He Who Must Be Named

[Hasuwandil]

So, it's been over a week with no news, unless you count this. It's August already, and we have no official confirmation of any location or casting decisions. Is there actually going to be any filming this year, or none at all until principal photography starts next year?

In the meantime, I've been giving some thought to our principal antagonist. He seems to have had a number of aliases:

Mairon (Quenya, "the admirable") - Apparently his original name as a Maia of Aulë. I believe I've also read that he preferred this (or Tar-Mairon) as his name during the Second Age.
Gorthaur (Sindarin, "dread" + "detestable, abhorrent, abominable") - A name given to him by Elves in Beleriand during the First Age.
Annatar (Quenya, "Lord of Gifts") - A name he used when appearing to the Elves of Eregion between S.A. 1200 and 1600.
Aulendil (Quenya, "friend (or servant) of Aulë") - A name he used when appearing to the Elves of Eregion between S.A. 1200 and 1600.
Artano (Quenya, "high/noble smith") - A name he used when appearing to the Elves of Eregion between S.A. 1200 and 1600.
Sauron (Quenya, "the abhorred") - A name given to him by the Elves. I'm not certain when he acquired this name, but I would guess after S.A. 1600.
Zigûr (Adûnaic, "wizard") - Apparently a name given to him by the Númenóreans during the Second Age.

In addition to his aliases, he is also said to have several guises. I'm interested in ascertaining how he would appear, and under what names he be known at various times during the Second Age. These appear to be the major phases:

1 - 500: Unknown (or "the East"). I'm guessing he would be known as Mairon, Tar-Mairon, or a name in some local tongue.
500 - 1000: "The East". Same as above.
1000 - 1200: Mordor. Likewise.
1200 - 1500: Eriador, not Lindon, and Eregion. Annatar, Aulendil, and Artano. I don't know why he needs three names. It seems rather confusing. Aulendil sounds to me like an Elven given name. Perhaps the other two are honorific titles?
1500 - 1600: Mordor. Back to before 1200, although the Elves would still think of him by his A-names.
1600 - 1700: Mordor to Eregion, to Eriador, and back. Probably the earliest the Elves would know him as Sauron. Also probably the earliest the Númenóreans would know him as Zigûr. Others would call him what they called him before, unless they started calling him Sauron after the Elves.
1700 - 3262: Mordor. Sauron to the Elves, possibly Zigûr to the Númenóreans, and whatever else he was known by to other peoples.
3262 - 3319: Númenor. Probably Zigûr at first, then Tar-Mairon as he gained the king's trust.
3319 - 3441: Mordor. Sauron to the Elves, possibly Zigûr to the Gondorians and Arnorians, plus any other names he was known by.
After 3441: Location unknown. In his absence, the name Sauron becomes generally accepted, at least in those areas where the Common Speech is used.

Of course, many of the Númenóreans spoke Sindarin as well as Adûnaic, and they used Quenya as a sort of ritual language, so they would no doubt have known him by the name Sauron as well.

Another question I have about Sauron is his guises. How did he appear to the Men of the East, or when he founded Mordor, or when he appeared to the Elves, or after he returned to Mordor? Did he look the same at all times, or different? Did he appear to Men as a man, and to the Elves as an elf? Did he always appear as a man, or always as an elf? Did he appear to mortals as a Maia, or did he seem no different than an ordinary man or elf?

And, more relevant to the series: how should he appear in his different guises, and what names should he go by? It seems like Annatar is favored for his appearance to the Elves, but is that just because it's better known than Aulendil and Artano? (I'm beginning to favor Aulendil myself as his personal name in Eregion. I'm ambivalent about other names, although it makes sense that at some point the Elves should name him Sauron.)

 

[Solicitr]

Sauron (Quenya, "the abhorred") - A name given to him by the Elves. I'm not certain when he acquired this name, but I would guess after S.A. 1600.

Sauron and Gorthaur are the Quenya and Sindarin versions of the same name* (Sindarin adding the emphatic gor-). It's an oddity of Tolkien's First Age writing that he almost always used the Quenya, even though nearly all his nomenclature there is in Sindarin.**

*Quenya S initially and often medially became TH in Sindarin: compare Singollo and Thingol.

**The real external reason has to do with the great shift in the early 1950s when he decided Language B, formerly Noldorin, would instead be the language of the Sindar (previously the barely sketched Ilkorin or Doriathrin). Instead, the Noldor would be native speakers of Language A (Quenya), and Thingol's edict was invented to paper over their use of (Noldorin >) Sindarin in Beleriand.

 

[hanne]

These are interesting thoughts Hasuwandil!


In the First age, Sauron took form as a vampire bat and a werewolf during the story of Beren and Luthien. Both those instances were out of necessity, though for the bat he could have picked any other flying creature 'cos if I remember right it was a getaway move. And then we know he decided on a beautiful Elvish-like form to deceive the smiths of Eregion. Whatever form he had in Numenor, it was human enough that he could talk to people.

