Dol Guldur's destruction. Why Galadriel succeeds where the White Council fails.

[News from Bree]

Several strongholds of elves and men are besieged while Frodo and Sam are trudging laboriously through Mordor to Mount Doom. In particular, Lothlórien repels three such assaults before Galadriel and Celeborn finally lead a counter-offensive against Dol Guldur.

"...the assaults were driven back; and when the Shadow passed, Celeborn came forth and led the host of Lórien over Anduin in many boats. They took Dol Guldur, and Galadriel threw down its walls and laid bare its pits, and the forest was cleansed." Appendix B, Lord of the Rings.

That last sentence has often puzzled; people wonder exactly how Galadriel might have accomplished such a task. More, why is she doing now what ought to have been accomplished when the White Council drove Sauron from Dol Guldur years before?

The parallels with Luthien's destruction of Tol-in-Gaurhoth​

Conveniently, the tale of Beren and Lúthien offers some guidance: after Lúthien rescues Beren from the captivity of Sauron at Tol-in-Gaurhoth, she puts forth her power to accomplish exactly the same feat.

"Then Lúthien stood upon the bridge, and declared her power: and the spell was loosed that bound stone to stone, and the gates were thrown down, and the walls opened, and the pits laid bare; and many thralls and captives came forth in wonder and dismay, shielding their eyes against the pale moon light, for they had lain long in the darkness of Sauron." Of Beren and Lúthien, The Silmarillion.

The trick is that in this instance Lúthien's power derives from the mastery of the tower that she had just wrenched from the defeated Sauron.

Christopher Tolkien confirms as much in his commentary on the Tale of Tinúviel in the second Book of Lost Tales. CJRT draws a clear thread from the Silmarillion version back to the proto-tale which describes how Tinúviel and Huan, the Captain of Dogs, extract from Tevildo the Lord of Cats (a kind of proto-Sauron) the words of magic that bind the stones of Tevildo's tower together. Tinúviel then uses these words to reduce the fortress to rubble.

"So it was that in the end that weariness and hunger and fear prevailed upon that proud cat, a prince in the service of Melko, to reveal ... the spell that Melko had entrusted to him; and those were the words of magic whereby the stones of his evil house were held together." The Book of Lost Tales Volume II, The Tale of Tinúviel.

CJRT also adds:

"...since my father did not actually say there (in the Silmarillion) that Sauron told Lúthien what the words were, only that he 'yielded himself', one may miss the significance of what happened". The Book of Lost Tales Volume II, The Tale of Tinúviel.

Following this line of logic, I believe it's not entirely out of the question that in defeating the forces of Dol Guldur, Galadriel compelled a similar mastery from Sauron's chosen lieutenant. Then, with the secrets of Dol Guldur in hand, she was able to destroy it in a way that the White council was unable to accomplish in TA 2941.

The White Council's brief respite​

The conclusion is that the White Council's assault of TA 2941 only delivers a temporary respite from the Shadow. As it says in the Silmarillion, "and Mirkwood for a brief while (emphasis mine) was made wholesome again".

Sauron's minions are not permanently driven out. They are not even driven away for that long: only 10 years later, three Nazgûl return to Dol Guldur at their master's behest and "reoccupy" the fortress.

Several decades later during the War of the Ring, Haldir speaks of Dol Guldur to Frodo.

"'There lies the fastness of Southern Mirkwood,' said Haldir. 'It is clad in a forest of dark fir, where the trees strive one against another and their branches rot and wither. In the midst upon a stony height stands Dol Guldur, where long the hidden Enemy had his dwelling. We fear that now it is inhabited again, and with power sevenfold. A black cloud lies often over it of late.'" The Lord of the Rings, Lothlórien.

Whatever the White Council destroyed has not only been rebuilt, but reinforced.

Built on sorcerous powers?​

My conclusion is that some residual power embedded in Dol Guldur during its construction prevented the White Council from doing its work completely.

We can immediately eliminate the Ring from our calculations. Unlike Barad-dûr, Dol Guldur can in no way be underpinned with its power. Dol Guldur wasn't founded until 1050 or 1100 of the Third Age -- more than a thousand years after Sauron lost the Ring to Isildur.

This is evident in the respective fates of each:

Once the Ring is itself destroyed, the underpinnings of Barad-dûr are gone and the whole edifice collapses in on itself.

Dol Guldur, because it is not constructed in the same way, survives a little longer until Galadriel finally puts an end to it.

