Posted by Jim Gregors on March 28, 2000 at 22:09:36
In Reply to: My thoughts on the Mouth of Sauron posted by Wibstap on March 28, 2000 at 17:27:13:
: The Mouth is supposed to be a Black Numenorean, a sorcerer who used magic to extend his age from the Second Age to the Third. But it was stated in Akallabeth that the magicians of Numenor tried, unsuccessfully, to extend their lifspans through the use of magic. So it was impossible without the use of a Ring of Power, and in that case the body still decayed or disappeared, as in the Witch-King. So how did the Mouth stay so young and fresh through two ages? My idea is: there was more than one Mouth of Sauron. They acted as the same person, and when it is said that he/they had forgotten his/their name, they had put it behind them and ceased to think of themselves as themselves but as as the last Mouth.
: What do you all think?
The Mouth of Sauron was probably no older than Aragorn or Denethor. The idea that he had survived through the Second and Third ages comes from the passage in which it is stated that 'he entered into the service of the Dark Tower when it first arose again'. Many people take this passage to mean that he became a servant of Sauron when he returned to Mordor following the Downfall of Numenor in S.A. 3319. However, this idea has been debated ad nauseum in the alt.fan.tolkien newsgroup with the general consensus being that the phrase 'when it first arose again' refers to the rebuilding of the Barad-dur in T.A. 2951, making the Mouth somewhere around 80-90 years old ((3018 - 2951) + ~20 years) at the time of the War of the Ring. It is doubtful he could have been much older since we know from PoME that even members of the high nobility (such as the Princes of Dol Amroth) only lived to be about 100 years old - sorcery or not.
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