The White Council

Re: Sauron's form?

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: : : : Okay, I realize this may be painfully obvious to most of you, but did Sauron have a physical form at all at the time of Fellowship? If yes, I was curious as to whether or not he would have resonded to a challenge from someone like Glorfindel or Galadriel or even Elrond, much in the way Morgoth accepted Fingolfin's challenge?

: : : Gollum says to Frodo and Sam that Sauron only has four fingers on one hand. This means that he had taken just about the same form as he had before. This was probably the only one he could achieve, because otherwise he surely would have made himself an unmaimed body. I'm not sure whether he has two eyes or one, but my guess is two. The talk about the Eye, the symbol of a single eye on his servants' gear, Frodo's vision in the Mirror etc in my opinion just mean that Sauron's eyes are the dominating part of his appearance (even more so than with other creatures), windows which display his evil spirit. Perhaps the Eye also symbolises his Big Brother -type vigilance. It is more convenient to talk of one eye than two. Though maybe one of his eyes is more dominating, and perhaps he looks into his Palantir with only one eye. : : : -Foradan

: : Well, I would have to say that if Sauron had only one eye, wouldn't Gullom have noticed it, like he noticed the four fingers? Wether it's lidless, i don't know and couldn't draw up a conclusion from the information in the book.

: : I think that Sauron took the shape of his previous form(when he lost the ring). It says that he put forth all of his energy into the Ring so it seems that he did not have enough power to take a better form. I also have wondered about his eye because hey always refer to it as "The Eye." If anyone else has any idea i'd be interested to hear it.

I think Tolkien's description can be taken at face value. After all he dercribes Sauron's post-Akkalabeth form as being no longer "fair". Is Sauron having a single, lidless, fire-rimmed eye any more bizarre than the fact that his body was at about the same temperature as the heart of a wood-fire (Gandalf's ring inscription trick at Bag End)?