What are the other possibilities then?

* Sauron. The Dark Lord invests a power other than the Ring's power into Dol Guldur. Sauron needed no Ring to corrupt Felagund's tower on Tol Sirion during the First Age and transform it into Tol-in-Gaurhoth. He might have done the same again in creating Dol Guldur. But would this imbued power survive Sauron's demise?
* The Nazgûl. Perhaps they used their own sorcery to establish Dol Guldur's strength. The Ringwraiths do seem to generally precede Sauron's return. They certainly pave the way for his return to Mordor. I suspect this is more likely, but their leader, the Witch King, is destroyed at the Pelennor Fields, and the others do not survive their master. In this aspect it features the same problem as above.

Who was in charge?​

Neither of seem to provide a complete solution. What of some other long-lived sorcerous lieutenant, then?

If you're thinking that no human lieutenant -- even a Black Numenorean -- could be so long lived as to have been involved in the original construction of Dol Guldur, you're right. Dol Guldur is almost 2,000 years old.

Even our standard for Black Numenoreans, the Mouth of Sauron, only entered the service of Mordor "when the dark tower first rose again". His age is, at best, around the same as Aragorn. That's probably being optimistic too.

Even Mouth of Sauron was almost certainly too young to have been in charge of laying the foundation stones of Dol Guldur's second incarnation (after the White Council assault), let alone its first one all those years ago. It's out of the question.

Still, we do know the Mouth of Sauron became a powerful and feared sorceror in his own right. Dol Guldur might have been left in the command of a renegade like the Mouth of Sauron. That Minas Morgul had its own probably non-Nazgûl lieutenant (Gothmog) provides limited support for this.

And this, combined with Lúthien's illustration that this sorcerous mastery can be yielded or ceded, might present one possible solution to our puzzle.

Although it's almost unimaginable that Sauron would cede any of his power voluntarily, the Nazgûl would at the order of their master. Tolkien notes that they are "quite incapable of acting against his will".

One possible scenario​

So, I suggest this scenario:

The Nazgûl establish Dol Guldur in the early Third age, using their sorcery to create a stronghold for Sauron and pave the way for his return.

Almost two thousand years later the White Council drives Sauron from Dol Guldur. They are only able to superficially demolish the fortress because its sorcerous nature resists their efforts.

When Dol Guldur is re-occupied in 2951, Sauron sends three Nazgûl. He places Khamûl the Easterling in command of the fortress and its strength is rebuilt. This much is fact as it is recorded in Unfinished Tales.

During the War of the Ring, the Witch King is destroyed at Pelennor Fields. It's a grievous blow against Sauron. At his bidding, Khamûl yields the mastery of Dol Guldur to its Black Numenorean lieutenant in order to become the new Black Captain. He then joins his fellow Ringwraiths at the Morannon to watch the approach of Aragorn's army.

After the overthrow of Sauron and the destruction of the Ring, Celeborn destroys the host of Dol Guldur and Galadriel wrests the mastery of the tower from its commander and razes it once and for all.

For sure, there are some leaps of logic here. So let's consider whether there are more prosaic reasons why the White Council might have left Dol Guldur able to be rebuilt.

* Phyrric victory. Phyrrus, the Greek king of Epirus won some legendary battles against the Romans, but suffered extraordinary losses at the same time and was unable to capitalise on his advantage. But there's no indication this was the case for the White Council -- Sauron effectively abandoned Dol Guldur, giving way before the advance of the Council's forces.
* Treachery. We know that Saruman at this point was working to obtain the Ring for himself. A smart (read Machiavellian) Saruman would do just enough to drive Sauron away from the Gladden Fields, but not so much as to tip the balance too far in the White Council's favour. Thus Saruman might subtly impede the destruction of Dol Guldur. It's a good alternate explanation if all this magic is too much for you.

Demosthenes has been an incredibly nerdy staff member at TheOneRing.net since 2001. The views (and wacky theories) in this article are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of other TORn staff.

 

[Otaku-sempai]

The Council was determined to drive Sauron from Dol Guldur (and capture him, if possible?). Their goal was not to destroy the stronghold; Gandalf and Saruman, particularly, probably wanted to search the place for any secrets that Sauron left behind. Another consideration might have been to free and heal any prisoners that were found. Galadriel, during the War of the Ring, had no such concerns.