It's thin evidence, but it shows he's got a full gamut of choices, he can do both beautiful and hideous (up to end of Second Age), he's driven by what's expedient, and if other things are equal he's got a preference for evil forms.

So some guesses: perhaps he'd be a bat a lot, since flying is so useful, though maybe something more like an albatross or raptor or dragon for long distances. Maybe a Morgoth-like giant for lounging around Barad-dur threatening his minions. Impressive (tall, strong, rich) human forms as needed to persuade or terrify out East. Maybe something like a wasp or centipede for spying. The horrifying thing is he could be anyone or anywhere, which gives a TV show a lot of scope.

 

[fantasywind]

These are interesting thoughts Hasuwandil!
In the First age, Sauron took form as a vampire bat and a werewolf during the story of Beren and Luthien. Both those instances were out of necessity, though for the bat he could have picked any other flying creature 'cos if I remember right it was a getaway move. And then we know he decided on a beautiful Elvish-like form to deceive the smiths of Eregion. Whatever form he had in Numenor, it was human enough that he could talk to people.
It's thin evidence, but it shows he's got a full gamut of choices, he can do both beautiful and hideous (up to end of Second Age), he's driven by what's expedient, and if other things are equal he's got a preference for evil forms.
So some guesses: perhaps he'd be a bat a lot, since flying is so useful, though maybe something more like an albatross or raptor or dragon for long distances. Maybe a Morgoth-like giant for lounging around Barad-dur threatening his minions. Impressive (tall, strong, rich) human forms as needed to persuade or terrify out East. Maybe something like a wasp or centipede for spying. The horrifying thing is he could be anyone or anywhere, which gives a TV show a lot of scope.

Tolkien actually addresses the matter of Sauron's assumed shape in Second Age in his letters.

"Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic. In his earlier incarnation he was able to veil his power (as Gandalf did) and could appear as a commanding figure of great strength of body and supremely royal demeanour and countenance. But at the beginning of the Second Age he was still beautiful to look at, or could still assume a beautiful visible shape – and was not indeed wholly evil, not unless all 'reformers' who want to hurry up with 'reconstruction' and 'reorganization' are wholly evil, even before pride and the lust to exert their will eat them up. But many Elves listened to Sauron. He was still fair in that early time, and his motives and those of the Elves seemed to go partly together: the healing of the desolate lands. Sauron found their weak point in suggesting that, helping one another, they could make Western Middle-earth as beautiful as Valinor. It was really a veiled attack on the gods, an incitement to try and make a separate independent paradise. Gil-galad repulsed all such overtures, as also did Elrond. But at Eregion great work began – and the Elves came their nearest to falling to 'magic' and machinery. With the aid of Sauron's lore they made Rings of Power ('power' is an ominous and sinister word in all these tales, except as applied to the gods). Sauron dominates all the multiplying hordes of Men that have had no contact with the Elves and so indirectly with the true and Unfallen Valar and gods. Thus, as the Second Age draws on, we have a great Kingdom and evil theocracy (for Sauron is also the god of his slaves) growing up in Middle-earth. He rules a growing empire from the great dark tower of Barad-dûr in Mordor, near to the Mountain of Fire, wielding the One Ring."

Naturally Tolkien in general pointed out that as a 'spirit' he could take any self arrayed form:

The theory, if one can dignify the modes of the story with such a term, is that he was a spirit, a minor one but still an 'angelic' spirit. According to the mythology of these things, that means that, though of course a creature, he belonged to the race of intelligent beings that were made before the physical world, and were permitted to assist in their measure in the making of it. Those who became most involved in this work of Art, as it was in the first instance, became so engrossed with it, that when the Creator made it real (that is, gave it the secondary reality, subordinate to his own, which we call primary reality, and so in that hierarchy on the same plane with themselves) they desired to enter into it, from the beginning of its 'realization'. They were allowed to do so, and the great among them became the equivalent of the 'gods' of traditional mythologies; but a condition was that they would remain 'in it' until the Story was finished. They were thus in the world, but not of a kind whose essential nature is to be physically incarnate. They were self-incarnated, if they wished; but their incarnate forms were more analogous to our clothes than to our bodies, except that they were more than are clothes the expression of their desires, moods, wills and functions. Some had attached themselves to such major artists and knew things chiefly indirectly through their knowledge of the minds of these masters. Sauron had been attached to the greatest, Melkor, who ultimately became the inevitable Rebel and self-worshipper of mythologies that begin with a transcendent unique Creator.

