Q: How Old Was The Mouth of Sauron?
ANSWER: The text states that he was a living man, not a Ringwraith. Hence, based solely on what is published in The Lord of the Rings the reader is left to infer that the Mouth of Sauron was a mortal man just like Aragorn, Denethor, and Eomer.
At its head there rode a tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse, if horse it was; for it was huge and hideous, and its face was a frightful mask, more like a skull than a living head, and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils there burned a flame. The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man. The Lieutenant of the Tower of Barad-dûr he was, and his name is remembered in no tale; for he himself had forgotten it, and he said: ‘I am the Mouth of Sauron.’ But it is told that he was a renegade, who came of the race of those that are named the Black Númenóreans; for they established their dwellings in Middle-earth during the years of Sauron’s domination, and they worshipped him, being enamoured of evil knowledge. And he entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again, and because of his cunning he grew ever higher in the Lord’s favour; and he learned great sorcery, and knew much of the mind of Sauron; and he was more cruel than any orc.
The question therefore arises why some people insist that he must have been thousands of years old.
The book states clearly that the Numenoreans had not devised the means of lengthening their lives; hence, to conclude that the Mouth of Sauron was able to do this flies in the face of Tolkien’s statements regarding the knowledge and abilities of the Numenoreans.
The book also states that the Mouth of Sauron was a Black Numenorean. Some people insist that there were no more Black Numenoreans left by the end of the Third Age. However, Tolkien never says any such thing. He does say that the Black Numenoreans (who were descended from the Kings Men, Numenoreans loyal to the Kings of Numenor) had settled in many lands along the coasts of Middle-earth. The only Black Numenorean city that is named, however, is Umbar — which Gondor conquered in Third Age year 1050. Those readers who conclude that the Black Numenoreans no longer existed at the end of the Third Age argue that Umbar was their last refuge, but Tolkien neither says nor implies that.
We can see in the text cited above that the Mouth of Sauron entered the Dark Tower’s service “when it first rose again”. Some people insist that means the Dark Tower was raised at least three times. However, Tolkien says it was only built twice and only destroyed twice. The missing intermediate destruction and reconstruction must be completely assumed without any support from the texts.
There are references to other Black Numenorean groups in “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” but their specific locations and fates are not mentioned. One must assume that all Black Numenorean groups were conquered, absorbed, or otherwise died out — and such assumptions may support circular logic but they don’t agree with Tolkien’s story.
In some arguments people suggest that perhaps Sauron gave a Ring of Power to the Mouth of Sauron. However, it cannot be established when Sauron took back any of the Rings of Power he gave to Men and Dwarves. It is almost certain that he only began collecting the Dwarven rings in the Third Age. Had the Nazgul returned their rings to Sauron in the Second Age, though, where would Sauron had kept them? The One Ring alone was cut from his hand — he apparently wore no other rings. Barad-dur, his fortress, was taken and razed to the ground (the only time it was destroyed by the work of his enemies). It may be conceivable that the Nine Rings could have been hidden in some deep vault overlooked by the Elves and Numenoreans but that requires an assumption on the reader’s part — Tolkien never implies anything like this.
According to “Appendix B: The Tale of Years” in The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf entered Dol Guldur (for the second time) in Third Age year 2850, discovering then:
Gandalf again enters Dol Guldur, and discovers that its master is indeed Sauron, who is gathering all the Rings and seeking for news of the One, and of Isildur’s Heir. He finds Thráin and receives the key of Erebor. Thráin dies in Dol Guldur.
This event is discussed in more detail in “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” in The Silmarillion, which states:
Now the Shadow grew ever greater, and the hearts of Elrond and Mithrandir darkened. Therefore on a time Mithrandir at great peril went again to Dol Guldur and the pits of the Sorcerer, and he discovered the truth of his fears, and escaped. And returning to Elrond he said: True, alas, is our guess. This is not one of the Úlairi, as many have long supposed. It is Sauron himself who has taken shape again and now grows apace; and he is gathering again all the Rings to his hand; and he seeks ever for news of the One, and of the Heirs of Isildur, if they live still on earth.
In the face of these facts it seems rather easy for some people to conclude that the Mouth of Sauron must have been a Black Numenorean of the Second Age (although technically Tolkien only uses that name of the descendants of the Kings’ Men in the Third Age, which began after Sauron’s second death); that he must have either extended his lifespan to thousands of years by sorcery OR that he used a Ring of Power to extend his lifespan without succumbing to its power and becoming a wraith (despite the fact that three Numenoreans more ancient than he by any measure had become wraiths within a matter of centuries or decades); and that Tolkien would not have thought about these contradictions to the “facts” he had established in his story.
Of course, some people consider it unthinkable that a man would forget his own name within the space of 60-70 years, even though well-documented child abduction cases show that children will forget their original names within the space of a few years. Tolkien may or may not have been aware of such a thing, but he certainly would have heard about people suffering amnesia; he could have plausibly explained the loss of memory of a name in more than one way. And yet, Tolkien may have thought about this more carefully than people give him credit. Here is a citation from an earlier version of the story:
No more is said in the draft of the history of the Lieutenant of Barraddur, the nameless Mouth of Sauron, than that ‘It is told that he was a living man, who being captured as a youth became a servant of the Dark Tower, and because of his cunning grew high in the Lord’s favour…’ In the fair copy this was repeated, but was changed subsequently to: ‘But it is said that he was a renegade, son of a house of wise and noble men in Gondor, who becoming enamoured of evil knowledge entered the service of the Dark Tower, and because of his cunning [and the fertile cruelty of his mind] [and servility] he grew ever higher in the Lord’s favour…’ (these phrases being thus bracketed in the original). In RK (p. 164) the Mouth of Sauron ‘came of the race of those that are named the Black Numenoreans.’
(From “The Black Gate Opens” in THE WAR OF THE RING)
It is certain that Tolkien originally conceived of the character as being contemporary with Denethor and Aragorn, not some ancient holdover from the Second Age. In the transformation of the character from a renegade Gondorian to a Black Numenorean, Tolkien did not need to change anything in established facts of the stories because he had yet to write the material for the appendices. Tolkien finished the primary narrative in 1948. He began working on the appendices in 1950. He could have amended the text to make the Mouth of Sauron a Black Numenorean while working on the appendices, but that would not have forced him to make the Mouth thousands of years old.
In the final analysis, only the most intransigent and determined reader would insist that the Mouth of Sauron must be thousands of years old despite everything Tolkien wrote concerning the Mouth, the King’s Men, and the Black Numenoreans.
He was most likely less than 100 years old at the time of the War of the Ring in 3019. He may have been no older than Aragorn (who was born in Third Age year 2931) and was probably several years younger than Aragorn.
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