SAURON, “DARK LORD OF MORDOR”

In Norse and Icelandic mythology, after the great battle of Ragnarök that resulted in the total destruction of Midgard, the prophetic Eddic poem Völuspá foretold of a great gold-roofed hall in the shining mountain kingdom of Gimli (meaning “fire-shelter”) where survivors of the cataclysm would find refuge. This was a new Valhalla conceived by the Völuspá poet, which appears to have Christian overtones in the idea of the reward of the righteous and saving them from the fires of Muspelheim. In Tolkien’s version of Ragnarök – the Great Battle in the War of Wrath – the kingdoms and lands of Beleriand sink beneath the waves of the Western Sea. But, unlike the survivors of the Ragnarök, the destruction of their homelands forces the survivors of the War of Wrath eastward where new kingdoms of the Elves and Edain are founded in Lindon and Eriador between the sea and the Misty Mountains. And, unlike the prophetic vision of Gimli, these lands are not entirely inhabited by the “righteous”. Among the refugees of the war are many of Morgoth’s creatures and followers, who fled and hid deep in the earth and in the roots of the mountains of Middle-earth.

Gauthaur the Cruel (Sauron)

The greatest of these is Sauron the Cruel – or Sauron Gorthaur, meaning “Dread Abomination” – who in the Second Age arises to become the new Dark Lord of Middle-earth. In his creation of the figure of Sauron, Tolkien drew on a wealth of ring legends and myths – Celtic, Greek, German, Finnish and Norse among them. The tales with the strongest associations with those of Sauron as Lord of the Rings are the myths and legends of the Vikings, and, in particular, those tales related to their supreme god, Odin.

God, sorcerer, warlord, ring lord, transformer, necromancer – no figure in mythology more closely resembles Sauron than the Norse god Odin. Odin’s desire for dominion over Midgard matches Sauron’s thirst for dominion over Middle-earth. Their ambitions are identical: to gain control of a magical all-powerful ring – the One Ring in the case of Sauron and Draupnir for Odin. Just as the forging of the One Ring and the Rings of Power requires the combined talents of Sauron and the Elven-smiths of Celebrimbor in Eriador, so the forging of Draupnir requires the combined skills of Odin and the dwarven-smiths Sindri and Brokkr. Just as Sauron’s One Ring controlled all the other Rings of Power on the hands of sorcerers and kings throughout Middle-earth, so Draupnir dripped eight other rings on every ninth day, to be bestowed by Odin on sorcerers and kings throughout Midgard as a way of binding them to his will.

The Master of the One Ring wished to become like Eru the One in Middle-earth, usurping his life-creating authority and power. As far as this ambition is concerned, there seems to be a hint of Mary Shelley’s Baron von Frankenstein about Tolkien’s evil sorcerers Morgoth and Sauron. Like the baron, their usurpation of God’s power can produce only counterfeit beings like Orcs and Trolls that are a mere imitation of life. However, unlike the baron’s unnamed creature, who strives to adopt a virtuous nature, bettering himself by mirroring the humans he encounters, the sorcerers’ Orcs and Trolls are creatures that are by their very nature without a moral conscience and without free will.

On Middle-earth “buried evil began to stir”

And so in the Second Age these monstrous hordes creep out of their places of hiding and gather about their new Dark Lord in his mountain kingdom of Mordor.

Flies of Mordor: Sauron’s evil touches even the smallest things.