Q: Why Did Sauron Need a Road from Barad-dur to Sammath Naur?
ANSWER: Regardless of whether you believe Sauron was a floating disembodied eye, a dark-shaped humanoid giant, or a whispy bit of fog on a cloudy night, there is one inescapable fact from J.R.R. Tolkien’s story: Sauron maintained a road that led from the Dark Tower to Mount Doom. Why on Middle-earth did he need that road? The first inkling that Sauron has a special road for his own use only comes when Sam and Frodo are on the slopes of Mount Doom itself:
Frodo opened his eyes and drew a breath. It was easier to breathe up here above the reeks that coiled and drifted down below. ‘Thank you, Sam,’ he said in a cracked whisper. ‘How far is there to go?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Sam, ‘because I don’t know where we’re going.’
He looked back, and then he looked up; and he was amazed to see how far his last effort had brought him. The Mountain standing ominous and alone had looked taller than it was. Sam saw now that it was less lofty than the high passes of the Ephel Dúath which he and Frodo had scaled. The confused and tumbled shoulders of its great base rose for maybe three thousand feet above the plain, and above them was reared half as high again its tall central cone, like a vast oast or chimney capped with a jagged crater. But already Sam was more than half way up the base, and the plain of Gorgoroth was dim below him, wrapped in fume and shadow. As he looked up he would have given a shout, if his parched throat had allowed him; for amid the rugged humps and shoulders above him he saw plainly a path or road. It climbed like a rising girdle from the west and wound snakelike about the Mountain, until before it went round out of view it reached the foot of the cone upon its eastern side.
Sam could not see the course immediately above him, where it was lowest, for a steep slope went up from where he stood; but he guessed that if he could only struggle on just a little way further up, they would strike this path. A gleam of hope returned to him. They might conquer the Mountain yet. ‘Why, it might have been put there a-purpose!’ he said to himself. ‘If it wasn’t there, I’d have to say I was beaten in the end.’
The path was not put there for the purposes of Sam. He did not know it, but he was looking at Sauron’s Road from Barad-dûr to the Sammath Naur, the Chambers of Fire. Out from the Dark Tower’s huge western gate it came over a deep abyss by a vast bridge of iron, and then passing into the plain it ran for a league between two smoking chasms, and so reached a long sloping causeway that led up on to the Mountain’s eastern side. Thence, turning and encircling all its wide girth from south to north, it climbed at last, high in the upper cone, but still far from the reeking summit, to a dark entrance that gazed back east straight to the Window of the Eye in Sauron’s shadow-mantled fortress. Often blocked or destroyed by the tumults of the Mountain’s furnaces, always that road was repaired and cleaned again by the labours of countless orcs.
So not only did Sauron use the road, he apparently used the road often enough that he wanted it kept clear and usable. One could surmise that Sauron required the road to be maintained for the use of his servants, but that still leaves us with the question of why Sauron wanted a usable road between his fortress and his volcano.
I think one necessary use would be for Sauron to present himself to some of his servants in a physical capacity outside of Barad-dûr. Imagine his followers (especially among Men) assembling in the plains of Gorgoroth below the Sammath Naur and Sauron standing there in some huge form, terrible and dark, summoning the power of the mountain. It would be daunting and could in some ways enhance his well-honed talent for mastering the wills of weaker creatures. Of course, that is almost wholly speculative. Almost, I say, for there are references to belches and smokes from Mount Doom throughout the story. For example, when Boromir interrupts the Council of Elrond to speak of Gondor he says: “…The Nameless Enemy has arisen again. Smoke rises once more from Orodruin that we call Mount Doom. The power of the Black Land grows and we are hard beset…”
When Frodo wore the Ring on Amon Hen, and he sat in the High Seat and beheld a vision of Middle-earth he saw into Mordor itself:
But against Minas Tirith was set another fortress, greater and more strong. Thither, eastward, unwilling his eye was drawn. It passed the ruined bridges of Osgiliath, the grinning gates of Minas Morgul. and the haunted Mountains, and it looked upon Gorgoroth, the valley of terror in the Land of Mordor. Darkness lay there under the Sun. Fire glowed amid the smoke. Mount Doom was burning, and a great reek rising.
