When Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand, he returned again. But when Frodo went to Mount Doom and accidentally Gollum cast the Ring along with himself, Sauron was defeated and never came back again. Why is this?
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16Not an answer because I'm just speculating, but this is how I've always seen it: Isildur killed Sauron's body, and the only reason Sauron survived that was his magic, which itself survived because it was imbued in the Ring. No More Ring meant No More Magic, which in turn meant No More Cheating Death.– Harry JohnstonCommented Dec 15, 2018 at 4:29
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1Linked or possible dupe:scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/37670/…– VoronwéCommented Dec 15, 2018 at 4:57
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7Did he die? I didn't think he did, just became so diminished in power that he couldn't do much anymore.– jpmc26Commented Dec 16, 2018 at 19:31
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3@jpmc26 I read where Tolkein said that exact thing– Shawn V. WilsonCommented Dec 16, 2018 at 22:38
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@HarryJohnston Isildur just looted Sauron's body. His father and the elven king were the ones to defeat Sauron.– Michael RichardsonCommented Jul 1, 2022 at 17:32
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4 Answers
Sauron passed a tremendous amount of his own native power as a Maia into the Ring he forged. Gandalf outlines the situation to Frodo in "The Shadow of the Past":
He only needs the One; for he made that Ring himself, it is his, and he let a great part of his own former power pass into it, so that he could rule all the others.
Tolkien, the Old English scholar, uses "great part" here. The Oxford English Dictionary has this gloss (with citations going back to Middle English) for a subsense of great
c. With the. That constitutes more than half, larger, as the great body (of), the great part (of), etc.
indicating specifically more than half. However, as dfri noted in a comment, here Gandalf says "a great part," not "the great part," which only indicates a large portion of Sauron's power, not necessarily the majority. However, he does later clarify that it was indeed the majority. (See below.)
So Sauron placed most of his natural power in his artifact. And actually, it seems likely that he placed almost all of his power in it. The power that went into the Ring was multiplied by the physical instrumentality of the Ring. Once Sauron put it on, he was more powerful than he ever had been before, and to get the greatest advantage from the Ring, it would be natural for him imbue the Ring with as much of his power as possible, so as to get the largest multiplier effect.
The situation changed significantly when the Dark Lord lost possession of the One Ring. Without it in his possession, he could not use its powers to their fullest potential. However, as long as the Ring existed (and no other power had managed to claim and master the Ring), Sauron still benefited from its powers. The foundations of Barad-dûr were secure, and the Ringwraiths were his dutiful servants.
When the Ring went into the Cracks of Doom, all the power that went into it was completely dissipated. Up to that point, Sauron had managed to maintain his position though his distant communion with the Ring that contained so much of his native power. When that power was dispersed, he was not left with enough to have any remaining power over the world. While he was not quite dead, he was reduced to a powerless husk. Gandalf again, in "The Last Debate":
For he will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great evil of this world will be removed.
Note that here, the wizard says unambiguously that "the best part" of Sauron's power went into the Ring.
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18Nice answer (+1), but for some nitpicking: Tolkien writes a great part, whereas it is specifically when used with the definite article (the) that great part is explicitly referring to a majority/more than half. A great half is more vague, and could mean a majority but could also mean a major chunk, say one third. What Tolkien had in mind, in the end, I guess we can never entirely know, but I assume he used the indefinite/generalizing article intendedly, and while perhaps Saurons ”core power” was placed in the ring, I wouldn’t interpret the quote above as specifically more than half.– dfribCommented Dec 15, 2018 at 8:37
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6+1, but do you have a citation for this?: “The power that went into the Ring was multiplied by the physical instrumentality of the Ring”– jl6Commented Dec 16, 2018 at 9:43
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1@dfri "For he will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning" suggests that "the" is the intended meaning. Commented Dec 16, 2018 at 9:50
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I don't know that Sauron was more powerful, just differently powerful. It allowed him to project influence and control over those wearing the other Rings.– chepnerCommented Aug 23, 2019 at 16:10
Sauron has actually physically "died" at least 3 times:
- Lúthien "killed" him when she overthrew his fortress on the Isle of Werewolves in the First Age.
- At the Downfall of Númenor.
- When Isildur took the Ring from him.
There is a distinction between physical and spiritual "death" in Tolkien. As a Maia, and similar to the Elves, Sauron's spirit is actually bound to the world, cannot leave the world until the End, and can be re-bodied in certain circumstances.
Sauron did not die when the Ring was destroyed
His spirit remained bound to the world, but greatly diminished and no longer capable of much. This is explicitly stated in the text.
answered Dec 15, 2018 at 8:58
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2Sauron seems to have ended up in the Void after becoming a greatly diminished spirit - apparently helped along by the wind from the west. He "walked behind him [Morgoth] on the same ruinous path down into the void.” Commented Dec 15, 2018 at 15:01
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1Luthien threatened to kill him unless he withdrew, which he chose to do rather than suffer the inconvenience of a physical "death". It's never been clear to me if he was actually killed during the Downfall of Numenor, or if there was a voluntary withdrawal from his physical form (which may have been a state somewhere between "life" and "death").– chepnerCommented Dec 16, 2018 at 18:16
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Walking the same path doesn't imply the final destination was the same. Morgoth's Ring (Arda) was never destroyed; Sauron's was, so there was little need to banish the rest of him. (Besides, the metaphysics of opening the door into the Void were never described; perhaps the risk of Morgoth returning if the door were opened outweighed the risk of letting the mere shadow of Sauron remain in Middle Earth.)– chepnerCommented Dec 16, 2018 at 18:18
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2You say This is explicitly stated in the text – in that case, do you think you could give a quote with a reference (ideally for all three “deaths”)? If you can, this answer will be worth my up-vote. Anyway, do you mean in The Lord of the Rings or some other text?– PJTraillCommented Dec 16, 2018 at 23:31
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His spirit remaining bound to the world is probably traceable back to the early part of the published Silmarillion: Sauron was an Ainu who chose to go into Eä/Arda, so has to remain in it. I can't recall the place where it is mentioned that Sauron investing himself into the ring means his own personal power is decreased, but it's analogous to how Morgoth's strength waned during the First Age as he poured himself into his efforts of mess up Arda (and the HoME volume Morgoth's Ring is so titled because of the analogy between the Ring and Arda and how Sauron and Morgoth spent their power) Commented May 12, 2021 at 5:26
It's stated quite clearly that Sauron put the greater part of his own essence into the ring, and although being away from the ring weakened him, it did not do so catastrophically; that part of his essence was still around to keep him strong enough for his purposes.
When the ring was destroyed, that part of his essence was either destroyed (or so it was assumed by everybody who knew about these things) or it was removed from the world entirely so that for all purposes within Arda, it may as well have been destroyed.
It's sort of like putting 90% of your money into the stock of a company. As long as the company is in good shape, for all intents and purposes you are still as rich as you were. But if the company goes bankrupt, such that the stock becomes worthless, then you truly plummet to 10% of your former net worth.
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Sauron did not "Die" as a Maiar or spiritual being, he's immortal and cannot die. He invested the vast majority of his essence and identity into the ring he crafted. When it was destroyed the vast majority of his capacity withered with it, thus Sauron no longer had physical dominion over his form any longer.
