Q: What Could Gil-galad and Elendil Have Done If They Captured Sauron?
ANSWER: Readers sometimes submit long, multi-part questions or they ask several unrelated questions per submission. While I welcome all questions, I can’t promise to answer all your questions in one article. The following question was submitted with a couple of others in March 2018.
Many of your articles talk about the Maiar conspicuously veiling their potentially devastating innate power, after the War of Wrath. Even Sauron seems to have obeyed this age-old decree or rule. In Peter Jackson’s first LoTR film, Sauron in his “black knight” incarnation is seen to display a shocking burst of Maiaric power, scattering the Alliance soldiers in a shockwave while essentially unveiling his cloaked power. My question: In the Tolkien’s original vision, during the War of the Last Alliance, how did Alliance leaders envision capturing or destroying Sauron, when it seems like he always had this Maiaric trump card to play? Even if all the Dark Lord’s soldiers were decimated, couldn’t he at the last display his destructive Maiaric powers and wipe out the opposition? Did Gil-galad and Elendil hope to counter this ability (surely they must have been aware they were up against a demi-god, essentiailly) with anti-Maiaric properties of the weapon-artifacts they carried?
Well, we can begin with a few facts.
- Sauron had been captured three times before.
- First, he was captured by Huan and Luthien.
- Second, he was captured by or surrendered to Eönwë.
- Third, he surrendered to Ar-Pharazôn after his armies deserted him.
- Tolkien suggests Sauron took Gil-galad and Elendil by surprise on Orodruin.
- Sauron needed to spend many years in Númenor before he corrupted most of the Númenoreans.
i’ll concede here that people don’t agree on how that final battle between Sauron and (Gil-galad and Elendil) unfolded. I’ve addressed that question previously (see the reference links given below). Still, we know that Sauron was adverse to the idea of dying. He surrendered to Luthien when Huan had all but ripped out his throat (this detail being carried forward by Christopher Tolkien from his father’s older, pre-LoTR writings). He apparently stopped fighting the Host of Valinor before he was slain along with most of Morgoth’s other Maiaric servants. And during the Third Age he stayed as far away from his enemies as he possibly could (having been so greatly weakened by his second death he needed a thousand years to take shape again). Sauron was first and foremost a survivor, in my opinion.
Gil-galad had to be among the most powerful of the Eldar living in Middle-earth at the time of the War of the Last Alliance. He ancient, more than 3,000 years old, and had had plenty of time to develop his skills as an elvish sorcerer. He would have been tutored by the most ancient surviving Eldar in Middle-earth as well, including many Noldor, some of whom may have lived in Valinor. He would also have surrounded himself with the most powerful Elvish captains and sorcerers. I suspect that had J.R.R. Tolkien finished revising the history of Middle-earth he would have placed Galadriel somewhere in the vicinity of Gil-galad’s camp, if not actually close enough to have witnessed the struggle. Elrond and Cirdan could still be the only immediate witnesses and survivors.
I think when you consider the sheer magnitude of Elvish will and “magic” he had on his side, Gil-galad had a very full deck. Sauron could not have assumed he’d win in a direct confrontation with the Lords of the Eldar. For his part, book-Sauron counted on the One Ring magnifying his will and his power to subdue and control other wills. While it did magnify his natural abilities, he never tried to use his full Maiaric strength. Even when his armies burned the forests of Minhiriath during the War of the Elves and Sauron, I get the impression they did it the old fashioned way, perhaps aided by some Sauronic winds.
If Sauron were to unleash his full power against the inhabitants of Middle-earth then why wouldn’t the Valar intercede directly? Even the most ancient Elves would have been incapable of dealing with such power. In one post-LoTR essay Tolkien says that Glorfindel, after he returned to life, may have been as powerful as some lesser Maiar. But Sauron had started out as one of the most powerful among the Maiar and the One Ring enhanced his native abilities. I don’t think even Glorfindel could have defeated Sauron in a power-versus-power confrontation. According to “Lay of Leithian” Sauron was able to defeat Finrod in a contest of “songs of power”. He only lost to Huan because he took the shape of a great wolf. He didn’t use the same strategy against Huan and Huan was just the better “dog fighter”.
