[Em]

Good point.
In appenix A in the return of the king, it says 'they believed that saurond had perished, but it was not so. Sauron was indeed caught in the wreck of Numenor, so that the bodily form in which he long had walked perished; but he fled back to middle-earth, a sprirt of hatred borne upon a dark wind. He was unable ever again to assume a form that seemed fair to men, but became black and hideous, and his power thereafter was though terror alone.'
I remember hearing that someone advised Tolkien not to have a bad guy whom you hardly ever see, but, being the rebel that he was, Tolkien did. and i think that it worked really well. i mean, if you saw sauron 'in the flesh' as it were, then i think it would diminish alot of his power, but to have him as an, ever-seeking, can-see-through-everything eye!!! i think works really well.