August 6, 2002

Sauron's Form In LotR
Danny

I have found a lot of opinion that Sauron took the form of the lidless eye, and that the eye itself was Sauron. I don't beleive that, but if anybody has some quote that would prove it, not just leave it open to be interpeted that way, I would accept the idea. My arguments against that are as follows.

Gollum spoke of Sauron having nine terible fingers. I don't have the book handy, but I remember his fear of the nine fingers. It could be interpeted as the nine riders. Interestingly enough when one is slain at Minas Tirith, they state that Sauron has lost a finger from his hand, but victory is still in his grasp. I however feel that the nine fingers, nine wraiths, and Frodon's nine fingers are a motif repeated through the work, but that Gollum was refering to Sauron's form.

In the begining of LOTR, Sauron wasn't able to take physical form yet, at least that is what the movie says, but I don't remember the book saying anything concrete on it. Even if at the begining, Sauron couldn't take on a physical form, that doesn't mean that he didn't grow in power and regain that ability. Remember that in the book many years pass and Sauron grew in power and strength through that time.

Another interesting case for this is when Pippin looks into the palantir. He says, "then He came. He didn't speak...he just looked and I understood." My impression of the experience that Pippin had, and that Aragorn later had when they looked in the palantir was much more tramatizing than seeing the eye. Frodo saw the eye, but didn't leave the experience terrified to even think of the mirror again. Pippin made absolutely no reference to seeing any lidless eye, but spoke of Sauron as he would have spoken of a person. Again this is open to interpetation, but I got the impression that Pippin saw Sauron in a roughly human form. He certainly had a much more terrifying experience than any of those who speak of seeing the lidless eye.

A ring would be pretty useless if there wasn't a finger to wear it with.

I have always felt that the eye of Sauron is an instrument he uses to see and observe. It is a terible symbol of his power and his penetrating gaze, but I never thought it was more than a symbol of Sauron.

I suppose I feel strongly about this because I took some heat for an art project I did portraying Pipin seeing two eyes looking at him in the palantir, and most people saying that Pippin only saw the lidless eye. If he had seen just the eye, he would have said so, but he saw someone much more tramatizing and deadly than the symbol of his power was.

So my thoughts are that Sauron had some sort of roughly human form as his power grew. I don't think that the lidless eye is Sauron, rather a symbol of his power and an instrument for his use.