So I think, given all of the above. Gil-galad would have been faced with an impossible choice. He either had to take Sauron prisoner or capture him. The first step was to deprive Sauron of his armies. After that, the war had to be concluded quickly before Sauron could corrupt new servants. If Gil-galad could have captured Sauron then I think he could have appealed to the Valar to come deal with the problem. Or he could have tried to take the Ring from Sauron so it could be destroyed. And I suppose the easiest way to do that would be to execute Sauron the same way Manwë and Namo supposedly executed Morgoth.
On the other hand, because we know that Sauron feared death Gil-galad probably stood a good chance of killing him. Or, if not Gil-galad then someone else. In the final event it was Elendil who struck the mortal blow that defeated Sauron. Isildur cut the Ring from Sauron’s finger, preventing him from taking the Ring away and forming a new body. So we know that even mortal men could have killed Sauron because they did.
I don’t think Gil-galad and his allies had to worry much about Sauron playing the Maiaric trump card. Sauron had to win on the same level as the Children of Ilúvatar or risk facing the wrath of the Valar. They would have little reason to hold back if Sauron unleashed his full power upon Middle-earth.
But there is another possible explanation, too. In his thoughtful post-LoTR essays, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that as Time passed the Valar became less able to take direct action in the world. Their actions were restricted by the approach of the End, sort of like walking down a tunnel that grows narrower as you move through it. By that logic Sauron’s actions would have been similarly restricted. Maybe by the end of the Second Age it was a moot point for both Sauron and the Valar, and he had to win the war as if he was no more capable than the Incarnates he sought to dominate.
Peter Jackson wrote three prologues for the films. As I understand the history of the films, Peter wrote a prologue for his original concept and then abandoned the idea. During my correspondence with the team at Weta we discussed some of the Second Age events. They told me that Peter had decided to write a new prologue based on that discussion. But some time later he changed his mind and abandoned the prologue. Then, according to some articles I’ve read, he showed the nearly completed film to executives from New Line Cinema who insisted he put a prologue in. So Peter quickly came up with the prologue we see in the movie. It had to be written, programmed (using their CGI software, including the Massive program that made the detailed mass armies possible), and integrated into the final film. Sauron’s explosive assaults on the Alliance troops may have been the most expeditious way to convey the point that he was extremely powerful and not to be taken lightly. I think the scene succeeds in that respect. But don’t forget that Isildur, a man, was the one who struck the fatal blow. Even movie-Sauron could have been taken down.
Book-Sauron was more subtle, but Tolkien could afford to make him more subtle than his movie counterpart. Tolkien had a canvas of details stretching across thousands of years to work with. Sauron was always playing a long game. His first priority was to stay alive. Hie second priority was to leverage his enemies’ weaknesses against them. I just don’t think book-Sauron would ever have wielded mayhem and destruction the way movie-Sauron did. I think J.R.R. Tolkien knew he could take his time and develop Sauron into a coldly calculating string-pulling off-stage villain. He created a lot of suspense and maintained it all the way to the end of the story by not showing anything more than mere glimpses of Sauron.
See Also …
- How Did Gil-galad and Elendil Stand Against Sauron?
- Why Did Isildur Cut the Ring from Sauron’s Body?
- The Sauron Strategies: Footsteps Into Failure (Essay archive, Oct 13, 2001)
- The Sauron Strategies: One War to Win Them All, Except … (Essay archive, Oct 20, 2001)
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
What’s your take on the section from “The Revision to the Lay of Leithan in the Beren and Luthien book published in 2-17? Specifically the following section?
“Danger he sought and death pursued
And thus escape the doom he wooed,
And deeds of breathless daring wrought
Alone, of which the rumour brought
New hope to many a broken man.
They whispered ‘Beren’ and began
In secret swords to whet, and soft
By shrouded hearts at evening oft
Songs they would sing of Beren’s bow,
of Dagmor his sword: how he would go
Silent to camps and slay the chief,
Or trapped in his hiding past belief
Would slip away, and under night
By mist or moon, or by the light
Of open day would come again.
