Q: What Happened to the One Ring While Sauron Was Under Ar-Pharazôn’s Custody?
This question, & its implications, are answered in the ‘Downfall of Numenor’, which is not yet published, but which I cannot set out now. You cannot press the One Ring too hard, for it is of course a mythical feature, even though the world of the tales is conceived in more or less historical terms. The Ring of Sauron is only one of the various mythical treatments of the placing of one’s life, or power, in some external object, which is thus exposed to capture or destruction with disastrous results to oneself. If I were to ‘philosophize’ this myth, or at least the Ring of Sauron, I should say it was a mythical way of representing the truth that potency (or perhaps rather potentiality) if it is to be exercised, and produce results, has to be externalized and so as it were passes, to a greater or less degree, out of one’s direct control. A man who wishes to exert ‘power’ must have subjects, who are not himself. But he then depends on them.
Ar-Pharazôn, as is told in the ‘Downfall’ or Akallabêth, conquered a terrified Sauron’s subjects, not Sauron. Sauron’s personal ‘surrender’ was voluntary and cunning*: he got free transport to Numenor! He naturally had the One Ring, and so very soon dominated the minds and wills of most of the Númenóreans. (I do not think Ar-Pharazôn knew anything about the One Ring. The Elves kept the matter of the Rings very secret, as long as they could. In any case Ar-Pharazôn was not in communication with them. In the Tale of Years III p. 364 you will find hints of the trouble: ‘the Shadow falls on Numenor’. After Tar-Atanamir (an Elvish name) the next name is Ar-Adunakhôr a Númenórean name. See p. 315.2 The change of names went with a complete rejection of the Elffriendship, and of the ‘theological’ teaching the Númenóreans had received from them.)
Sauron was first defeated by a ‘miracle’: a direct action of God the Creator, changing the fashion of the world, when appealed to by Manwë: see III p. 317. Though reduced to ‘a spirit of hatred borne on a dark wind’, I do not think one need boggle at this spirit carrying off the One Ring, upon which his power of dominating minds now largely depended. That Sauron was not himself destroyed in the anger of the One is not my fault: the problem of evil, and its apparent toleration, is a permanent one for all who concern themselves with our world. The indestructibility of spirits with free wills, even by the Creator of them, is also an inevitable feature, if one either believes in their existence, or feigns it in a story.
Sauron was, of course, ‘confounded’ by the disaster, and diminished (having expended enormous energy in the corruption of Númenor). He needed time for his own bodily rehabilitation, and for gaining control over his former subjects. He was attacked by Gil-galad and Elendil before his new domination was fully established.
The nature of the Ainur, including Morgoth and Sauron, was clear to Tolkien but seems to confuse many of his readers. That is because we really don’t have any way to understand what an “angel” is supposed to be. The word angel itself is taken from the Greek word angelos, which is used to describe a messenger or herald. The Greek word was used to translate Hebrew mal’akh, which means more-or-less the same thing. So an Angel is someone fulfilling a role, not a creature of a specific type or species.
Many of the angels described in the Bible bear a resemblance like that of humans, although the Patriarchs and other people who meet them seem to know what they are. Their physical traits are usually not given, except in symbolic language used to describe some dreams and prophecies. It is assumed that the angels may constitute many different types of beings from whom God’s messengers are chosen. In a few passages angels apparently take on terrifying non-human forms, and Tolkien’s description of how the Valar and Maiar could create bodies for themselves (self-incarnate) as “raiment” appears to be an attempt to represent the ambiguity of the physicality of the angels of the Bible.
What the reader should take away from this was that the spirit of an Ainu was extremely powerful compared to that of an Elf, Dwarf, or Human. The Ainur were capable of creating stars and planets, for the Valar gave shape to the universe after they entered Space and Time. Moving mountains or cutting new pathways for rivers was probably not a great task for many of them, at least in their uncorrupted states. The only direct evidence we have for this great power is in the scene where Tolkien describes the end of Sauron as the One Ring is destroyed:
There was a roar and a great confusion of noise. Fires leaped up and licked the roof. The throbbing grew to a great tumult, and the Mountain shook. Sam ran to Frodo and picked him up and carried him out to the door. And there upon the dark threshold of the Sammath Naur, high above the plains of Mordor, such wonder and terror came on him that he stood still forgetting all else, and gazed as one turned to stone.
A brief vision he had of swirling cloud, and in the midst of it towers and battlements, tall as hills, founded upon a mighty mountain-throne above immeasurable pits; great courts and dungeons, eyeless prisons sheer as cliffs, and gaping gates of steel and adamant: and then all passed. Towers fell and mountains slid; walls crumbled and melted, crashing down; vast spires of smoke and spouting steams went billowing up, up, until they toppled like an overwhelming wave, and its wild crest curled and came foaming down upon the land. And then at last over the miles between there came a rumble, rising to a deafening crash and roar; the earth shook, the plain heaved and cracked, and Orodruin reeled. Fire belched from its riven summit. The skies burst into thunder seared with lightning. Down like lashing whips fell a torrent of black rain. And into the heart of the storm, with a cry that pierced all other sounds, tearing the clouds asunder, the Nazgûl came, shooting like flaming bolts, as caught in the fiery ruin of hill and sky they crackled, withered, and went out.
