Q: What Is J.R.R. Tolkien’s Necromancer?
ANSWER: The Necromancer is an off-stage character in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit who is referred to in three chapters during the story: first, when Gandalf, Bilbo, and the Dwarves are discussing the proposed adventure; second, when Gandalf bids farewell to Bilbo and the Dwarves just before they enter Mirkwood; and third, when Gandalf and Bilbo return to Rivendell, where the narrator reveals that Gandalf and other “white wizards” had driven the Necromancer out of Mirkwood.
In October 1937 Stanley Unwin advised J.R.R. Tolkien that “‘a large public’ would be ‘clamouring next year to hear more from you about Hobbits!'” In reply, Tolkien wrote in Letter No. 17:
…if it is true that The Hobbit has come to stay and more will be wanted, I will start the process of thought, and try to get some idea of a theme drawn from this material for treatment in a similar style and for a similar audience — possibly including actual hobbits. My daughter would like something on the Took family. One reader wants fuller details about Gandalf and the Necromancer. But that is too dark – much too much for Richard Hughes’ snag. I am afraid that snag appears in everything; though actually the presence (even if only on the borders) of the terrible is, I believe, what gives this imagined world its verisimilitude….
In The History of The Hobbit, Part One: Mr. Baggins, John Rateliff outlines the evolution of the character of Sauron (who originated as Thú in “Lay of Leithian” but may owe something to an earlier character Tú from a previous story), who was originally fully envisioned as a master of necromancy in the 1925-31 poem about Beren and Luthien. It seems very certain that when Tolkien introduced the character of the Necromancer into the story that he had only Thú/Sauron in mind.
Unwittingly, this casual inclusion of the Necromancer laid down a canonical history for Sauron’s movements that Tolkien integrated into the history of Middle-earth, when he began to fully describe the four ages of the Sun in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien revealed in later letters that some of his readers had written to him asking for more information about the Necromancer, and guessing that the character must feature prominently in any sequel to The Hobbit.
The name Necromancer is a rare inclusion of a borrowing from Old French into Tolkien’s legends. The word is etymologically traced back to an ancient Greek word, nekros (“dead body”). The suffix -mancy is also derived through Old French from ancient Greek manteia, meaning “oracle, divination”.
Tolkien did not devise an Elvish word that translated exactly the meaning of necromancy but many Elvish-English dictionaries give gûl as a suitable translation for the word. The literal meaning of gûl is “magic” or “long study of secret knowledge” but the word became associated with perverted magic or necromancy. The word may refer to use of dead bodies for magic or sorcery or simply sorcery itself. Traditional English literature and poetry appear to use the word necromancy in both precise and vague ways.
Tolkien therefore left the reader’s imagination free to associate whatever they wished with the Necromancer’s practices; he might have something to do with dead bodies, or he might just be a really evil sorceror. In Tolkien’s fully developed backstory for the Necromancer he was in truth the fallen Maia (angel) known as Sauron or Gorthaur, who had been a loyal servant and principal lieutenant of Morgoth and who subsequently took up rule over evil creatures in Middle-earth after Morgoth was defeated. Sauron had a history of conjuring or enslaving phantoms and other creatures such as vampires and were-wolves. He was called a “sorceror” but in reality his power was something other than mere magic.
It is widely anticipated that Peter Jackson’s two-part film adaptation of The Hobbit will include substantial plotting that concerns Sauron/the Necromancer and Gandalf’s journey to join the White Council before a decision is made about what to do concerning the Necromancer of southern Mirkwood.
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