Q: Why Did Isildur Cut the Ring from Sauron’s Body?
Both of those variations are, I believe, inspired by the prologue to “The Fellowship of the Ring” (the movie, the first of the Peter Jackson films). The movie prologue has a strange history and I don’t recall all the details off the top of my head. It is a puzzling bit of story-telling but I think part of the confusion arises from the way the prologue came about. If I recall correctly, Peter originally composed some sort of very different prologue and then changed his mind. At some point during my discussions with people at the studio they said Peter had read one of my emails and rewrote the prologue. But some years later, perhaps when the DvD was about to come out, I read that Peter had decided to drop that second prologue and only added a new prologue (the one we see in the movie) at the request of New Line Cinema a few weeks before the movie was released.
For that reason I’ve tried to shy away from discussing the movie prologue in detail because I’m not sure Peter Jackson ever produced a prologue he was happy with.
All that said, there are two versions of the account of Isildur’s cutting the One Ring from Sauron’s body. Tolkien’s account is vague. He doesn’t explain where, exactly, Isildur and Sauron were when that happened. But what he does seem to say is that Sauron was already dead when Isildur took the Ring. In the movie prologue, it is Isildur’s sword-stroke that slices the Ring from Sauron’s hand, causing him to die by explosion. The film death of Sauron is very dramatic and everyone was impressed with how he ended.
But the movies included some additional footage, inserted later into the story. Elrond (Hugo Weaving) recounts for Gandalf (Ian McKellen) how he had urged Isildur to throw the Ring into the Cracks of Doom, and Isildur refused to do so. That has always seemed to me to be a very plausible dramatization of Tolkien’s story about Isildur and the Ring.
But neither the book nor the movie answer a question: What happened to Sauron’s body? Yes, in the movie he explodes. But did the explosion obliterate every last piece of Sauron’s armor and physical being? What about the section of finger that Isildur had sliced off? It seems to me that Pieces of Sauron would become valued relics among his followers.
For that reason, I think that Elrond, Cirdan, and Isildur must have been faced with a problem after Sauron’s defeat: what to do with his body. If you think about it, no matter how complete Sauron’s military defeat was at the end of the Second Age, there had to be some of his followers left somewhere in Middle-earth. And, in fact, the histories bear out that fact. Orcs ambushed Isildur’s 200 Númenoreans as they marched back toward Rivendell. And other evil creatures survived elsewhere, too. Hence, it was vital that no trace of Sauron remain anywhere in Middle-earth.
And for that reason I believe (but cannot prove in any way) that Tolkien envisioned that Elrond, Cirdan, and Isildur (and perhaps Thranduil and Amroth for good measure) must have sent or conveyed Sauron’s body to the Fire. The Sammath Naur might have been the only place where they could reasonably dispose of Sauron’s remains. Sure, Sauron could have turned to ash on the battlefield. There is some precedent for that in the stories. But if you assume that they had to dispose of Sauron’s body then Isildur’s decision makes a little bit more sense.
Imagine a debate there on the slopes of Mount Doom. Gil-galad and Elendil are dead, but Sauron has been slain as well. The surviving leaders of the Last Alliance gather together to decide what to do next. Elrond knew what the One Ring was. Cirdan probably knew as well. It’s not clear whether Thranduil and Amroth would have known all along. In my 2001 essay Shhh! It’s a Secret Ring I speculated that the Elves never told the Kings of Númenor about the One Ring. But Gil-galad apparently revealed the truth to Elendil.
The answer must lie in the days of Elendil and Gil-galad, when they first put together their great alliance. Tolkien wrote very little about what actually happened, but we know that Sauron attacked Gondor and took Minas Ithil. Isildur escaped with his wife and sons. Anarion fortified Anduin and held off Sauron’s forces while Isildur sailed to Arnor. There Isildur consulted with Elendil and Elendil in turn consulted with Gil-galad.
Up until this time, we can be sure, the fullest knowledge of the Rings of Power was limited to only the Elves. But how much did they know in general? Did just any old Elf know there were Rings of Power, or was the knowledge confined only to a select group? Well, there are no facts to answer these questions. That is, no Tolkien essay or note has yet been published which explains how the knowledge of the Rings spread. Elrond told the people at his council the full history of the Rings. “A part of his tale was known to some there, but the full tale to none,” Tolkien writes in “The Council of Elrond”.
That seems remarkable. Didn’t even Gandalf know the full history of the Rings? Well, Gandalf didn’t go in for Ring lore until Bilbo came along, so maybe he was still playing catch-up. But one gets the impression that Elrond’s story was labelled “Top Secret, Need To Know, and YOU don’t need to know!” except for him, Galadriel, and Cirdan (and maybe Celeborn, but everyone knows he was an outsider).