In general information on Ainur Tolkien points out that the shapes they take need not be anthropomorphic:

"It was because of their love of Eä, and because of the pan they had played in its making, that they wished to, and could, incarnate themselves in visible physical forms, though these were comparable to our clothes (in so far as our clothes are a personal expression) not to our bodies. Their forms were thus expressions of their persons, powers, and loves. They need not be anthropomorphic (Yavanna wife** of Aulë would, for instance, appear in the form of a great Tree.) But the 'habitual' shapes of the Valar, when visible or clothed, were anthropomorphic, because of their intense concern with Elves and Men.

The fact that Sauron can shapeshift could be indeed great opportunity to use in the show.

 

[InTheChair]

1 - 500: Unknown (or "the East"). I'm guessing he would be known as Mairon, Tar-Mairon, or a name in some local tongue.

It would not have been Mairon or Tar-Mairon. Those must be his names in the days before the first age, and later when was brought to Numenor, as the Numenoreans were the only men who could reasonably be expected to understand the meaning of Mairon. What he was called in the east I do not know.

It is interesting that much later near the end of the Third age he does not seem to have favoured any kind of personal name. The Orcs just say The Great Eye, and Sauron appears not to have taken any measure to curb that. (Though I suppose The Great Eye could sound like a name in some Orcish languages)

He would not have used Sauron obviously. It is strange that the messenger from Barad-Dûr referred to himself as the mouth of Sauron. May have to consider that an embellishment made by the translators, or else the messenger used a term he knew the captains of the West would understand.


[size 2]And, more relevant to the series: how should he appear in his different guises,

A second age story ought to deal chiefly with Men and Elves so it would make sense that his default appearance is that of a Man or an Elf. Since he is known to have had in some degree the ability to change his physical form, there's also a lot the producers of the show could do to generate shock value. I expect we will see him take a few different guises in the series, but probably there will also be one that is used as his default appearance.


and what names should he go by? It seems like Annatar is favored for his appearance to the Elves, but is that just because it's better known than Aulendil and Artano?

Annatar is probably the one that will sound most distinct to an American/European audience, so if they do use one of the aliases from the books for possible Eregion plotlines it will probably be Annatar. Otherwise I suspect the series will heavily rely on the name Sauron, since that is the one he by far and wide best know by in the real world.


although it makes sense that at some point the Elves should name him Sauron.

They may have everyone call him that just because it makes it very clear for the audience. We shall have to see.
[/size]

 

[fantasywind]

1 - 500: Unknown (or "the East"). I'm guessing he would be known as Mairon, Tar-Mairon, or a name in some local tongue.
It would not have been Mairon or Tar-Mairon. Those must be his names in the days before the first age, and later when was brought to Numenor, as the Numenoreans were the only men who could reasonably be expected to understand the meaning of Mairon. What he was called in the east I do not know.
It is interesting that much later near the end of the Third age he does not seem to have favoured any kind of personal name. The Orcs just say The Great Eye, and Sauron appears not to have taken any measure to curb that. (Though I suppose The Great Eye could sound like a name in some Orcish languages)
He would not have used Sauron obviously. It is strange that the messenger from Barad-Dûr referred to himself as the mouth of Sauron. May have to consider that an embellishment made by the translators, or else the messenger used a term he knew the captains of the West would understand.
[size 2]And, more relevant to the series: how should he appear in his different guises,
A second age story ought to deal chiefly with Men and Elves so it would make sense that his default appearance is that of a Man or an Elf. Since he is known to have had in some degree the ability to change his physical form, there's also a lot the producers of the show could do to generate shock value. I expect we will see him take a few different guises in the series, but probably there will also be one that is used as his default appearance.
and what names should he go by? It seems like Annatar is favored for his appearance to the Elves, but is that just because it's better known than Aulendil and Artano?
Annatar is probably the one that will sound most distinct to an American/European audience, so if they do use one of the aliases from the books for possible Eregion plotlines it will probably be Annatar. Otherwise I suspect the series will heavily rely on the name Sauron, since that is the one he by far and wide best know by in the real world.
although it makes sense that at some point the Elves should name him Sauron.
They may have everyone call him that just because it makes it very clear for the audience. We shall have to see.
[/size]

Speaking of what Sauron was doing in early centuries and his names, there is a curious fragment in the writings of HoME (so of course among the early drafts) that says:

"...this evil thing was called by many names, but the Eruhil named him Sauron, and men of Middle-earth (when they dared to speak his name at all) named him mostly Zigur the Great. And he made himself a great king in the midst of the earth, and was at first well-seeming and just and his rule was of benefit to all men in their needs of the body; for he made them rich, who would serve him. But those who would not were driven out into the waste places." - HOME 9 "The Drowning of Anadune"

So that would both answer what he was doing after fall of Morgoth in early stages and how he was also named, but whether this can be taken at face value or whether it can be used by Amazon is debatable . Other texts in Parma Eldaramberon imply he himself preferred to be called Mairon.