Imagine this happening all over Beleriand for 40+ years as the Valar and Maiar waged the War of Wrath against Morgoth and his creatures, maybe thousands of times. They could unleash a fury upon the world that human minds would find incomprehensible. They had the power to pull up the Earth like children tossing sand and clay.
So when Sauron surrendered himself to Ar-Pharazôn he only pretended to be humbled. He could easily have defeated the Numenoreans no matter how great their numbers. But he wanted a very different kind of victory. He wanted to steal their minds and hearts away from Ilúvatar, corrupting them forever. He also needed to protect the source of his power, for when he made the One Ring he imbued with it with the greater part of his native strength, literally a part of his spirit. This is a matter of speculation on Tolkien’s part, in terms of whether an angelic being could really divide itself into two parts, but there are mythological precedents for such a concept.
As Sauron alone knew about the One Ring he could easily have hidden it from the Numenoreans; or he could have dismissed it as mere adornment that meant little to him. Either way, the Ring enhanced Sauron’s power to influence the minds of other creatures, even to subjugate those minds to his own will, especially when they were in close proximity. So I think it’s doubtful that Ar-Pharazôn would have known about the Ring or cared about it. Sauron used his own fear of death and his arrogance to deceive him and lead him down a path toward self-destruction. I think it’s safe to say that Tolkien would have imagined Sauron always wearing the Ring while he was with the Numenoreans. There would have been no reason for him to take it off.
See also:
- Why Did Saruman Want the One Ring for Himself?
- How Did the One Ring Survive the Downfall of Numenor?
- Shhh! It’s A Secret Ring!
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“So when Sauron surrendered himself to Ar-Pharazôn he only pretended to be humbled. He could easily have defeated the Numenoreans no matter how great their numbers.”
If this is true, and Sauron could have crushed the entire Numenorean Army without breaking a sweat, how was he defeated militarily and physically by the Last Alliance?
We can really only guess at why Sauron was defeated militarily.
Having died once, Sauron had been weakened and perhaps that had something to do with it. After all, Tolkien wrote that he struck too soon. But it may also be that Tolkien felt he would not unleash his full power upon Middle-earth for fear of incurring the wrath of the Valar. We’ll probably never know how he thought this through (or even if he did).
Hi, Michael –
One of the paragraphs you quote above from Tolkien’s letter seems to give us a clue:
“Sauron was, of course, ‘confounded’ by the disaster, and diminished (having expended enormous energy in the corruption of Númenor). He needed time for his own bodily rehabilitation, and for gaining control over his former subjects. He was attacked by Gil-galad and Elendil before his new domination was fully estabatlished.”
So – despite the fact that Sauron possessed the One Ring, he was vulnerable, just as Gandalf was when he fought the Balrog.
Mr. Martinez,
Thank you for your blog. I’ve enjoyed and learnt from your posts. If you had already addressed this question, please forgive and point me to the URL.
Question: Why would Sauron fashion the One Ring, imbue it with some of his powers, and in so doing render himself vulnerable to the very loss of those power when that ring is destroyed?
Thank you.
There is also interesting matter, if the One Ring contains power of all others then maybe the Ring itself can be made unseen like the Three? Galadriel, Elrond and Gandalf it seems could have made their ring invisible and only at times they could be perceived as flash of light by ordinary people (Sam sees only star shining through her fingers and he does not see a ring, only Frodo who has enhanced perception due to One Ring can see it clearly and can understand fellow ringbearer’s mind better). Could Sauron made his ring invisible too ?(or for that matter make himself invisible, well he should already exist within wraith world the Unseen as Ring draws mortals half into it making them invisible, but maybe with effor of will, it seems that also Nazgul before becoming wraiths could ”walk unseen if they would” as if depending on their conscious will). Adding to that fact that Ar-Pharazon could not know anything of it, nor even if knowing could have taken it from him it would make the artifact all the more safe, invisible to all and in the Last Alliance maybe it simply was seen while Sauron was weakened or because he did not order it to be invisible, what do you think?. Isildur claims he gave a finishing blow to Sauron and cut the ring from his body (after Sauron already killed his father and king Gil-Galad getting damaged too in the process it seems, also Cirdan Shipwright and Elrond too were present to witness or maybe even take part in the last combat on slopes of Orodruin after Sauron personally broke the siege leading his forces and drove them away for miles and miles from Barad-dur, whole armies of powerful Noldor and Numenoreans, and dwarves maybe? Did the dwarves took part in siege or only in battle of Dagorlad?).