Archmaesterjimmie: LOTR character article, book-canon (Corvus) + portrait (Wren)

2026-06-13T15:57:28Z

LOTR character article, book-canon (Corvus) + portrait (Wren)

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{{Infobox character
| image = https://archmaester.site/portraits/lotr/sauron.jpg
| name = Sauron
| title = The Dark Lord; the Lord of the Rings; Gorthaur the Cruel; Annatar (Lord of Gifts); the Necromancer; the Eye; Mairon
| house = The Maiar of Aulë (formerly); servant of Morgoth
| race = Maia
| status = Slain (destroyed as a power)
| region = Mordor; Barad-dûr; formerly Angband and Tol-in-Gaurhoth
| born = Before the shaping of the world (Maia)
| died = 25 March T.A. 3019, with the destruction of the One Ring
| weapon = The One Ring; the mace (in the Last Alliance); sorcery and dominion
| fate = Undone when the One Ring was unmade; reduced to an impotent malice unable to take form again
| actor = Sala Baker (physical) / Alan Howard (voice)
| quote = One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
}}

'''Sauron''' was the great Enemy of the [[Second Age|Second]] and [[Third Age]]s, the [[Dark Lord]] of [[Mordor]], and the maker of the [[One Ring]]. Originally a [[Maiar|Maia]] of high power, he became the chief lieutenant of [[Morgoth]], the first Dark Lord, and after his master's fall took up the work of dominating [[Middle-earth]] himself.

He is the antagonist about whom the whole tale of the [[War of the Ring]] turns. Having poured his native strength, will, and malice into the [[One Ring]] to bind the peoples of Middle-earth, he made his own existence dependent upon it — so that when the Ring was unmade in the [[Cracks of Doom]], Sauron was destroyed for ever as a power that could act in the world.

== Origins ==
Sauron was a [[Maiar|Maia]] of the people of [[Aulë]] the Smith, named '''Mairon''' ("the Admirable") in his beginning, the greatest craftsman among his order. Drawn to order, efficiency, and control, he was seduced early by [[Morgoth]] (Melkor) and became his most powerful servant. In the wars of the [[First Age]] he was '''Gorthaur the Cruel''', master of werewolves, lord of the isle of [[Tol-in-Gaurhoth]], and a shape-shifter of terrible craft — it was Sauron whom [[Lúthien]] and [[Huan]] overthrew in the tale of [[Beren]]. When Morgoth was cast into the Void at the end of the First Age, Sauron repented in seeming but, unwilling to be judged, fled and hid.

== Biography ==
=== The Rings of Power ===
:''Main article: [[Rings of Power]]''
In the [[Second Age]] Sauron set out to dominate Middle-earth by subtler means. Fair of form, he took the name '''Annatar''', "Lord of Gifts," and taught the Elven-smiths of [[Eregion]] under [[Celebrimbor]] the craft of ring-making. Then in secret, in the fires of [[Mount Doom]], he forged the [[One Ring]] to rule all the others, pouring into it much of his own power. The Elves perceived his treachery and hid the [[Three Rings]], but the Seven and the Nine fell under his sway — the Nine making the [[Nazgûl|Ringwraiths]].

=== Númenor and the Last Alliance ===
Sauron's dominion grew until he was opposed by the Men of [[Númenor]]. Taken captive, he corrupted that kingdom from within, leading it to ruin in the [[Downfall of Númenor]] — after which he could never again take fair form. He returned to Mordor and warred upon the survivors, until the [[Last Alliance of Elves and Men]] under [[Gil-galad]] and [[Elendil]] overthrew him at the end of the Second Age. [[Isildur]] cut the [[One Ring]] from his hand, and Sauron's spirit fled, bodiless and diminished, but not destroyed — for while the Ring endured, so did he.

=== The Necromancer and the return ===
Through the [[Third Age]] Sauron slowly rebuilt his strength, first as a nameless shadow and then as the '''Necromancer''' of [[Dol Guldur]] in southern [[Mirkwood]], until the [[White Council]] drove him out. He declared himself openly in [[Mordor]], raised again the dark tower of [[Barad-dûr]], and bent all his will to recovering the [[One Ring]], which he believed lost. His searching presence in the latter days was figured as a great lidless [[Eye of Sauron|Eye]], wreathed in flame.

=== The War of the Ring and the end ===
Learning that the Ring survived and was in the hands of a Halfling, Sauron launched the [[War of the Ring]] to seize it before his enemies could use it against him. He never conceived that they would instead try to destroy it. While his attention was fixed on the armies before the [[Black Gate]] — drawn out by [[Aragorn]]'s feint — [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]], [[Sam]], and [[Gollum]] reached the [[Cracks of Doom]], and the Ring was unmade. In that instant Sauron's power failed utterly: [[Barad-dûr]] fell, his armies were scattered, and his spirit, stripped of the Ring, became a mere impotent malice, "''a shadow... an ineffectual ghost''" that could never again grow or take shape. So ended the [[Third Age]].

== Character ==
Sauron is the embodiment of the will to dominate. Unlike his master [[Morgoth]], who craved destruction and the unmaking of all things, Sauron desired order — but order wholly subject to his single will, every other being reduced to a tool. He is rarely seen and never (in this Age) named with a fair face; his power is felt as dread, as the weight of his searching thought, and as the corrupting pull of the Ring. His fatal blindness is an inability to imagine that anyone would choose to destroy power rather than wield it.

== Relationships ==
* '''[[Morgoth]]''' — his first master, the original Dark Lord, whom he served and outlived.
* '''[[The One Ring]]''' — his master-work and his weakness; his fate bound to it.
* '''[[Nazgûl]]''' — the nine Ringwraiths, his most terrible servants, led by the [[Witch-king of Angmar]].
* '''[[Saruman]]''' — the Wizard he ensnared and bent to his service through the [[palantír]].
* '''[[Celebrimbor]]''' — the Elf-smith he deceived and later destroyed.
* '''[[Isildur]]''' — who cut the Ring from his hand at the end of the Second Age.

== Appearances ==
* ''[[The Hobbit (novel)|The Hobbit]]'' (as the Necromancer of [[Dol Guldur]], unnamed)
* ''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]''
* ''[[The Two Towers]]''
* ''[[The Return of the King]]''
* ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' ("Of the Rings of Power," and as Gorthaur in the First Age)
* ''[[Unfinished Tales]]''

In Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), Sauron was physically portrayed by '''Sala Baker''' and voiced by '''Alan Howard'''. The films render him chiefly as a flaming Eye atop Barad-dûr; in the books the Eye is a figure for his searching will rather than a literal beacon, and Sauron retains a physical form (described by Gollum as having only four fingers on the Black Hand).

== Quotes ==
<blockquote>''One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.''</blockquote>
<blockquote>''The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.''</blockquote>

[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Lord of the Rings]]
[[Category:Maiar]]

Sauron - Revision history

Archmaesterjimmie: LOTR character article, book-canon (Corvus) + portrait (Wren)