Q: What did Sauron Use the Sammath Naur for?
ANSWER: This will undoubtedly be one of those questions where despite my quoting the book, people will say I am only speculating. I anticipate such accusations because of one word. I’ll get to that below.
In April 2020 I received the following very interesting question:
What did Sauron use the Sammath Naur for, aside from making the One Ring? The Lord of the Rings says that there was a well-maintained road (i.e., Sauron’s Road) between Barad-dur and the Sammath Naur. Specifically, it says that the road was “repaired and cleared again by the labours of countless orcs” (LR VI.3). But why was [it so] important to Sauron that he have easy access to the Cracks of Doom? Was it a place for him to create and renew magical enchantments?
Let me quote the full paragraph here:
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.
And there is one more passage I want to quote:
Sam came to the gaping mouth and peered in. It was dark and hot, and a deep rumbling shook the air. ‘Frodo! Master!’ he called. There was no answer. For a moment he stood, his heart beating with wild fears, and then he plunged in. A shadow followed him.
At first he could see nothing. In his great need 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. Fearfully he took a few uncertain steps in the dark, and then all at once there came a flash of red that leaped upward, and smote the high black roof. Then Sam saw that he was in a long cave or tunnel that bored into the Mountain’s smoking cone. But only a short way ahead its floor and the walls on either side were cloven by a great fissure, out of which the red glare came, now leaping up, now dying down into darkness; and all the while far below there was a rumour and a trouble as of great engines throbbing and labouring.
First, let me point out that the road though ancient may only have been tended since Sauron’s return to Mordor. So it would have been less than 100 years old. I’m not sure that is significant in any way, but it was obviously not a “magical” road in the sense that it was maintained by Sauron’s will or power.
In the last citation I provide, Tolkien uses the words “forges” and “engines” to describe the Sammath Naur. The road led to a Maiaric workshop. It wasn’t merely some great cliff hovering above a massive lava flow. Tolkien provides us with a couple of clues about what Sauron did there. The narrative even strongly suggests that Sam could hear a lot of smithing work going on.
And there is a little more information in The Peoples of Middle-earth, the 12th and last volume in The History of Middle-earth:
900. – Sauron begins in secret to build the fortress of Baraddur in Mordor, and makes the forges of Orodruin.
…
900. Sauron in secret begins the building of the fortress, Barad-dur, in Mordor, and makes there the forges of Orodruin, the Mountain of Fire. But he professes great friendship with the Eldar, and especially with those of Eregion, who were great in smith-craft.
And let me provide one more quote from The Lord of the Rings:
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.
Tolkien’s words imply repeatedly that Sammath Naur played a role in a great industrial process. Orodruin wasn’t simply a volcano. It was a volcano that Sauron had converted into a massive foundry and workshop. And the narrative also says that he didn’t create Orodruin. It was originally one of Melkor’s workshops (Added on edit:See the comments below the article where I cite Note 14 from “Glorfindel” in The Peoples of Middle-earth – In retrospect I don’t think it was a workshop; I misread the text while researching this article).
To say that Melkor and Sauron worked “magic” there is an oversimplification in my opinion. Sauron, at least, used the volcano as a great furnace to heat his forges (Added on edit: Or the “furnaces” were the “forges”. See Jack’s comment below). Now, I have no idea of how much Tolkien knew about industrial processing, smelting of ores, forging of metals, and such but I suspect he had more than a passing familiarity with the meanings of these words.
Some people may feel that Tolkien was writing metaphorically but there is no indication in these texts that he meant for readers to see something other than Sauron’s tools in “forges” and “furnaces”.
It also makes sense considering that many people ask why the One Ring could only be unmade in Orodruin’s fires. Weren’t there other volcanoes in Middle-earth? What was so special about that place?
I recall a random, casual discussion long ago (and I may have included this in one of my old essays) speculating that Sauron may have imbued the volcano with his power, making it hotter and bending it to his will. That seems a plausible way to explain why only Orodruin’s fires would do.
Technically, the forging process consists of shaping the hot metal (Added on edit: So I understand the words. But see Jack’s comment below). The metal is heated in the furnace. So Sauron’s workshop must have consisted of at least 3 sections: the lava flow (the engine providing the heat), the furnaces (where the metals Sauron worked would be heated), and the forges (where he would shape the hot metals).
But what would he make there besides the One Ring?
The largest forged object described in the story is Grond, the massive ram that Sauron’s army used to break the gates of Minas Tirith. The narrative doesn’t say where it was forged, so it could have been built in Minas Morgul for all we know.
But there is at least one iron structure in Mordor, according to the book:
So foot by foot, like small grey insects, they crept up the slope. They came to the path and found that it was broad, paved with broken rubble and beaten ash. Frodo clambered on to it, and then moved as if by some compulsion he turned slowly to face the East. Far off the shadows of Sauron hung; but torn by some gust of wind out of the world, or else moved by some great disquiet within, the mantling clouds swirled, and for a moment drew aside; and then he saw, rising black, blacker and darker than the vast shades amid which it stood, the cruel pinnacles and iron crown of the topmost tower of Barad-dûr…
One should not forget the iron gate of the Morannon, either.