"Sauron’s original name was Mairon, but this was altered after he was suborned by Melkor. But he continued to call himself Mairon the Admirable, or Tar-mairon ‘King Excellent’, until after the downfall of Númenor."

His form would be naturally most often humanoid, there is even another obscure fragment of text on how he looked when he surrendered to Ar-Pharazon:

“Upon that ship which was cast highest and stood dry upon a hill there was a man, but greater than any even of the race of Numenor in stature...And it seemed to men that Sauron was great; though they feared the light of his eyes. To many he appeared fair, to others terrible; but to some evil.”

But once again this is text from HoME (The Lost Road it would seem so questionable canon not to mention licensing rights to those texts hard to imagine the unfinished numenorean chapters of Lost Road would be used even if they do contain some interesting info if a bit conflicting with later canon and being a try at proper narrative set in Numenor with Elendil dialogues etc.).

 

[Solicitr]

The Drowning of Anadune isn't "early" at all; it's post Lord of the Rings (or at least post-most of it). Companion to the Notion Club Papers, 1944-45. There's actually very little in it that contradicts Akallabeth, aside from its preference for Adunaic nomenclature.

 

[Hasuwandil]

Thanks for the information, fantasywind. Unfortunately I don't have access to HoME, but I do recall reading online that Sauron preferred to go by the name Mairon even during the Second Age. According to Aragorn, he didn't permit those under his sway to use the name Sauron even at the end of the Third Age (which leads one to wonder what the "Mouth of Sauron" was actually called).

From Parf Edhellen I found that zigûr is an Adûnaic word, meaning "wizard", as well as a name for Sauron, so I assumed it was a name the Númenóreans used for him. I can imagine Men in the East calling him "Zigur the Great", but not so much if it's an Adûnaic name.

 

[fantasywind]

Thanks for the information, fantasywind. Unfortunately I don't have access to HoME, but I do recall reading online that Sauron preferred to go by the name Mairon even during the Second Age. According to Aragorn, he didn't permit those under his sway to use the name Sauron even at the end of the Third Age (which leads one to wonder what the "Mouth of Sauron" was actually called).
From Parf Edhellen I found that zigûr is an Adûnaic word, meaning "wizard", as well as a name for Sauron, so I assumed it was a name the Númenóreans used for him. I can imagine Men in the East calling him "Zigur the Great", but not so much if it's an Adûnaic name.

Yes that seem a small discrepancy, though maybe the adunaic name was adopted by men of Middle-earth? Adunaic is after all basis for westron, the Comon Speech (adunaic mixed with elvish influences of Sindarin).

I always found it interesting what Aragorn said that Dark Lord does not allow his servants to openly use the name, and then the Mouth of Sauron using this name and titling his master Sauron the Great (as well as an emissary to the king Dain in Erebor also using it), as I begun thinking it may be that:

a) Aragorn was operating on obsolete knowledge (after all Sauron for a long time remained in secret, hiding his identity, though he officially announced his return to the world in year 2951, after returning to Mordor in secret in the year of The Hobbit 2941), Aragorn operated in his youth at that time but the customs may have slowly changed once Sauron declared himself openly, or

b) some high ranking servants or emissaries are permitted to use that name for official purposes like 'diplomatic' duties, because most of his enemies knew him better by that name, while the lower servants including most of Orcs would be using terms the Eye, Lugburtz, or simply 'Him' etc.

c) Sauron embraced this elvish name for him due to fear it inspired (since he no longer could appear as benevolent nice fellow ) though added 'the Great' because well why not he certainly has enough pride.

 

[Solicitr]

The problem with that is that Adunaic became the basis of a common speech in the regions under the control or influence of the Kingdoms in Exile, i.e. the Third Age. Even if we can backdate it to Numenorean influence during the Second Age, that was confined to the West just like it says on the tin, "Westron." It wasn't spoken in Rhun.

As for the naming of Sauron in the LR: we can blame it either on a) an overeager translator, or b) Tolkien goofed. The good Professor did after all nod once in a while.

 

[N.E. Brigand]

I believe the first time that name was mentioned anywhere online was in this post from 2007, which quotes from the then just-published source, vol. 17 of Parma Eldalamberon.

 

[squire]

In your best theatrical style, you offered a teaser (see the last line of this linked post) the day before you published your 'Mairon' discovery, and parried my nearly-correct answer without actually giving us the name itself.

 

[No One in Particular]

According to Aragorn, he didn't permit those under his sway to use the name Sauron even at the end of the Third Age (which leads one to wonder what the "Mouth of Sauron" was actually called).

Probably something like:

"Herald of His Most High and Powerful Lord, Rightful Master of Arda and All Whom Reside Therein."

It would likely have made reference to his power and his claim to be the rightful ruler of the world.