Why did Sauron react the way he did when Frodo put the Ring on inside Mount Doom?

Question

As I have mentioned before, I am only reading the LotR books for the first time right now, and I am only halfway through the second book at the moment, so my knowledge of the third book is based primarily on what I saw in the movies.

Until recently, when I watched the "Crack of Doom" scene (where Frodo enters the volcano in Mordor, ostensibly to destroy the Ring), this is how I always understood what was happening:

It has never occurred to Sauron that anyone would willingly destroy the Ring - this is simply inconceivable to him. Sauron is distracted by the battle. Frodo puts the Ring on, Sauron instantly becomes aware of him (and where he is), realizes that Frodo intends (or until recently intended) to destroy the Ring. Sauron's eye is immediately drawn to Mount Doom, and he is freaking out because he is perilously close to being annihilated. He recalls the Nazgul (at least those of them who haven't been killed by Eowyn or had their fell beasts killed by the Eagles) to Mordor, hoping against hope that they will be able to prevent the Ring from being destroyed by accident or by design. They won't arrive for some time (they are fast, but it will take them some time to cover the 50-100 miles from the Gate to the volcano). They don't get there soon enough, and Sauron has to watch helplessly as Frodo fights with Gollum, and eventually, Gollum ends up swimming in the lava.

But now that I'm reading the books, and reading some questions and answers on this site, I realize that I may have been mistaken. Now I wonder if I was right about what is happening in the movie, but the movie diverges from the books here, or if the movie is faithful to the book here and I have been misinterpreting the movie itself. [*See note 1 below]

• Did Sauron fear that Frodo was planning to destroy the Ring or was he freaking out because he was worried that the Ring would accidentally end up in the lava?

• Did he even realize that Frodo's original intention was to destroy the Ring? For that matter, does he even know that the lava is capable of destroying the Ring?

---

[Note 1: Specifically, until I read Richard's excellent answer, I was starting to think that even when Frodo dons the Ring inside volcano, Sauron isn't necessarily worried that he will destroy the Ring (either by accident or by design). Maybe Sauron isn't worried about anything - maybe he's actually happy because he finally knows where the Ring is and he thinks that all he has to do is send his Nazgul to retrieve it. Maybe it still hasn't occurred to him that Frodo had intended to destroy the Ring. Or maybe he realizes that Frodo HAD intended to destroy it, but he knows that Frodo, like everyone before him, has finally fallen under the Ring's spell, albeit at the last possible second. Maybe he doesn't feel any particular sense of urgency, and is simply eager to reclaim his beloved Ring. Or maybe he feels a sense of urgency only because he realizes that someone might accidentally drop the Ring into the lava, or fall into the lava with the Ring (this fear would be a well founded one, since this is precisely what happens).]

Answer 1

I think it's fair to say that when Frodo put on the ring in the novel, Sauron was (in order of events);

• Panicked (what the hell!?)
• Scared that the Ring is in such a vulnerable position (indicating that he knows that it's somewhere that it can be destroyed)
• Angry (at instantly realising that everything his enemies have been up to has been an elaborate ruse)
• Instantly consumed by longing for the ring, to the exclusion of everything else (My precious!!!)

And far away, as Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own, even in Sammath Naur the very heart of his realm, the Power in Barad-dûr was shaken, and the Tower trembled from its foundations to its proud and bitter crown. The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him, and his Eye piercing all shadows looked across the plain to the door that he had made; and the magnitude of his own folly was revealed to him in a blinding flash, and all the devices of his enemies were at last laid bare. Then his wrath blazed in consuming flame, but his fear rose like a vast black smoke to choke him. For he knew his deadly peril and the thread upon which his doom now hung. From all his policies and webs of fear and treachery, from all his stratagems and wars his mind shook free; and throughout his realm a tremor ran, his slaves quailed, and his armies halted, and his captains suddenly steerless, bereft of will, wavered and despaired. For they were forgotten. The whole mind and purpose of the Power that wielded them was now bent with overwhelming force upon the Mountain

_{^{The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of the Lord of the Rings}}

Answer 2

@Valorum's answer was great, but I think there is a little more here as well. "Will" is a powerful force in Tolkien's world. The LOTR novels and the Silmarillion talk about when Sauron was making the ring he put his will and power into the ring. When it was lost, and his power regained, he cast his entire will out to bring it back to him.

"And much of the strength and will of Sauron passed into that One Ring; for the power of the Elven-rings was very great, and that which should govern them must be a thing of surpassing potency; and Sauron forged it in the Mountain of Fire in the Land of Shadow. And while he wore the One Ring he could perceive all the things that were done by means of the lesser rings, and he could see and govern the very thoughts of those that wore them." [The Silmarillion]

Up until the point in Mt. Doom, Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam had worn the ring, but not with the intent of controlling or commanding it or others, but pretty much for its side effect of making them invisible to normal beings. At Mt. Doom, Frodo claimed the ring.

‘I have come,’ [Frodo] said. ‘But I do not choose now to do what I came to do. I will not do this deed. The Ring is mine!’ And suddenly, as he set it on his finger, he vanished from Sam’s sight.

His will was cast to controlling it and having its power. Because of what the ring was, this made all the difference in the world.