The book doesn’t say that Sauron forged the iron tower and gate in Orodruin, but it makes sense that if he was using iron as a construction material he would have needed a large forge nearby. Why speculate there must have been yet another forge when the story clearly says there was one or more inside the mountain?
I think Tolkien provided very clear and explicit clues toward the kinds of things Sauron needed forges for. He built large, massive things out of iron; and his soldiers were armed and armored with iron. Orodruin had a ready source of heat and “forges” – so why would Sauron need to set up another massive workshop somewhere else in Mordor?
Mythological Influences Should Not be Overlooked
Many people identify Aulë with Vulcan or Haephaestus, the Greco-Roman god who was the blacksmith of Olympus. Sauron’s use of a volcano for his smithing work is therefore appropriate.
Orodruin also served as a connection to Melkor’s old underworld, which originally consisted of many fortresses spread across the world. Thangorodrim was the last of those fortresses, but Orodruin was apparently one of his workshops. The mountain would have provided Sauron with a connection to his old master in the Second Age, when he claimed to be an emissary of Melkor, and in the Third Age, when he claimed to be Morgoth returned.
Hence, Tolkien seems to have drawn on both external and story-internal mythologies for Orodruin’s inspiration. It wasn’t simply a random volcano. It was a very special volcano, darkly hallowed by Melkor and used by Sauron.
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It occurs to me to wonder what Sauron was doing in there when he decided to come out and challenge Gil-Galad and the others. The text shows that the final conflict took place on the slopes of Mount Doom, near the place it was forged, hence the debate over throwing the Ring into the fire. So how come Sauron left Barad-Dur, where he was pretty secure, and nipped over to his forge? Did he have to get some other weapon, or special armour, from there? I suppose it’s something that Tolkien never thought needed explaining.
I too suspect, the volcano must have been used as workshop of some kind. But as for heating any other forges with the heat or lava from Orodruin, wouldn’t there have been some tubes or channels leading away? Shouldn’t there be slaves working day and night, since Sauron’s got a war running? Yet he emptied the land towards the Black Gate, not even leaving a skeleton crew behind?
Therefore I believe the Sammath Naur were solely used as a “magical workshop”, some science or research lab, just used when the war allows it. Lacking the strength provided by the Ring, Sauron wouldn’t have the leisure to be there, being busy controlling his armies. This could explain the lack of slave-workers and/or guards, which surely would be placed, apart from the mountain being secure deep inside Mordor. I don’t believe Sauron would trust any of his slaves or Orcs.
The text doesn’t mention any equipment such as you describe. It only says that Sam heard distant noises that sounded like a lot of people were working. Maybe they were natural sounds. Maybe the workshops were out of his sight.
The narrative only tells this part of the story from Sam’s point of view. Tolkien very rarely breaks away from the characters’ points of view to explain anything to the reader. So we are left to wonder or guess whether there were workshops in there or not.
I think Tolkien meant for readers to infer that there was activity down there. But no one would be wrong to disagree with me.
Wow, this is really good research. Thanks!
Hey, quick bit of pedantry from a blacksmith. Your tri-partite explanation of lava flow, furnace and forge, doesn’t ring true for me.
Forge and a furnace are functionally equivalent. Or more correctly, a forge is a furnace used by a smith for heating metal that will be beaten to shape.
‘Furnace’ in the text probably means casting furnace, where metal is melted to be poured into a mold.
Yes, forge can also refer to an entire workshop but then you’re talking about a much smaller operation.
I have amended the article to point people to your comment. Thanks.
There’s also more explicit confirmation in Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age: “…there was a fiery mountain in that land that the Elves named Orod-ruin. 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…”
I definitely believe Grond was forged there; reading the description makes it seem certain: “Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor … on it spells of ruin lay.”
“…and all the while far below there was a rumour and a trouble as of great engines throbbing and labouring.”
I have to align myself with those who think Tolkien was writing metaphorically. “As of,” is a simile, a comparison describing the sounds emanating from the Mountain. An author can easily be more direct if necessary, eg., ‘…and all the while far below there was the rumour and trouble of great engines throbbing and labouring.’ Yes, one or two words can make all the difference, and words do count.
In the passages describing the forges and workshops of Orthanc, JRRT was quite direct. Why be otherwise regarding Sammath Naur? Yet Orthanc was also Saruman’s imitation of Sauron’s ‘industry.’ If not at Orodruin, then where?