In Appendix A Tolkien described how Sauron launched his attack on Gondor at the end of the Second Age:
Therefore, after a time he made war upon the Exiles, before they should take root. Orodruin burst once more into flame, and was named anew in Gondor Amon Amarth, Mount Doom. But Sauron struck too soon, before his own power was rebuilt, whereas the power of Gil-galad had increased in his absence; and in the Last Alliance that was made against him Sauron was overthrown and the One Ring was taken from him…
But why did Sauron need to ignite the fires of Orodruin (Mount Doom)? Was it necessarily to daunt his servants or could there be other uses? Sam may actually have beheld one of those uses when he entered Mordor and looked out upon the mountain:
Sam was looking at Orodruin, the Mountain of Fire. Ever and anon the furnaces far below its ashen cone would grow hot and with a great surging and throbbing pour forth rivers of molten rock from chasms in its sides. Some would flow blazing towards Barad-dûr down great channels; some would wind their way into the stony plain, until they cooled and lay like twisted dragon-shapes vomited from the tormented earth. In such an hour of labour Sam beheld Mount Doom, and the light of it, cut off by the high screen of the Ephel Dúath from those who climbed up the path from the West, now glared against the stark rock faces, so that they seemed to be drenched with blood.
And, of course, Sauron used the mountain to create that huge dark cloud that covered Rohan and Gondor so that his Nazgul would have increased power against their enemies. That Sauron was using the mountain for various purposes seems apparent from the numerous passages that couple its eruptions with Sauron’s activities, such as this section from the appendices:
Turgon followed Turin, but of his time it is chiefly remembered that two years ere his death, Sauron arose again, and declared himself openly; and he re-entered Mordor long prepared for him. Then the Barad-dûr was raised once more, and Mount Doom burst into flame, and the last of the folk of Ithilien fled far away. When Turgon died Saruman took Isengard for his own, and fortified it.
And there is one other passage, found in “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”, where Tolkien writes:
Thus the Exiles of Númenor established their realms in Arnor and in Gondor; but ere many years had passed it became manifest that their enemy, Sauron, had also returned. He came in secret, as has been told, to his ancient kingdom of Mordor beyond the Ephel Dúath, the Mountains of Shadow, and that country marched with Gondor upon the east. There above the valley of Gorgoroth was built his fortress vast and strong, Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower; and there was a fiery mountain in that land that the Elves named Orodruin. Indeed for that reason Sauron had set there his dwelling long before, for he used the fire that welled there from the heart of the earth in his sorceries and in his forging; and in the midst of the Land of Mordor he had fashioned the Ruling Ring. There now he brooded in the dark, until he had wrought for himself a new shape; and it was terrible, for his fair semblance had departed for ever when he was cast into the abyss at the drowning of Númenor. He took up again the great Ring and clothed himself in power; and the malice of the Eye of Sauron few even of the great among Elves and Men could endure.
Now Sauron prepared war against the Eldar and the Men of Westernesse, and the fires of the Mountain were wakened again. Wherefore seeing the smoke of Orodruin from afar, and perceiving that Sauron had returned, the Númenóreans named that mountain anew Amon Amarth, which is Mount Doom…
At this point we can stop looking for it is clear that Sauron was using the mountain in some way to work his power. He not only forged the One Ring there in the middle of the Second Age, he also created that huge cloud at the end of the Third Age. Each time he woke the mountain’s fires he must have used them for some specific purpose. The idea of lava flowing directly into Barad-dûr seems odd, unless you consider that in the same passage where the narrative says Sam and Frodo were unaware of the slave-worked fields to the south there is also a mention of mines and forges in the north. Sauron could certainly have been summoning up molten ores for his armies to use, and perhaps used the mountain’s eruptions for other workings of power. The metal used to forge the great ram named Grond could have come from the mountain, for example.
And Sauron could also have used the mountain’s eruptions to draw forth raw material to be used for constructing Barad-dûr itself. The story leaves much to the imagination of the reader but it would seem that while Sauron dwelt close to the mountain he made extensive use of it. And he may have walked or ridden to the mountain when he needed to be there personally, although the road could have been used mostly by his servants.
# # #
See also:
- Why Did the Fellowship Not Take any Maps with Them?
- Where Did the Old Forest Road in Mirkwood Lead To?
- Where Did Boromir Die in The Lord of the Rings?
- How Many Roads Led Into the Shire?
- Why are There So Few Roads in Middle-earth?
- Do the Rohirrim of Rohan Use Boats?
Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
One can make the assumption from the way Mount Doom erupted after the destruction of the One Ring that the Ring and the Mountain had some connection, perhaps that the Ring controlled the eruptions of the Mountain or that the Ring harnessed the Mountain’s power. We know that Sauron put a large amount of his own personal power into the Ring but perhaps he tapped into the power of Arda itself via the Mountain for increased mastery over the world.
I was thinking along similar lines. When Sam first entered the Sammath Naur, “he drew out once more the phial of Galadriel, but it was pale and cold in his trembling hand and threw no light into that stifling dark. He was come to the heart of the realm of Sauron and the forges of his ancient might, greatest in Middle-earth; all other powers were here subdued” (LR, p. 945).
I had the impression that Mount Doom was a locus of Sauron’s power, perhaps similar in some ways to the Ring (though less powerful). Perhaps Sauron used Mount Doom like a “magic wand,” that is, a material object that was sympathetic to Sauron and which helped him concentrate and focus his power. In that case, the eruptions would have been a by-product, or perhaps a catalyst, to whatever dark sorcery he was performing.