Sauron also never expected it to be in Mordor. As Gandalf said at the Council of Elrond:

"Into his heart the thought will not enter that any will refuse it, that having the Ring we may seek to destroy it. If we seek this, we shall put him out of reckoning."

And once Sauron realized that it was at Mt. Doom, he freaked out. Because that was where he made the ring, and was the only place it could be destroyed.

I think that Tolkien weaved such a complex story around the ring, that in that moment it was brought to fruition; the weight of the entire story was brought down upon that moment. It brought together The Hobbit, and all of LOTR. I remember reading that part in the book the first time (pre-movies), and the suspense was so intense. Gollum, and Frodo, and Sam at the mountain...it was an incredible scene. One of the best of all time.

Answer 3

Valorum and jwatts1980 have given good answers. I would also suggest the following to augment them: pain.

There is no dispute in those who were offered (to some degree) the ring that vast and corrupting power would be in their hand if they accepted the offer. Galadriel and Gandalf are two of the most powerful beings in the story, and their perspective is about as close to fact as one is going to get. Gandalf said he would start by attempting to use the power of the ring to do good, but through him it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine.

Don't tempt me Frodo! I dare not take it. Not even to keep it safe. Understand Frodo, I would use this Ring from a desire to do good. But through me, it would wield a power too great and terrible to imagine.

Galadriel said that she had greatly desired it, but that she would become a dark queen who was treacherous and more powerful than the foundations of the world.

Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!

The necromancer from the Hobbit was Sauron, and he sought a return devastating potency that he hoped to accomplish by regaining the ring. The power there was greater than all the kings of men, elves, and dwarves at the peaks of their races greatness. It was where the will, the remaining strength of Sauron, was based.

The nine walked again due to dark magic.

"So passed the sword of the Barrow-downs, work of Westernesse. But glad would he have been to know its fate who wrought it slowly long ago in the North-kingdom when the Dúnedain were young, and chief among their foes was the dread realm of Angmar and its sorcerer king. No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will"

Both they, and their master, were returned from the dead by the power of the ring. They and their master required its power for continued existence in middle earth.

In claiming the Ring for himself, Frodo took away some substantial part of the power that was available to Sauron.

And far away, as Frodo put on the Ring and claimed it for his own, even in Sammath Naur the very heart of his realm, the Power in Barad-dûr was shaken....

Not only did Sauron feel fear and surprise, but he felt loss of power, loss of control, and diminishment of self.

Letter 131:

Unless some other seized it and became possessed of it. If that happened, the new possessor could (if sufficiently strong and heroic by nature) challenge Sauron, become master of all that he had learned or done since the making of the One Ring, and so overthrow him and usurp his place. This was the essential weakness he had introduced into his situation in his effort (largely unsuccessful) to enslave the Elves, and in his desire to establish a control over the minds and wills of his servants.

The way that his shade was able to endure was because of the continued existence of the ring, so in claiming it and impacting that power, even as magically weak of a being as he was, the heroic Frodo impacted the existence of the dark one. The will of Sauron that magically augmented the will of his armies was to some degree compromised in that moment, so all the armies stopped.

… throughout his realm a tremor ran, his slaves quailed, and his armies halted, and his captains suddenly steerless, bereft of will, wavered and despaired. For they were forgotten.

The Nazgul were both the most powerful/loyal, and the most independent of Sauron's agents. He could not command the orcs and trolls who only worked because his will over-rode theirs. He needed agents who had will of their own, and the 9 "greatest" historic kings of men were good for that; terrible enemies to oppose or even to attempt to successfully flee from. If Frodo were able to remove the will of Sauron completely from the orc armies, they would immediately flee or at least fight each other. With the wraiths, as long as they had existence they would work to ensure that Sauron regained and controlled the ring because their continued existence was tied to his continued existence.

Unfinished Tales:

Sauron’s “mightiest servants, the Ring-wraiths, who had no will but his own, being each utterly subservient to the ring that had enslaved him, which Sauron held.”

Answer 4

The entire strategy of Gandalf, which he expounds at the Council of Elrond, is that by taking a decision to destroy the Ring, the Wise will thereby follow a path which Sauron would be incapable of divining, and thus would never expect.

Gandalf's insight into Sauron's personality is that Sauron is incapable of coming to a realisation that anyone who possessed the Ring could wish to destroy it. Sauron judges everyone by his own standards: if Sauron possessed the Ring, he would wield it, and it would never enter his mind that anyone would reject it, or, worse, would wish to destroy it.

Only when Frodo stands at the Crack of Doom, and reveals himself to Sauron, does Sauron finally realise that Gandalf's plan is to un-make the Ring. Thus Sauron's reaction is one of fear.

That fear is heightened by the fact that no such danger to the Ring had ever crossed Sauron's mind: Aragorn had revealled himself to Sauron as the heir of Isildur, in the Palantir of Orthanc, specifically to give Sauron an unshakeable belief that Aragorn intended to claim the Ring for himself, as Isildur had done. Sauron had been led up the garden path, by a deceit, into believing that Aragorn is the new Ringlord, and intends to wield it. So Sauron's reaction to Frodo's action is based wholly on shock.

Sauron reacts with fear, but greatly heightened by shock, when faced with the unexpected truth about Frodo's real mission in Mordor.