Gorgoroth was a desecrated land, and as written in Book Six, II – The Land of Shadow, “…As far as their eyes could reach, along the skirts of the Morgai and away southward, there were camps, some of tents, some ordered like small towns…” “…like some huge nest of insects, with straight dreary streets of huts and long low drab buildings…” and most pertinent, “…here in the northward regions were the mines and forges…”
Had Sammath Naur been an active armory during a period of peak military activity the area around the Mountain would not have been desolate. Even if every warrior had been sent north, slave laborers and their minders would have still been at work or waiting at the ready; just as at the edge of the Morgai there would be sheds and barracks, cisterns, and a network of roads headed in more directions than to/from Barad-dûr. Whatever Saruman was imitating at Orthanc, it doesn’t seem likely to be the unpeopled immediate vicinity of Orodruin.
Then there’s, “…forges of his ancient might.” Not his current might. I’ve always taken that to mean, ‘the place where he made the Rings.’
The only contemporaneous product of the Mountain that is directly mentioned is the smoke/shadow that cast a pall over Gondor during the Siege of Minas Tirith. Might Sauron have come to the Mountain via that road in order to conjur that cloud? It seems quite plausible (although I’ve always assumed he commanded it from the comfort of Barad-dûr).
Maybe he did forge massive iron objects there that his minions could not, but again, manufacture on that scale leaves more evidence than a single road and a tunnel. Tolkien knew quite well from his youth in Birmingham the massive infrastructure required for such endeavor.
The forging of Rings does not require the same industrial scale – a workshop rather than a factory. He might require huge amounts of heat/power to forge such Rings, but that seems something to be channeled, in the case of a Maia, with metaphysical powers rather than mechanical.
I’ve always interpreted the maintenance of the road to Sammath Naur as indicative of that place’s personal importance to Sauron. His Forge of Old, where he might still (or perhaps only after regaining The One) tap into that heat and power – a concentrated remnant of the power that Melkor invested into Middle-earth.
Not that there’s textual support, but what if Sauron periodically returned to his workshop of old to stoke his personal fires, the way lesser beings warm their spirits by a hearth, campfire, or sun-drenched beach. Sauron’s Maia Cave, if you will? As Isildur wrote (and Gandalf quoted during the Council of Elrond), “…The Ring misseth, maybe, the heat of Sauron’s hand, which was black and yet burned like fire, and so Gil-galad was destroyed…” It seems natural for such a being to crave the heat and raw power of a volcano when he feels the need to “refresh and recharge.”
Looking through Tolkien’s usages of “as of” in LotR, I’d say it’s 50/50. There are definitely times where he uses it as a simile, but there are also plenty of times where he uses it as a literal description of something that’s not yet been fully revealed (to us or to the characters). So for example a sound as of bells tinkling on Asfaloth’s headstall turns out to be just that: bells.
There’s also the longstanding debate about whether the Balrog in Moria literally had wings. One passage states, “the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings,” which to me implies that the “wings” were really just a giant shadow. But a few lines later it says, “it drew itself up to a great height, and its wings were spread from wall to wall” (LR II.5). If the wings were really just a shadow, it seems like the passage should have read, “and the shadow spread from wall to wall.”
I think there’s often a surreal aspect to Tolkien’s writing, where he’s being deliberately unclear what is literally real and what is not.
That text gets twisted out of proportion every time the debate resurges. They are “wings” made of darkness/shadowstuff/whatever. They’re not fleshy wings. They are there because the Balrog manipulates that darkness to create a daunting, frightful shape. I think “surreal” is the best word to describe the effect it was trying to achieve. People forget that the balrog was a creature of flame and shadow. It wasn’t housed in a normal animal body.
Good point. I guess my point is that Tolkien might have been deliberately ambiguous as to whether Sam literally heard the sound of “great engines” while he was in the Sammath Naur.
The text describes regular lava flows from Oroduin, some channelled, some not.
That indicates that even Sauron couldn’t totally control or predict the actions of the volcano (perhaps he didn’t want to), and so makes the immediate surrounds a very dangerous and unpredictable place to station labourers, slaves or soldiers.
Of course Sauron had no real concern for the safety of his subjects, but on a logistical level he’d understand the need not to waste his ‘assets’ unnecessarily.
I think therefore that it’s very plausible the area would be desolate (apart from a well-maintained road) even if it was an active armoury.
I think that sauron could have forged Morgul daggers in Sammath Naur.
I dont think that the Nazguls had the power to forge the daggers.
I think the Witchkings flaming sword is another possibility.
Where does Tolkein say Orodruin was also utilized by Melkor? I’m not disagreeing (it makes sense to me) just curious.
The reference is found in Note 14, attached to the “Glorfindel” essay from the “Last Writings” section in THE PEOPLES OF MIDDLE-EARTH (the 12th and last volume of THE HISTORY OF MIDDLE-EARTH). It was probably a mistake for me to call it one of Melkor’s workshops.
14. No doubt because Gil-galad had by then discovered that Sauron was busy in Eregion, but had secretly begun the making of a stronghold in Mordor. (Maybe already an Elvish name for that region, because of its volcano Orodruin and its eruptions – which were not made by Sauron but were a relic of the devastating works of Melkor in the long First Age.)
Ahh. Thanks for the reply, I think I remember that note now.