Sauron's lack of Death...

[shadowfax]

Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba

It seems an odd thing, doesn't it? They spend all this time and effort to destroy the ring, they go through war and hardship and in the end, no death blow is dealt to the enemy. Now, this probably has a lot to do with the fact that Sauron probably can't 'die', being a Miar.

I can't remember the exact quote, but at the Council of Elrond, Elrond says something about solving the problems of now, and that future generations will have to solve their own problems.

In the absence of Melkor, Sauron was in a way Satan incarnate. You cannot utterly destroy evil in this world, you can defeat it for a while but it will come back and hence every generation must be on its guard. There is thus no "war to end all war". I therefore believe that Tolkien intentionally left open a possibility by which Sauron could survive and one day return.

Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba

However, I still think it is an interesting point. So often in an adventure of this kind (evil tyrant seeks to destroy / take over world), the antagonist is killed by the hero. This is another way in which The Lord of the Rings differs itself from many others.
I can't help referencing The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe wherein the White Witch is ultimately killed by Aslan.

Is she though? In Prince Caspain we overhear a conversation in Aslan's How (??) where some of the evil creatures talk about bringing back the White Witch and saying a true witch never really dies.

Possibily the Green Lady from The Silver Chair is Jadis.

It is said that she is "of the same kind" as Jadis but this doesn't make sense since in the Magician's Nephew only Jadis entered Narnia and no others of her kind came with her.