensible.

To Taimar - thanks for the props!!!

Also, I liked the quote of Denethor. I think it shows a bit how he'd begun to go mad as he seems to view the attack on Minas Tirith as a personal vendetta against him by Sauron.

He had eye, mouth and hand. Islidur cut off a finger of the Black Hand, he had only four.

Now, if you were a dark lord with 10 powerful rings at your command and thousands of minions who do as you say, would YOU go out and fight, to risk life and limb when you had totally expendable fighters, so much as you gave them away?

Combined, the forces of good could easily defeat Sauron, Aragorn was powerful enough to fight him in the palantir, Galadriel held out his though probing, and Mithrandir could stand up to him. His Nazgul was killed by a Hobbit and a woman, they were supposed to be his strongest. The powers of a wizard, an elf-queen and the heir of Islidur would be too much. Especially if the One Ring was used against him, of which he had no sure belief against.

as others have said Sauron would ave to be mad to go out and fight when he has the whole of Mordor to do it for him.
Another thing is that the Lord Nazgul has just been killed and that probably would have shaken him a bit (although he wouldn't have let it show).

Although he wouldn't have thought that anyone would destroy the ring surely he would ave put some guard on Mount Doom. I mean Gandalf rode an eagle there from the Black Gate in about five minutes. Thinking of that why didn't someone just fly in the first place. A sort of suicide mission to destroy the ring. Gandalf could have slipped through while the Nazgul were occupied with Saruman or something.

Yet another point. Why didn't the Valar come over and kick Sauron's butt about an age ago ? Were they just lazy or something. (I but an answer to that will be that they had to leave middle-earth to make it's own decisions, its the same sorta thing as God (if there is one) leaving people to die I suppose.)

"Yet another point. Why didn't the Valar come over and kick Sauron's butt about an age ago ? Were they just lazy or something. (I but an answer to that will be that they had to leave middle-earth to make it's own decisions, its the same sorta thing as God (if there is one) leaving people to die I suppose.) "

Sauron promised to be good, I think. I get the impression it was a good long while before he started scheming again.

Suppose Sauron had gotten the One Ring? Gandalf said that Sauron's victory would be so complete no one can see the end of it. Would the Valar intervene?

aryne, you trying to say something? ^_^

I think Saruon was storing up and planning inside of his tower, or he was waiting and stratigizing. He was at the platintir to watch all.

No, he didn't have a mouth; just an eye. Just a huge, lidless, round red eye.

The "mouth" that you are talking about was that Black Numenorian's nickname.

The Valar refused to take direct action again after the First Age because of the harm they did to the physical world.

Speak of the devil . . .

When I served as Mouth of Sauron, the Master was nothing but a big red spectral Eye floating in a cloud of darkness. Embarrassed by the fact that he had been rendered bodiless for all time, he did not wish to be seen by anyone but me and the Witchking. The black hand Gollum remembered was mine. I'm the one who got from him where the Ring was hidden, and it was I he remembered with such fear. After all, in case you haven't heard, I am crueller than any orc.

Sauron probably still remembered his humiliating defeat at the hands of Gil-Galad and Elendil. He also was a big eye, so its hard to fight that way.

I don't think he was an Eye. The Eye is said to be the Eye of Sauron, and Gollum notes that he has only nine fingers on The Black Hand (or something like that). I believe there is a reference to his appearing after he was revealed to Celebrimbor and all those folk as being hideous and terrible to behold, but my memory may have failed.

I picture a very tall person (but not giant sized), with ugly skin that looks as though it was burnt or rotting, clad in dark mail from neck to foot, but this being covered by a great cloak of inexorable shadow, a weary and a pain to any eyes that look upon it, with one large eye in the center of his mighty head, and this is fiery around the edges, but glazed and yellow like a cat's, watchful, dreadful, intent and powerful with a black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing. On a black throne I picture him, sitting still, gazing out of Barad-dur with perilous concentration, his thoughts reaching out like iron claws, as cold as the frosts of the Northern Wastes that his master wrought long ago, searching to grip the plots of his enemies and crush them in domination.

This description is in the Mirror of Galadriel, the eye one I mean.

Maybe Sauron was afraid someone would give him a black Eye.

:lol:

Well, perhaps it wasn't me after all. My memory's not what it was. I can't even remember my own name. Must be all those drugs I did in the Second Age.