I used to joke that Isildur must have dashed up the hill to cut the Ring from Sauron’s finger in a peevish act of revenge, but I think Tolkien’s idea of how things went would be more somber. The Last Alliance hadn’t just won the war: they had taken possession of the Ring. I think it’s reasonable to argue that Sauron’s body did not turn to ash when he died, because Isildur cut the ring from his finger. What if there was a brief discussion about what to do next? Elrond would surely have advocated destroying the Ring, as he did in the movie. In that short time, however, the Ring would be able to appeal to Isildur’s emotionally disturbed mind. He had just lost his father and become King of the Dunedain-in-Exile. The Ring’s appeal to ambition might work on his feelings quickly, at least to claim it as a weregild for his brother and father (Anarion had died the year before).
So I think Isildur cut the Ring off Sauron’s hand after it was decided to destroy his body. They had to toss Sauron’s remains into the Fire. There would have been nowhere else they could take it. They would not want to give it an honorable burial. And if any of Sauron’s servants were still alive in the vicinity they didn’t need to see his body. Finally, the leaders of the Alliance must have already guessed that Sauron had died in the Downfall of Númenor. They would know he’d come back as long as the Ring existed. So throwing the body and Ring into the Fire would be the only solution.
Finally, it’s doubtful that anyone other than Elrond and Cirdan knew about this until Isildur revealed his prize to his oldest son. Elrond specifically stated no one else was close by. So I think the sequence of events went something like this:
- Sauron attacked Gil-galad on Mount Doom, slaying Gil-galad
- Elendil attacked Sauron, mortally wounding him
- Sauron retaliated against Elendil, slaying him
- Elrond, Cirdan, and Isildur came up as Sauron died
- The three leaders agreed they had to destroy Sauron’s body
- Isildur succumbed to the Ring and took it
- Sauron’s body was cast into the Fire
At this point the stage is set for the next phase of the story. Maybe Cirdan and Elrond told their captains and advisers what became of the Ring, but wouldn’t that have sparked a debate among the Elves? Perhaps they decided to keep Isildur’s secret to preserve the peace. Maybe they hoped to find a way to persuade Isildur to destroy the Ring later. But Isildur took the Ring north and lost it in the Anduin.
It may be no coincidence that Tolkien had Sauron first appear near Amon Lanc, which was close to the Gladden Fields where the Ring was lost. Sauron’s spirit may have come close to reconnecting with the Ring, closer than Tolkien made clear. But Sauron assumed the Ring had been destroyed and so he didn’t search for it (not for another two thousand years, when it was too late).
If this is indeed what Tolkien imagined, then the scenario answers another reader question I have occasionally come across: Did Sauron re-animate his old body or did he literally create a new one? I think Tolkien makes it clear that Sauron created a wholly new body after his first one was destroyed in the Downfall of Númenor. Hence, it makes sense that he made a third and final body after he finally regained his composure around Third Age year 1000. If his old body had been destroyed then there would be no way for him to know that the Ring had been taken from him.
By the time Gollum tells Frodo and Sam that Sauron has only nine fingers, it’s well-established that Sauron knows the Ring survived after all. He may have changed his humanoid shape to reflect that missing finger in anticipation of being rejoined with the Ring.
As for Isildur, he didn’t cut the Ring off Sauron’s hand to ensure that the Enemy was dead. I think he took the Ring solely because he had already fallen under its power. His grief must have been strong for the Ring’s influence to overwhelm him so quickly. And unlike Frodo, who had carried the Ring for years and fought against its demonic will for months, Isildur lacked the practice he would have needed to resist the Ring’s powerful temptation at a critical moment.
See also:
# # #
Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
The simple answer to the question seems to me to be a need to separate the object into which Sauron “let a great part of his own former power pass” from his physical form–a matter of disarming the Enemy at its most basic.
That would seem a prudent move. Now I wish even more that Tolkien had elaborated on what happened.
“That seems remarkable. Didn’t even Gandalf know the full history of the Rings?”
Remarkable indeed because Cirdan thought it was acceptable to give him one of the Rings of power without telling him all about it.
It’s also somewhat interesting that guys like Elrond knew of the One Ring, were happy to use one of the Three but weren’t at all tempted to go for the One Ring.
Galadriel had the big scene where she needs to conquer her own temptation before the Ring relents. Was the Ring interested in changing ownership to Galadriel? The Ring didn’t seem to faze Elrond even at the Council.
I think it could be argued that Elrond had already faced that test 3,000 years before. But it does seem like an oversight on Tolkien’s part not to explain how Elrond was so confirmed in his resistance to the One Ring by the time Frodo brought it to Rivendell.
This is a dangerous moment in Middle earth history.
It is beyond anyone’s will power to destroy the ring, including Elrond and Cirdan.
What if Elrond tries to take the ring?
What if Elrond tries to force Isildur to destroy the ring?
What if Isildur offers the ring to Elrond?
All of those events could be disastrous.
Who could stop Elrond from being the tyrant of Middle earth?
I thought Sauron’s body was destroyed when Númenor was drowned. His form was spirit held together by the power of the One ring. So, no ring, no body just spirit. The powers of Elendil and Gil-galad defeated him, but he was still form until the ring was removed.