Of hunters hunted, slayers slain
They sang, of Gorgol the Butcher hewn
Of ambush in Ladros, fire in Drun,
Of thirty in one battle dead,
Of wolves that yelped like curs and fled,
yea, Sauron himself with wound in hand.
Thus one alone filled all that land
with fear and death for Morgoth’s folk.”
Which seems to imply that Beren alone and unaided wounded Sauron and forced him to retreat, possibly in the same werewolf form that lost out to Huan. And while very exceptional for a human, Beren is at the end of the day, just a human without the sort of supernal power that even most Elves possess, let alone an Ainu.
The text is consistent with the story of Elendil striking the mortal blow. As powerful as Morgoth was, he was afraid to engage in personal combat with the Elves. Fingolfin managed to wound him a few times (although by then Morgoth was greatly diminished). I think Tolkien’s point was that if the Ainur embodied themselves they became vulnerable according to the laws of physics. Even Sauron at the height of his individual power, before he died in Númenor, probably could have been slain in battle.
It’s tempting to say that Ar-Pharazôn had the means and opportunity to kill and weaken Sauron. He wouldn’t have ended the problem (knowing nothing of the Ring and how it anchored Sauron’s spirit) but Ar-Pharazôn might have succumbed to it as Isildur eventually. Númenor’s downfall could have been effected by a ring desperate to return to Sauron, although the story would have to unfold differently.
It’s important to remember and note the self-contradicting, mythological style of much of the “older” content.
I don’t think either would have had much intent to capture Sauron, to be honest. Gilgalad obviously knew of Sauron’s deceit from earlier in the Second Age, whereas Elendil had more recent first-hand experience of the kind of things that happen when you capture Sauron.
On the other hand it’s evident that the leaders of the Last Alliance, or at the very least the Keepers of the Three, knew what needed to be done to destroy the One. Because that is, after all, what Elrond and Cirdan had tried to get Isildur to do.
So no, capture and long term imprisonment could not have been considered. Destruction of the One must have been the objective, but how was that to be achieved? I don’t know, and I consider it probable that the Last Alliance didn’t have a clear plan either. It seems to me that taking the One from Sauron by force would immediately corrupt the taker.
Whatever way it was done, I think things would have played out not much different, or possibly even worse, than what actually happened. Sauron would have been killed, or executed, or the One would be otherwise taken by force, the taker would have been corrupted much the same way as Isildur was, and depending who the taker was the Third Age could have ended up with a new Dark Lord.
Depressing, but I don’t see any other outcome.
A consistent and underlying theme of Arda is that everything is decaying. The world is withering away and approaching “the end” as you describe it, particularly for the eldest beings. The Elves are dying out or fleeing Middle-earth, the Maiar are dwindling, the Valar have declined. The glory days as it were are long over. That to me explains why Sauron, despite being considerably more powerful than anything else in Middle-earth, couldn’t use his full power, as far as that goes. Though as an unapologetic supporter of Melkor and Sauron’s struggle, I’d like to think the Dagor Dagorath and End of Times will see that full power brought back to fruition.
More likely the leaders of the Last Alliance had no clear plan how to deal with Sauron himself. They had to defeat his very real and physical, vast armies first. Also considering the amount of destructive power Gandalf could unleash it’s not hard to imagine that Sauron could have done so as well, and we must note that even enhanced Gandalf the White claimed “black is mightier still” and this was Sauron at the end of Third Age. It’s also curious note that in Isildur’s scrolls is written:
“The Ring misseth, maybe, the heat of Sauron’s hand, which was black and yet burned like fire, and so Gil-galad was destroyed…”
This seems to imply that Sauron used his power to incinerate Gil-galad in a fiery grapple :). Also the arrival of Sauron on the field personally fighting broke the siege and drove the armies at least 20 miles away, so that must mean that Sauron and his remnant of troops caused quite a stir, Sauron aiding his troops with his own power could mean also that he was additionally investing his power which paradoxically could allow for his easier defeat because he would have to pour his strength into supporting his forces (not to mention Sauron wasn’t yet recovered completely wasn’t still in top shape so to speak since the fall of Numenor).