Of the Lady's Star-glass...

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Here's a question, though. If there was something about Mt. Doom that gave it some sort of special potency against the forces of 'good', why didn't Sauron, or more likely Morgoth, have made use of it sooner? The indication from the Tale of Years is that there was nothing really notable about the land of Mordor before Sauron made it his primary realm in the Second Age, aside from the volcano.

This tangent interests me more than the first part of your post, Zil, so I'm going to selfishly pursue it alone--though you made good points there (better ones, in my opinion, in terms of counter-argument with my theory than what I already addressed in my last post... but that's just me).

Anyway, this question intrigues me because it allows for a whole lot more speculation. The fact of the matter is that we don't know a whole lot about what went on in the First Age in Eriador, Rhovannion, Harad, Rhûn--or anywhere other than Beleriand. To go back to those much-favoured essays in "Myths Transformed," the comment is made that:

Originally Posted by Essay VII

...the whole of Middle-earth was Morgoth's Ring, though temporarily his attention was mainly upon the North-West

Later, in the same essay, Tolkien adds:

Originally Posted by Essay VII

If we consider the situation after the escape of Morgoth and the reëstablishment of his abode in Middle-earth, we shall see that the heroic Noldor were the best possible weapon with which to keep Morgoth at bay, virtually besieged, and at any rate fully occupied on the northern fringe of Middle-earth, without provoking him to a frenzy of nihilistic destruction.

[i]--emphasis mine

And again, shortly after,

Originally Posted by Essay VII

Morgoth though locally triumphant had neglected most of Middle-earth during the war.

(As an aside--I'm obviously a big fan of this essay)

My point in quoting here is that there is a twofold reason we do not see Morgoth or Sauron making any use of Orodruin prior to ca. 1000 S.A. Firstly, as noted, we don't see much action outside of Beleriand. Secondly, and equally importantly, Morgoth's attention was focused on Beleriand. If Orodruin had some sort of special "power"--that is to say, if there were a plan on Morgoth's part to it having a special power (rather than, say, having a vein of gold or some other especially susceptible element foaming in its lava), then this would probably date back to prehistory, of which the Silmarillion is really just a brief account, in which what Morgoth does is mediated through the Valar through the Elves.

It is quite possible, to my mind, that prior to the war between Melkor and the Valar that occurred after the Awakening and Discover of the Elves, that Orodruin was used or was being prepared for something--Melkor had sway over all Middle-earth, if he wanted--but was then left "dormant" (not in the volcanic sense but in the diabolic sense) when he was taken captive for three ages to Valinor, and then never reclaimed when he returned to Middle-earth and focused his attention on the war in Beleriand.

As for Sauron... why then did he take 1000 years to decide to move to Mordor? Well... that should be somewhat obvious from a glance at the Silmarillion: Sauron simply wasn't ready to start making himself into the next Dark Lord. He was also driven away into hiding by the defeat of Morgoth and the overthrow of Thangorodrim, and Sauron was never one to move out into the open before his plans were laid and well underway. I think it's more noteworthy that rather than being seen as 1000 year wait, it is significant that the first thing that Sauron did in the Second Age worth mentioning is his establishment of himself in Mordor.