History of Sauron

[Beregond]

I have heard many rumours about the history of sauron. One of the being he actually was Elendils aide, but decided he didnt like what he saw happening with Gondor and Arnor so decided to try and destroy the. Does any one else know anything about his history?

[brownjenkins]

he was one of the original ainur that entered arda after it was created (a maia specifically)

he hooked up with melkor very early on and was seen as his second in command and most powerful assistant

when the valar finally came and defeated melkor he was told to come before the valar and be judged... he refused and remained in middle earth

over the time that followed he tried to ally himself with the various elven kingdoms in middle earth (long before elendil was born)... gil-galad refused, but celebrimbor accepted him among the elves and dwarves of eregion and kazad-dum, and they worked together to the forge the rings of power... then sauron made the one ring, the alliance was broken, and much of eregion destroyed

sauron settled in mordor and built up his armies... later he was challenged by numenorians returning to middle earth... he convinced them to take him to numenor, and over time corrupted them, eventually leading to their downfall

he then returned to mordor, where he basically stayed 'till the last alliance led by gil-galad and elendil finally defeated him

"of the rings of power and the third age" at the end of the silmarillion covers much of this history

[CrazySquirrel]

Originally Posted by Beregond

I have heard many rumours about the history of sauron. One of the being he actually was Elendils aide, but decided he didnt like what he saw happening with Gondor and Arnor so decided to try and destroy the. Does any one else know anything about his history?

Where did you hear those rumours?

Brownjenkins's post is fairly accurate.
I can only add that originally he was a maia of Aule, and not evil. He wanted to bring order into the World and that proved his undoing. Under Morgoth's command he was called Gorthaur, the terrible master of Wolves. He took an elvish fortress Minas Tirith (not the one in LOTR ) and turned it in a place of dread, Tol-in Ghauroth. It was there where Beren and Finrod Felagund were imprisoned, after Gorthaur overcame Finrod in a contest of Songs of Power. Luthien freed Beren, and Gorthaur had to flee from Huan, the hound of Valinor.

In the Second Age, Sauron, posing as Annatar (Aulendil, Artano), a maia of Aule, helped the Elves of Eregion (Hollin) to forge rings. And in SA 1600 he made the One, the Ring to rule them all. It was about 4500 years before LOTR, and about 1500 years before the time of Elendil.