 

[squire]

The best answer presented to this rather artificial question is that Saruman advised his colleagues that the Necromancer would never return and the site could be left as is, abandoned, etc., etc. We have some support from this in other mentions of Saruman's attempts to deflect the rest of the Wise from interfering in his attempts to locate Sauron's ring.

I say 'artificial' because there's no hint in the books that the White Council debated whether to destroy the Necromancer's stronghold at the time of the events of The Hobbit. There's certainly no suggestion that they tried to do so, as the terms consistently used in LotR are re-occupied and re-inhabited, implying that the White Council had left the site deserted rather than damaged. We might think it logical that they should have been more thorough, but Tolkien never goes there. Indeed, when one follows the trail of clues from book to book to appendix to unpublished ephemera, one notices that he tries his best to say as little as possible about the entire affair of Sauron's presence in The Hobbit. Every mention of the matter only adds to a fundamental weakness of the plot of The Lord of the Rings, when read in the context of the preceding adventure: why didn't The Wise wise up to the nature of Bilbo's Ring, and Sauron's return, sooner than the year of Bilbo's long-expected party?

Clearly Galadriel's destruction of Dol Guldur at the close of the War of the Ring draws on Luthien's performance in the earlier tale. But 'draws on' is not the same as 'matches in every detail'. I would argue that we have no basis in the texts for judging what degree of knowledge or magic Galadriel might have needed to accomplish her destruction: in our imaginations, without any help from the author, interrogation of some conveniently alive and talkative prisoner could as easily be replaced by discovery of the eldritch parchment containing the spell, or some other horcrux thingie in the sub-basement, etc., etc. As I read it, Tolkien is simply demonstrating for the final time Galadriel's great power for good before she declines and goes into the West. The text doesn't suggest she needed help so I never before imagined that she did. (The more relevant question has been debated here in the past, and in associated discussions on the Hobbit movie board in the run-up to the films: when did the Elven Rings lose their power in relation to the destruction of the One? In other words, was Galadriel's demolition of Dol Guldur enabled by wielding her Ring, or not?)

 

[Elizabeth]

That explains how she was able to do it. As for why the White Council didn't destroy it earlier, I think the simple answer is that, with Sauron driven out, it didn't seem necessary.

 

[Brethil]

"...the assaults were driven back; and when the Shadow passed, Celeborn came forth and led the host of Lórien over Anduin in many boats. They took Dol Guldur, and Galadriel threw down its walls and laid bare its pits, and the forest was cleansed." Appendix B, Lord of the Rings.

That last sentence has often puzzled; people wonder exactly how Galadriel might have accomplished such a task. More, why is she doing now what ought to have been accomplished when the White Council drove Sauron from Dol Guldur years before?

An interesting question indeed. You put together an intriguing theory.

I consulted with Letters on JRRT's standpoint on both Galadriel and the use of 'magic':
"...I suppose that , for the purposes of the tale, some would say there is a latent distinction such as once was called the distinction between magia and goeteia. [The English form Goety is defined in the O.E.D. as 'witchcraft or magic performed by the invocation and employment of evil spirits; necromancy.] Galadriel speaks of the 'deceits of the Enemy'. Well enough, but magia could be, was, held good (per se), and goeteia bad. Neither is, in this tale, good or bad (per se), but only by motive or purpose or use. Both sides use both, with different motives. The supremely bad motive is (for this tale, since it is specially about it) domination of other 'free' wills. The Enemy's operations are by no means all goetic deceits, but 'magic' that produces real effects in the physical world. But his magia he uses to bulldoze both people and things, and his goeteia to terrify and subjugate. Their magia the Elves and Gandalf use (sparingly): a magia, producing real results (like a fire in a wet faggot) for specific beneficent purposes. (Bold by me)

So here is a suggestion that Elves and the Istari (as potential magia users) have the power to produce some real results in the physical world (up to 'bulldozing'), granted they use it sparingly; as later in the same Letter JRRT writes "But the magia might not be easy to come by, and at any rate if you have command of abundant slave-labour or machinery (often only the same thing concealed), it may be as quick or quick enough to push mountains over, wreck forests, or build pyramids by such means." And this explains both the physical mechanism and rationale for the "sparing" use of magia: it isn't an abundant resource, proportionally less abundant and convenient than raising a slave-army to knock down a forest.

