Sauron

[Dark Lord Sauron]

I have some questions about Sauron, if I may.

Firstly, I believe most of you know that Sauron was defeated at the end of the Second Age when Isildur cut the One Ring off his finger. Sauron then was forced to pass into shadow as a spirit, and could not find the strength to regain a body for himself afterwards, without the Ring. This would suggest that he invested so much of his power into the Ring, that he could not survive without it, at least in physical form. After all, if he could, then he still would have had a body after his finger was cut, and he also would have still been able to use the powers given to him as a Maia.

However, the Simarillion states twice that Sauron, indeed, after he forged the One Ring, was able to be completely independent of it.
Page 280: "There he took up again his great Ring in Barad-d^ur, and dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malace and hatred made visible..."
Page 292: "There now he brooded in the dark, until he had wrought for himself a new shape; and it was terrible, for his fair semblance had departed for ever when he was cast into the abyss at the drowning of N'umenor. He then took up again the great Ring and clothed himself in power..."

This would disprove the theory that without the Ring, which he had put so much power into, Sauron would be powerless. In fact, he reserved much of his power in himself, as he was still able to make himself fair when he was captured by the forces of N'umenor. Therefore, I cannot see why Sauron was forced to depart into shadow when the Ring was separated by him, and why he could not continue the fight. The text only suggests that he needed the Ring to create for himself a new being, which would keep the whole point of the Lord of the Rings valad, but it does not suggest that if the Ring was destroyed, Sauron would depart forever.

There is one other question, more so than a discreprancy. Both quotes from above have ends, which are as follows:
Page 280: ", and the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure."
Page 292: "; and the malace of the Eye of Sauron few even of the great among Elves and Men could endure."
So, the Eye of Sauron was indeed made before the Third Age. My assumption, before reading this text, was that he had built the Eye in order to increase his power, during the Third Age. Still, this raises some questions. For example, how, then, did Sauron see when he accrued a physical form during the Second Age? Were his own eyes blind and useless, and he only used the Eye to see? If so, could he see his enemies from miles away, and ambush them himself? Or did he have some messed up form of double vision? Did Tolkein ever discuss this?
And one other thing: after a seven year seige, Barad-d^ur was defeated, and it was destroyed, although its foundations did remain afterwards. Barad-d^ur had taken Sauron six hundred years to build. By the year 3318 the reconstruction of the Dark Tower had only commenced a little more than fifty years ago. What happened to the Eye in between? Surely it could not have survived, for it had lain at the top. And how was it destroyed the first time, anyway? Did Sauron have to recreate the Eye? Even if he did, how could it possibly have rested on the Dark Tower, if Barad-d^ur was still, for the most part, uncompleted?

[squinteyedsoutherner]

"Isulder cut the ruling ring from the hand of Sauron and took it for his own. Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body and his spirit fled far away and hid in the waste places;and he took no visible form again for many long years"

The Silamarillion

1. many long years means he did take shape again, and this could only have been during the war of the ring, which means he did not need the ring to become physical.

2. "Forsook his body" Forsake implies choice. So it seems he chose to leave it behind. I don't know if there is contradictory text elsewhere.

3. "I don't believe The Eye to be a real eyeball somewhere in Mordor. It is a metaphor for his mind and will. Tolkien says also "and the malice of the Eye few could endure" You need consciousness to contain malice. To argue that there is a real eyeball somewhere in Mordor seperate from Sauron's physical form that is conscious, to me, seems silly.

[markedel]

Sauron had the ring with him throughout the second age-even when he had no physical form. Tolkien states this in his letters (I don't have quotes with me but you can verify this-try the Tolkien ring FAQ). In the third age Sauron had a body, this is also affirmed by Tolkien in the Letters.

[Nilore]

Where does it say that?

[Maedhros]

Therefore, I cannot see why Sauron was forced to depart into shadow when the Ring was separated by him, and why he could not continue the fight. The text only suggests that he needed the Ring to create for himself a new being, which would keep the whole point of the Lord of the Rings valad, but it does not suggest that if the Ring was destroyed, Sauron would depart forever.

You forget about the concept of Incarnation of a Maia. A maiar is an ainur, and therefore an ëalar. (a being that is naturally discarnate) An ëalar can take physical form to interact with other beings in the physical plane as per in the Published Silmarillion. Different maiar had different levels of power and because Sauron had more power than your average maiar, he could incarnate himself in different forms, but as he did evil, his control over that ability lessened.
From the Published Silmarillion

Sauron 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.

Because Sauron, like Morgoth, became dependent on their hröa, after their hröa was slained, they could remade a new one, but with each attempt they lost part of their power, but because of the fact that Sauron had put so much of his power in the Ring, he could reclothe himself because of the presence of the Ring, but each time it would take more effort and time.
For more information you can read the Osanwe Kenta essay