There may have been a connection between the Ring and Mount Doom, though of course Mount Doom erupted both when Sauron had the Ring and when he did not have the Ring.
My thought has always been more along technological lines: A volcano would be the ultimate geothermal power source. Why bother with coal and oil for his furnaces and factories when he had virtually unlimited energy available naturally? Barad-dûr itself almost certainly required a lot of power to run, as would any combined city/industrial center that size, and a dormant volcano would supply it very handily. It wouldn’t take much of Sauron’s inate “power” to bring it to full activity whenever he needed extra energy for something.
He could very well have used it for more exotic purposes as well, including powering the Ring, but I’ve always imagined it as a very large power plant, powering the industries of Mordor.
It should be emphasised that every time Sauron re-occupies Mordor, Mount Doom erupts. That hardly seems coincidental, and while it may be the case that it’s just his way of saying “hey dudes, over here!”, it seems more likely that he’s actually using it for something.
Somewhere in one of the few notes on Sauron’s influence over the East (where he hid himself when he was in retreat from Mordor or Dol Guldur), Tolkien mentions fire as being part of Sauron’s cult practices. So the “daunting of the will” possibility may not wholly be speculation. I’ll try to track down that reference.
Although much of the road from Barad Dur to Sammath Naur may have been used by Sauron’s servants, surely the last stretch up to the entrance into the mountain itself must have been for Sauron’s personal use and perhaps his most trusted and senior lieutenants. Which begs the question, what form did he take, that necessitated a well maintained road? If the shape was a disembodied eye, then obviously a eye-mobile would have been used, a carriage in which the giant optic would be securely strapped into lest it roll out, hauled by…what? Orc power, troll power (bearing in mind the gate mechanism of the Morannon)? If he was a huge, dark giant, maybe he would have had to stoop to gain entry to Sammath Naur – an act not particularly filled with gravitas it has to be said. If a dark cloud, well why would he need a road at all?
And while he was in Sammath Naur, I wonder if Sauron was still in the business of churning out rings of power, which could have recruited the hordes of Easterlings and Southrons in his army?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the lesser rings would be mass-producible, and they wouldn’t have to be powerful to excite a primitive (and some not-so-primitive) leaders. He could very well have made “trinkets” as political gifts.
Gimli’s account at the Council of Elrond confirms this.
“Then about a year ago a messenger came to Dain, but not from Moria – from Mordor: a horseman in the night who called Dain to his gate. The Lord Sauron the Great, so he said, wished for our friendship. Rings he would give for it, such as he gave of old……” (Fellowship of the Ring, The Council of Elrond).
On the idea that Sauron often used the road to sammath naur, -as also put forth in atlas of middle-earth p. 146 (fonstad): A diffrent explanation might be that Sauron just demanded that the road at all times should be accessible, -regardless of actual personal (or servant) use in recent time.
In lack of other information, it´s just as possible that the last time Sauron was on the mountain i person was in the battle of the last alliance.
True, keeping it open could have been a point of pride, more to show his mastery over nature than because he needed the road. “How dare a mere volcano block MY road!”
I think that it is quite interesting that the entrance to Sammath Naur was completely unguarded, so that Frodo, Sam and Gollum could freely enter and their presence there only became obvious when Frodo claimed the Ring as his own. Sauron would have known that Sammath Naur was the only place where the Ring could be unmade and yet he was utterly blind to the fact that someone could have the idea, and will to destroy it. To his mind, possession of the Ring meant using its power and no other possibility occurred to him. If he had been capable of imagining even the remotest chance of its being hurled into the Fire Sauron would have have the entrance securely guarded, but his mind just could not encompass it.
I’ve also been pondering on what use, if any, Sauron made of Sammath Naur after Isildur deprived him of the Ring. It was where he had made it so Sammath Naur must have been a mighty workshop capable of the most powerful craftmanship. I wonder is he shunned it because without the Ring he was not up to to commanding the forces he had previously controlled? Or whether he still visited it to carry out lesser works?
Sauron was not blind. He knew well that here it can be destroyed but he also thought that it’s impossible to reach it for people from outside, and that the power of lust the ring incited is too strong for any will to overcome which in the end turned out true, also the events of War of the Ring and previous search for the Ring had him focus his forces and attention to the outside, if not for Aragorn revealing himself through palantir which hastened entire war campaign then Sauron could possibly concentrate all his force on defense of his land, then even the most stealthy hobbit would have no chance of slipping through.
”For he (Sauron) is very wise and he weighs all things to a nicety on the scales of his malice, but the only measure he knows is desire, desire for power, and so he judges all hearts.”