Posted: December 22, 1999 at 09:15:16: by Tar-Amandil
This may seem absurd to those who know better, but I find great joy in speculation. The Mouth of Sauron we know is a black Numenorean, a great sorcerer, and one of Sauron's greatest servants whom he has long served. How long it never says, or does is there ever mention of his name. For he has been called The Mouth of Sauron so long that he has forgotten his own. How long would one have to not use there birth name to forget it? It would 'have' to be a great length of time (more than a normal lifespan one would think).
When I'm reading through Tolkien's works I often search for clues to various questions I have, and here is one idea on this matter: that The Mouth of Sauron is Herumor.
Herumor was a mighty Black Numenorean who was in Sauron's service before and during the time of the Last Alliance in 3430 of the Second Age.
From The Silmarillion (pg. 363)
"…and among them were not a few of the high race of Numenor"
"Yet two there were, Herumor and Fuinor, who rose to power among the Haradrim…"
From HoME XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth (pg420):
"The name Herumor is found in Of the Rings Power and the Third Age (SIL) as that of a renegade Numenorean who became powerful among the Haradrim in the time before the War of the Last Alliance"
This really is not conclusive evidence what so ever, but in the chapter The New Shadow, a short story of only a few pages, that is set in 120 of the Fourth Age about Borlas discovering a new Evil arising after the Great Peace, there is a passage (pg.414) which reads:
"You have heard the name? With hardly more than breath he formed it. Of Herumor?"
Could this be The Mouth of Sauron devising new evil amongst the peace of Gondor. In this story it tells of a secret orc-like society of Men who began worshipping the Dark.
Borlas was the youngest son Beregund, brother of Bergil companion of Pippin, and remembers the Shadow of Sauron, as he was a child during the War of the Ring. And, in the final passage of the story:
"The door under the porch was open; but the house behind was darkling . There seemed none of the accustomed sounds of evening, only a soft silence, a dead silence. He entered, wondering alittle. He called but there was no answer. He halted in the narrow passage that ran through the house, and it seemed that he was wrapped in a blackness: not a glimmer of twilight of the world outside remained there. Suddenly he smelt it, or so it seemed, though it came as it were from within outwards to the sense: he smelt the old Evil and knew it for what it was."
We will never know, as the story ended here, what Borlas found, or if it was indeed The Mouth of Sauron reawakened to evil. But if there are any clues to The Mouth of Sauron's identity this seems the most plausible to me.
On a final note: If Herumor was alive during the Last Alliance (S.A. 3430) with the Second Age ended in 3441, the Third Age lasting for 3,021 years, and Herumor being mentioned in 120 of the Fourth Age Herumor, if it is the same person who could be The Mouth of Sauron would be around 3170 years old. How could a Man live so long? It may have something to do with his powers of sorcery. He may have found a way through Sauron to prolong his life to a great length. Or, he may have become a kind of half-wraith. It would make sense for someone to forget there name after living this long.
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