SAURON AND THE “GREAT EYE”

It is difficult to determine whether the spirit of Sauron, after his re-manifestation as the Necromancer, is ever able to regain actual material form over the next millennia, either in Dol Guldur or, later, in Mordor. Tolkien gave only vague clues as to Sauron’s physical and/or spectral manifestations. Late in the last century of the Third Age, we are told of one fearful encounter that describes the Dark Lord’s four-fingered “Black Hand”, but whether this is a phantom shape or the actual material physical form of the Dark Lord is open to debate.

The most common manifestation of the spirit of Sauron in the Third Age is as the fiery “Eye of Sauron”, variously described as the “Red Eye”, the “Evil Eye”, the “Lidless Eye” or the “Great Eye”. Certainly, Tolkien’s son and literary executor Christopher eventually concluded that, in the War of the Ring, his “father had come to identify the Eye of Barad-dûr with the mind and will of Sauron”.

In all cultures, eyes are believed to have special powers and are often said to be windows onto the soul. So, Tolkien’s description of the Evil Eye of Sauron gives us considerable insight into the Dark Lord himself: “The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.” This last phrase, “a window into nothing”, reflects Tolkien’s Catholic, Augustinian philosophical standpoint that evil is essentially the absence of good, and that ultimately evil in itself is a soul-destroying nothingness.

The evil eye is widespread throughout history. It is recorded in ancient Greek and Roman texts, as well as many religious scriptures, from the Koran to the Bible. In Proverbs (23:6), we find the warning: “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye.” Attempts to ward off the curse of the evil eye has resulted in the creation of talismans in a multitude of cultures: the image of a staring eye or eyes is supposed to deflect the malicious gaze back on the sorcerer., the motif is found painted, carved or engraved on the prows of boats and ships, on houses and vehicles, and on beads and jewels in a multitude of cultures from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.

Odin the Necromancer is the mythological figure who most obviously informed the identity of Sauron the Necromancer and who was – not coincidentally – also known as the One-Eyed God. In the Norse canon, Odin sacrificed one eye in exchange for one deep draught from the Mímisbrunnr, the “Well of Secret Knowledge”. Thereafter, Odin – like Sauron – was able to consult and command wraiths, phantoms and spirits of the dead.

Another notable mythological figure related to the power of the evil eye can be found in Irish mythology. This is Balor of the Evil Eye, the king of a race of deformed giants called the Formorians. Balor’s name is possibly derived from the Celtic word beleros, meaning “the deadly one”, and is suggestive of a god of drought and plague. He was also known as Balor Béimnech (“Balor the Smiter”) and Balor Birugderc (“Balor of the Piercing Eye”). By some accounts, in his looks, Balor was akin to the Greek Cyclops, a monstrous race of giants with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads. However, Balor’s eye was so deadly that he opened it only when he was engaged in battle. Once the eye was open, its searing glance would wreak such terrible destruction that it would burn like a laser beam through any opposing army.

Great Eye of Sauron