: Michael concludes that revolutionary plots comes from within a
: culture not from without, but this does not adress the most
: interesting part of Tolkiens letter....the mention of a
: satanistic religion and the specific mention of an OLD evil in
: the actual text. Clearly the 'new shadow' is linked to Saurons
: 'old evil' and the mouth of Sauron could very well be such a
: link (and Herumor MIGHT be his name)...

You cannot say "Clearly" with justification. There is nothing to tie the fact that the NEW SHADOW is tied with Sauron's "old evil" to the speculation that the Mouth of Sauron might have been Sauron.

The Mouth was more than likely long dead by the time of the NEW SHADOW. He would have to have outlived Aragorn, and that doesn't make sense.

: ...I have more problems with another point however. For the
: mouth of Sauron could not remember his old name so how could
: anyone else remember it?

"Herumor" could just be a nickname, a sobriquet as some fancy people put it. :)

It means, after all, "Dark Lord".

: All in all however I can't dismiss easily the theory that
: Herumor is the mouth of Sauron. It remains pure speculation,
: but it is an interesting possibility.

I don't consider it to be very possible at all. There is no evidence to indicate the Mouth had an extremely long life, that he survived the Downfall of Sauron, or that he was in anyway connected with the mysterious Herumor.

I think it more likely that Herumor would have turned out to be a member of an old Gondorian family, perhaps the House of the Stewards or the Lords of Dol Amroth, somewhat like Darth Sidious is Senator/Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in the STAR WARS universe.

Tolkien's letter seems to imply the revolutionary plots are tied to the Satanic religion, which would probably have been based on necromancy (which Tolkien wrote about late in his life).
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