A Face-palm for Sauron - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Fordim Hedgethistle · 08-04-2009, 11:31 AM

Lurking through the thread for a few days now as I admit this is something of a puzzle I'd never considered before (thanks Inziladun). And it's come to me that I've been misunderstanding Sauron all along. He does not have mastery over the Ring but has been mastered by it just like Gollum, Isildur, Frodo, Bilbo and everyone else who comes into contact with it (imagined or otherwise: e.g. Gandalf and Galadriel). Now, I know he's the Master of the Ring but that's a title which I think means he is the maker and 'proper' holder of the Ring but he's clearly not the master of it in the way that Tom Bombadil is master.

How'd I get to this? Because it's clear to me that the Ring has fooled Sauron as badly as it fools everyone else. Sauron obviously thought that the Ring could be destroyed and he would remain potent--he was even still able to control the Nazgul and he thought the Ring was destroyed; he was clearly not seeing very clearly if he thought he could, alone and naked, control the Nine when the One was undone. He believed, quite foolishly, that he was in charge and that it was his will alone and unsupported that was ordering events. This is the seductive whispering of the Ring: that you can use its power to fulfil your will and not its own. We see it time and again, promising people the fulfilment of their will, cloaked in the promise that they will be master, not-mastered (Boromir can save Minas Tirith and be a Captain, Gollum can have fish served to him all day and be The Gollum, Bilbo can outlive any other Hobbit, Sam can be the Gardener of Middle-Earth (and tangentially I would add a mystery I've thought of many times here on the Downs...what does the Ring offer Frodo? We are never told...)).

So now I'm wondering if some part of Sauron might have even been grateful to Frodo after the destruction of the Ring. Gandalf says that nothing was created evil and to me, at least, it's pretty clear that nobody is entirely beyond redemption. So in that moment when the Ring is gone, and Sauron realises the full extent of his folly to have believed that he was master when all along he'd been slave, is it impossible to imagine some small shred of him remembering the light of Valinor and feeling gratitude to the hobbits who have saved him???

08-04-2009, 11:31 AM	#18
Fordim Hedgethistle Gibbering Gibbet Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Beyond cloud nine Posts: 1,844	Lurking through the thread for a few days now as I admit this is something of a puzzle I'd never considered before (thanks Inziladun). And it's come to me that I've been misunderstanding Sauron all along. He does not have mastery over the Ring but has been mastered by it just like Gollum, Isildur, Frodo, Bilbo and everyone else who comes into contact with it (imagined or otherwise: e.g. Gandalf and Galadriel). Now, I know he's the Master of the Ring but that's a title which I think means he is the maker and 'proper' holder of the Ring but he's clearly not the master of it in the way that Tom Bombadil is master. How'd I get to this? Because it's clear to me that the Ring has fooled Sauron as badly as it fools everyone else. Sauron obviously thought that the Ring could be destroyed and he would remain potent--he was even still able to control the Nazgul and he thought the Ring was destroyed; he was clearly not seeing very clearly if he thought he could, alone and naked, control the Nine when the One was undone. He believed, quite foolishly, that he was in charge and that it was his will alone and unsupported that was ordering events. This is the seductive whispering of the Ring: that you can use its power to fulfil your will and not its own. We see it time and again, promising people the fulfilment of their will, cloaked in the promise that they will be master, not-mastered (Boromir can save Minas Tirith and be a Captain, Gollum can have fish served to him all day and be The Gollum, Bilbo can outlive any other Hobbit, Sam can be the Gardener of Middle-Earth (and tangentially I would add a mystery I've thought of many times here on the Downs...what does the Ring offer Frodo? We are never told...)). So now I'm wondering if some part of Sauron might have even been grateful to Frodo after the destruction of the Ring. Gandalf says that nothing was created evil and to me, at least, it's pretty clear that nobody is entirely beyond redemption. So in that moment when the Ring is gone, and Sauron realises the full extent of his folly to have believed that he was master when all along he'd been slave, is it impossible to imagine some small shred of him remembering the light of Valinor and feeling gratitude to the hobbits who have saved him??? __________________ Scribbling scrabbling.