35 Did Sauron have a physical form during _The Lord of the Rings_? (Tolkien)
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This article is from the Tolkien Newsgroups FAQ, by Steuard Jensen sbjensen@midway.uchicago.edu with numerous contributions by others.
35 Did Sauron have a physical form during _The Lord of the Rings_? (Tolkien)
There is strong evidence that Sauron did have a humanoid physical
body at the time of LotR. In "The Black Gate is Closed" we read, "'He
has only four [fingers] on the Black Hand, but they are enough', said
Gollum shuddering." Gollum was tortured in Barad-dur, and this
statement sounds as if it comes from personal experience. Some have
objected that Gollum's memory of his torture might not be accurate for
various reasons, but this is still the only fully "canonical" evidence
on either side of the issue, so it should be taken seriously.
It need not be taken alone, however. Tolkien makes multiple
unambiguous statements that Sauron did have a physical form in
_Letters_. For example, he describes Sauron's use of a humanoid shape
in Letter #200:
It is mythologically supposed that when this shape was 'real', that
is a physical actuality in the physical world and not a vision
transferred from mind to mind, it took some time to build up. It
was then destructible like other physical organisms. ... After the
battle with Gilgalad and Elendil, Sauron took a long while to
re-build, longer than he had done after the Downfall of Numenor (I
suppose because each building-up used up some of the inherent energy
of the spirit...)
Because it took time for Sauron to "re-build" after his body was slain
by Gil-galad and Elendil, it is clear that it was more than just a
"vision". Another clear statement can be found near the end of Letter
#246, where Tolkien discusses the possibility of a direct confrontation
between Sauron and a Ring-wielder at the end of the Third Age (he
considers both Aragorn and Gandalf). He says,
in a tale which allows the incarnation of great spirits in a
physical and destructible form their power must be far greater when
actually physically present. ... The form that he took was that of a
man of more than human stature, but not gigantic.
No statements by Tolkien conflicting with these descriptions are known.
Some have objected that the many references to the "Eye" of Sauron
must refer to his physical shape. However, Tolkien used that term even
when referring to the period before the war of the Last Alliance, when
it is well known that Sauron had a physical form: for example, the
Akallabeth says that after Sauron "came back to Middle-earth and to
Mordor... the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure." It seems
likely that this term referred at least largely to his piercing mind or
will. That view is supported by a comment about Morgoth in Text X of
the "Myths Transformed" section of _Morgoth's Ring_:
"...Morgoth held the Orcs in dire thraldom; for in their corruption
they had lost almost all possibility of resisting the domination of
his will. So great indeed did its pressure upon them become ere
Angband fell that, if he turned his thought towards them, they were
conscious of his 'eye' wherever they might be".
We know with absolute certainty that Morgoth had a huge but humanoid
physical form during the First Age, so "eye" here obviously refers to
his will. The similarity between this description and the many
references to Sauron's "Eye" is striking, which seems to make the true
meaning of that term clear.
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