A little note on Sauron

[Mat_Heathertoes]

I don't know if we're assuming that the later the quote the more definitive it is but there is another interesting quote regarding Thû (as I prefer to call him).

Letter 183 entitled 'Notes on WH Auden's review of "The Return of the King"' c.1956

In my story I do not deal in Absolute Evil. I do not think there is such a thing, since that is Zero. I do not think that at any rate any 'rational being' is wholly evil. Satan fell. In my myth Morgoth fell before Creation of the physical world. In my story Sauron represents as near an approach to the wholly evil will as is possible. He had gone the way of all tyrants; beginning well, at least on the level that while desiring to order all things according to his own wisdom he still at first considered the (economic) well-being of other inhabitants of the Earth. But he went further than human tyrants in pride and the lust for domination, being in origin an immortal (angelic) spirit.* In The Lord of the Rings the conflict is not basically about 'freedom', though that is naturally involved. It is about God, and His sole right to divine honour. The Eldar and the Númenóreans believed in The One, the true God, and held worship of any other person an abomination. Sauron desired to be a God-King, and was held to be this by his servants;† if he had been victorious he would have demanded divine honour from all rational creatures and absolute temporal power over the whole world.

*Of the same kind as Gandalf and Saruman, but of a far higher order.

†By a triple treachery: 1. Because of his admiration of Strength he had become a follower of Morgoth and fell with him down into the depths of evil, becoming his chief agent in Middle Earth. 2. When Morgoth was defeated by the Valar finally he forsook his allegiance; but out of fear only; he did not present himself to the Valar or sue for pardon, and remained in Middle Earth. 3. When he found how greatly his knowledge was admired by all other rational creatures and how easy it was to influence them, his pride became boundless. By the end of the Second Age he assumed the position of Morgoth's representative. By the end of the Third Age (though actually much weaker than before) he claimed to Morgoth returned.

The titles of 'God-King' and 'Morgoth Returned' that Tolkien states seem to depict Sauron and his intentions as far more malevolent than say, an overlord or even a 'supreme lord' of the peoples of Middle Earth. Is it that the two statements contradict each other in that the quote from Morgoth's Ring does not appear to assert that like Melkor, Sauron wished to replace Eru in the minds of those peoples he conquered, if indeed they had even heard of The One, or the Valar?

[ March 01, 2002: Message edited by: Mat_Heathertoes ]