The vagaries of language are such that in all my readings of LoTR, I never seriously considered the possibility that Sauron’s body lay dead on the battlefield when Isildur cut the finger from the Enemy’s hand. As Elrond related at the Council,
“I beheld the last combat on the slopes of Orodruin, where Gil-galad died, and Elendil fell, and Narsil broke beneath him; but Sauron himself was overthrown…”
“Overthrown?” Why not a less ambiguous term like “slain” or “lay lifeless?” Perhaps he didn’t want to be too specific about an Ainur’s nature, just a few chapters prior to Gandalf’s encounter with the Balrog?
My impression of Sauron’s condition long pre-dates the Peter Jackson version, but his was at least consistent with mine, so my own reading was reinforced. The idea that Sauron would have to endure the humiliation of defeat and the physical pain of the loss of his finger (and ring) seems just, and adds a poetic symmetry to Frodo’s later injury. The act of separation would shatter the bond that kept his physical form alive.
But the notion that Sauron’s body already lay dead on those volcanic slopes, his spirit already fled, is at least as valid. And it never occurred to me that it would be important to dispose of the corpse, though it certainly seems an obvious necessity in hindsight.
This line of thought raises an obliquely related question (for Michael) that may be worthy of future discussion:
What circumstances drew Sauron from the protection of his Tower and into direct combat with Gil-galad, Elendil, et al? Even if the years-long battle had finally destroyed all Sauron’s forces, would Sauron (like Saruman in later years) ever need to leave his impregnable fortress? What motive would he have to stand and fight? Did all these great lords of Elves and Men offer themselves as bait to draw him out, offering him the temptation of last-ditch victory if he could destroy them?
That’s a good question. I’ve always wondered why he would not just flee to another part of Middle-earth. I think Tolkien had a reason in mind but I don’t know if I could compose an article around the question. I’ll have to let this one gestate for a while. Which seems to be what happens with all these questions. I’ve still got over 40 emails waiting to be answered (assuming I didn’t misfile any) and an unknown number of comments to draw upon. 🙂
As said by Elrond the last combat took place on slopes of Mount Doom, which means that when Sauron came forth to battle he definitely broke the siege of Barad-dur personally leading the remnants of his forces (so that’s at least 20 miles distance going by the map?). I guess it was a last resort for him. Sauron would have been furious how the war followed and how he was forced to be besieged in his fortress even if he was completely safe there as the Last Alliance had no means to enter (not to mention that this siege caused serious losses for the allied Numenoreans and Elves). He probably hoped that with the Ring he would be powerful enough to deal with the enemy alliance sweep them up and destroy, that is until the heroic leaders, no slouches when it comes to combat faced him. Gil-galad, if to believe Isildur’s scroll would have been incinerated by Sauron (“the Ring misseth maybe the heat of Sauron’s hand which was black and yet burned like fire”) so there might have been no elf king body to bury in more drastic case, as for Sauron’s body, well I guess it could have been quite a lot like with Saruman’s case:
“To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.
Frodo looked down at the body with pity and horror, for as he looked it seemed that long years of death were suddenly revealed in it, and it shrank, and the shrivelled face became rags of skin upon a hideous skull. Lifting up the skirt of the dirty cloak that sprawled beside it, he covered it over, and turned away.”
This could mean that Sauron’s body also…dissolved (though it could have left material objects like clothing/armor pieces, etc.). What’s interesting is that Isildur actually claimed that HE dealt the killing blow to Sauron:
“The Ruling Ring passed out of the knowledge even of the Wise in that age; yet it was not unmade. For Isildur would not surrender it to Elrond and Círdan who stood by. They counselled him to cast it into the fire of Orodruin nigh at hand, in which it had been forged, so that it should perish, and the power of Sauron be for ever diminished, and he should remain only as a shadow of malice in the wilderness. But Isildur refused this counsel, saying: ‘This I will have as were-gild for my father’s death, and my brothers. Was it not I that dealt the Enemy his death-blow?’ And the Ring that he held seemed to him exceedingly fair to look on; and he would not suffer it to be destroyed.” The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
Would that be accurate portrayal of events? I don’t know, it might have been that Gil-galad and Elendil were strong enough to severely damage Sauron physical form (doing most of the difficult job in some sort of super epic long drawn multi opponents duel or whatnot) though were both killed before truly finishing the job, Sauron was for a moment incapacitated or overwhelmed but still not yet ‘dead’ and Isildur then might have sliced him, and then cut the Ring as the body would start to dissipate. Cirdan and Elrond and Isildur were all present at the place together with Elendil and elvenking Gil-galad, so it could have been actual heat of battle or separated skirmish, if the siege was broken by awesome Sauron power, then many allied soldiers and warriors would be dead, dispersed, forced to ‘strategic retreat’, maybe chaos was in the ranks and Sauron was desperately trying to use the situation for his advantage.
Also it nice to mention that Tolkien in letter considered that Sauron wasn’t yet in top shape, throughout this conflict in a letter he wrote:
“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.”
As for Dark Lord’s servants and armies, well it was written somewhere that after War of the Last Alliance those who survived dispersed and fled to the east, including Ringwraiths. I think it was somewhere in The Unfinished Tales notes? (also some remnants of Orcs and other creatures would remain in Mordor after all the Gondor’s watch would have to guard against something from inside not only guard against something entering back :))