He continues by saying "Of course another factor comes in, a moral or pathological one: the tyrants lose sight of objects, become cruel , and like smashing, hurting, and defiling as such. It would no doubt be possible to defend poor Lotho's introduction of more efficient mills; but not of Sharkey's and Sandyman's use of them." So it is in the magia-users best interest not to overuse the inherent power available in the real world, even when it is accessible, unless there is a pressing, appropriate and life-affirming need. So perhaps an analogy would be to use just enough for need, and not enough for greed. Suggesting again that the 'sparing' nature of the power is of a spiritual issue, and that overuse crosses into the realm of tyranny (ie: a loose parallel of Galadriel having taken the Ring, and become a beautiful and terrible Queen.)

In Letter #131 JRRt also refers to Elf-magic's "...object is Art not Power, sub-creation not domination." So that perhaps we can see the throwing down of walls and laying bare the pits of Dol Goldur not as a breaking but as a return to what was, a sub-creation (and return to) of the natural world that existed before the tyrannical blight arose.

So in summing up these points I think it points to Galadriel, as the last of the great Firstborn in ME, having inherent power to, in times of great and non-dominating need, exert a physical and real-world force, one that achieves the sub-creation goal of Elvenkind as described in The Silmarillion and Letters.. This stands, I believe, completely secondary to her use of Nenya. Indeed as Nenya's power is a passive time-stop in defying decay, in preserving things unstained, I do not see that its use in 'throwing down the walls' would apply. Only afterwards, in a way to preserve what is done, would that power potentially be relevant; so the question of the duration of Nenya's power after the One is gone I think is not a primary issue here. Is there a parallel here for Luthien's work? In that both are mighty Firstborn imbued with the mandate of sub-creation - yes. In the mechanisms of how they achieve their goals, I see more of a practical method (speaking the discovered unbinding words) in Luthien's time versus Galadriel's; is their mechanism the same? Very possibly, as we intimately know the power of song and verse in the JRRT universe. It is difficult to fully conclude as we have a description of Luthien's technical approach and we lack that in Galadriel's.

We next have the question of: why now? Why not do a more complete job in 2941? I believe part of the statement in Appendices B might point the way: "After the fall of the Dark Tower and the passing of Sauron the shadow was lifted from the hearts of all who opposed him, but fear and despair fell on his servants and allies." So in the post-Fall period we have both a lessening of the strength of the opposition and a heartening of the forces of Good. In addition I think post-Fall the distraction of Saruman is removed, as his artifices in 2941 surely clouded the issue, and even though he finally agrees to move against Dol Goldur his primary focus being the search of the Gladden Fields probably caused a disunity of purpose in the Council which was not fully realized until after the devices of Saruman were made clear (your point about Treachery! I believe is absolutely spot-on here.) In short though I tend to believe that it was not an inherent strength of Dol Goldur so much as a weakness on part of the Free Folk at the various points of conflict that finally shifted to their ultimate advantage after the Fall of Sauron.

Your other points about the leaderships stages of Dol Goldur are simply a pleasure to read and speculate about! I intend to follow up on the fate of Khamal; because I would very much like to know who was master of Dol Goldur at the time of the successful post-Fall rout.

Thanks for a wonderful discussion topic Demosthenes! [angelic]

 

[CuriousG]

Thanks for a great article, Demos. Leaps of logic? Oh, but those are never made on TORN, never!

But my own view is that did the White Council even need to destroy Dol Guldur, or did they just need to drive Sauron out of it? I think it was the latter. And they succeeded in making Mirkwood a better place as a result, so it seemed they didn't need the tower destroyed.

Was it really of strategic importance? Finrod's Minas Tirith controlled a very narrow and strategic valley for entering Beleriand. I suppose Dol Guldur, if heavily occupied, could have harassed travel and trade on the Anduin, though it seems there was none. It could and did harass Lorien, but only in the time of the War of the Ring. I guess I think any hill with a tower on it can be a good base, but not a strategic one, and lacking strategic value and a good commander, Dol Guldur didn't need to be toppled. And since the White Council wasn't going to occupy that part of Mirkwood, it could have been easily rebuilt anyway.

I've never seen a description of HOW the White Council drove out Sauron. Did they hold hands and chant a spell? What were the devices that Saruman introduced to them to use? Did they stand at the base of Dol Guldur, or were they safely gathered in Lorien and projecting their power across the river? Was their magic physical in nature, or psychic?

I tend to think the latter, that somehow they released a psychic storm that drove out Sauron and didn't really affect anything physical, or if it did, it was collateral damage.

But still a well-constructed argument, even if I look at it differently. Thanks for giving us lembas for thought.