The Lord of the Rings
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What is Sauron?
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Michael
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Mar 20, 2013 10:54AM
Is he a wizard or a man or......etc.Also what does he look like under the mask,i have never read the lord of the rings but i plan to extremly soon,these question are based off the phenominal movies.
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I always assumed he was a man as the other wizards were men.
i think he can change his appearance and turn into anything he wants to, but i guess it's most convenient to be in 'human' form most of the time.
WIZARDS ARE NOT MEN!! they are Istari. As for Sauron he is a Maiar. Look on wikipedia for more detail.
Welcome to the Silmarillion 101! Here's a very brief (or as brief as I can make it) and fairly simplistic overview of the beginning of the Silmarillion.
The Ainur are the first beings ever created by Eru Ilúvatar. They are immortal spirits.
There are two orders of the Ainur. The Valar and the Maiar. The Valar are the most powerful, there are 14 of them.
The Maiar are the lesser order of spirits and they tended to be followers of the Valar. Sauron is a Maia. The Istari (the wizards) are also Maiar. The Balrogs were Maiar as well.
Morgorth (originally Melkor) was one of the Valar but he rebelled against Eru (he's no longer counted amongst the Valar so originally there were actually 15 of them) . He corrupted many of the Maiar including Sauron.
That's about as basic as I can make it. But read the Silmarillion if you want to be able to understand it properly.
Annia wrote: "Welcome to the Silmarillion 101! Here's a very brief (or as brief as I can make it) and fairly simplistic overview of the beginning of the Silmarillion.
The Ainur are the first beings ever crea..."
Thank you for the well-informed reply! It's never fair to say with a sneer something like "Sauron is a Maiar, you dingleberry!" (note improper pluralism). Being a Tolkien nut is all about wholeheartedly and unaffectedly sharing all the things that we love about Middle Earth.
If we want other people to embrace Tolkien's works and spark their curiosity about the unsung epics like The Silmarillion, we don't begin by mocking their lack of knowledge. The end goal is for everyone to love Middle Earth and find out more because they find it interesting and fulfilling - not for snobbery privileges.
So again, thank you.
Testgnom wrote: "i think he can change his appearance and turn into anything he wants to, but i guess it's most convenient to be in 'human' form most of the time."In the books, it's not really specified what shape Sauron is in now, though he is presumably something human-ish, otherwise he wouldn't have fingers to wear the ring on. But one thing is stated in The Silmarillion: Sauron can no longer change his form, or at least not to look pleasant. He used to be able to back in the Second Age, thousands of years ago. That's when he corrupted Elves and Men by going among them as an attractive and innocuous man. But after the fall of Numenor (an island nation of the greatest Men of the Second Age), he has never been able to appear fair to Elves or Men - they can now see him for the evil thing he is.
Mitali wrote: "Testgnom wrote: "i think he can change his appearance and turn into anything he wants to, but i guess it's most convenient to be in 'human' form most of the time."In the books, it's not really sp..."
But what is he,im not talking about a form,im trying to figure out what he is.
Michael wrote: "But what is he,im not talking about a form,im trying to figure out what he is. "He's a Maia. :)
The Maiar have the power to go unseen or to cloak themselves in the disguise of Elves or Men (or others, I think ) so they can interact with Elves/Men.
But Mitali is right, Sauron lost his ability to change form.
As I understood it, Maia are demi-god like figures, and Sauron was one such being that became Morgoth's apprentice. Morgoth was a true God who embraced darkness and was dedicated to undoing Illuvatar's - chief of the Gods - works by perverting them and tempting followers of his with dark powers. This included destroying the Tree of Light on the Undying Isles and creating Orcs from some of the first Elves.After Morgoth was defeated and banished to the bottom of the Earth by Illuvator and his followers, Sauron took over as the chief evil-doer in the world. He traveled to the Numenor where he preached Morgoth worship, corrupted the nine Man-Kings of Middle Earth with the nine rings (turning them into Ringwraiths), and this led to Numenors being swallowed by the sea.
He drowned in that event too, but being Maia, he was resurrected back in Middle Earth. But from that point onward, he lost the ability to assume a pleasing form and became the Dark Lord everyone is familiar with from the main story. The evil looking, eight foot high guy with black armor and a flaming eye, tied to the One Ring of power.
Lower-case "g" buddy >:(
Korban wrote: "Lower-case "g" buddy >:("My apologies. Morgoth was a god, not to confused with the Judea-Christian being that is apparently all alone up there and therefore deserving of a capital G: God. And Illuvatar, since he had kin - and not an only begotten son who was both Him and not Him at the same time - was chief of the gods, not chief of Gods.
Korban wrote: "Lower-case "g" buddy >:("But no problem with "Elves", "Maia", "Orcs" etc?
You know this is fiction right?
Korban wrote: "Yes"Wordy as ever :P
Matthew wrote: "Korban wrote: "Lower-case "g" buddy >:("My apologies. Morgoth was a god, not to confused with the Judea-Christian being that is apparently all alone up there and therefore deserving of a capital ..."
It sounds like everybody's on the same side here in matters of capitalization, quite fortunately. I myself do find it interesting that Eru, The One, comes as close to the Judea-Christian God as anything Tolkien wrote about. I find it comforting to think that Middle Earth has an all-powerful creator, a being of infinite goodness, as versus the Greek mythologies (which, I suppose, the Valar are comparable to), where the "gods" are fallible and self-serving.
I know Tolkien was against his works being cited as allegories, religious or otherwise, so I doubt it would be a good idea to draw too many comparisons.
But I do have a question: are the Valar ever actually mentioned as "gods" in the Silmarillion (alas, I do not have the book on me), or is that just a term we use to try to describe them?
Sauron is the Lord of the rings.
I always just figured Sauron was an entity. A giant faceless bad guy entity.
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