The Mouth of Sauron Explained

who was the Mouth of Sauron just a minor functionary of saurons or something more important and why did Tolkien include him in the story hi everyone this is Robert welcome to in deep geek on this channel we go in depth into the Lord of the Rings and tolkien's wider legendarium as well as other great fantasy worlds Like A Song of Ice and Fire And The Witcher if you like the sound of that there's a subscribe button in the bottom right of your screen the Mouth of Sauron only appeared briefly towards the very end of The Lord of the Rings and his brief scene was even cut from the theatrical release of the Return of the King but he left quite a strong memory and when you dig a bit deeper you find that he's actually quite an important character in sauron's setup so first of all who is he well as a physical description when he emerges from Mordor to confront the army of the West under the command of Aragorn all we get is this their Road a tall and evil shape mounted upon a black horse if horse it was for it was huge and hideous and its face was a frightful mask more like a skull than a living head and in the sockets of its eyes and in its nostrils they're burned aflame the rider was robed all in black and black was his lofty Helm yet this was no ring wraith but a living man so on first appearance this character comes across as a bit like a Black Rider on an even scarier horse Flames burning in the eye sockets there is clearly magic involved but Tolkien clarifies that this is not one of the wraiths but a living man and he marches at the head of sauron's army to talk to Parlay on behalf of Sauron himself this is remember just a few short days after the death of the witch King of angma the lord of the Nazgul and will never know if he had still been around whether he would have taken on this role but we do know that in his absence the Mouth of Sauron did clearly the Mouth of Sauron was important and trusted Tolkien goes on to give us one of his wonderfully concise explanations of who this is cognizant of the fact that this is clearly an important character and one who will be Central to this climactic encounter but someone we've never heard mention of before Tolkien writes the lieutenant of the Tower of badur he was and his name is Remembered in no tale for he himself had forgotten it and he said I am the Mouth of Sauron but it is told that he was a renegade who came of the race of those that are named the black numenoreans for they established their dwellings in Middle Earth during the years of sauron's domination and they worshiped him being enamored of evil knowledge and he entered the service of The Dark Tower when it first rose again and because of his cunning he grew ever higher in the Lord's favor and he learned great sorcery and knew much of the mind of Sauron and he was more cruel than any orc so from this and the other context clues we can build up quite a strong picture being a black numenorian means that his Heritage was from numenor but one of the King's Men rather than the faithful in the second age yes numenor was destroyed at the end of the second age but quite a few of the black numenoreans had colonized Southern Middle Earth by that point and Fallen under sauron's control entering the service of The Dark Tower when it first rose again is an intriguing phrase because the Dark Tower baradura was leveled after sauron's defeat at the end of the second age and not rebuilt until the year 2951 of the third age a bit less than seven decades before the events of the Lord of the Rings but the Nazgul had returned there and The Dark Tower figuratively rose again a thousand years earlier either way it's fair to say that the Mouth of Sauron is therefore very old and he climbed the greasy pole of influence in sauron's court not it would seem by being a great warrior but because of his cunning and because he learned much of the mind of Sauron the impression we have is of someone who got himself close to the seat of power and manipulated others to keep himself there a grima worm tongue type figure perhaps or for Game of Thrones fans more like Varys say but just as importantly on his way up he learned great sorcery perhaps this is how he managed to resist aging certainly we're not told that he looked old when parlaying with Gandalf and Aragorn in any event he was powerful personally as well as clearly being placed in a position of power a position he'd clearly held for a while for him to have assumed the name the Mouth of Sauron and also to have forgotten his own name so he's a long-established figure in saron's team who has the specific role of speaking on behalf of Sauron which does open up the possibility that we may have heard of him elsewhere off camera earlier in the story when glowing and Gimli arrive at Rivendell in time for the council it's not just to seek knowledge of Berlin's mission to Moria it's also to report on a messenger from Mordor who had arrived at Edible the Lonely Mountain we read this about a year ago a messenger came to dine but not from morya from Mordor a horseman in the night who called down to his gate the Lord Saron the great so he said wished for our friendship rings he would give for it such as he gave of old and he asked urgently concerning Hobbits of what kind they were and where they dwelt for Sauron knows said he that one of these was known to you on a Time at this we were greatly troubled and we gave no answer and then his fell voice was lowered and he would have sweetened it if he could as a small token only of your friendship Sauron asks this he said that you should find this thief such was his word and get from him willing or know a little ring the least of the Rings that once he stole it is but a trifle that Sauron fancies and an Earnest of your Goodwill find it and three rings that the dwarf sires possessed of old shall be returned to you and the realm of Moria shall be yours forever find only news of the thief whether he still lives and where and you shall have great reward and Lasting friendship from the Lord refuse and things will not seem so well do you refuse the dwarves do refuse and the messenger goes away empty-handed returning twice more and threatening one more visit before the end of the year could this messenger be the Mouth of Sauron the contextual Clues seem to suggest it he's the only one on team Sauron who actually calls Sauron Sauron indeed calling him Saron the great explicitly Echoes his language when talking to Aragorn indeed all of the language usage here eloquent disdain a sense of superiority and so on all sound like the Mouth of Sauron the only others we can imagine being given that task are the Nazgul but we know where they all are for most of that year so it doesn't seem like any of them which brings us back to the encounter outside Mordor because here the Mouth of Sauron very clearly has the role not just as Lieutenant of the Tower of parador but Emissary for Sauron himself authorized to speak on his behalf he brings all of sauron's disdain and arrogance with him opening the discussions by laughing at Aragorn and Gandalf is there anyone in this route with authority to treat with me he asked or indeed with which to understand me not thou at least he mocked turning to Aragorn with scorn Aragon's response is to stare at him engaging him in a battle of wills and the Mouth of Sauron quails and shrinks back claiming that he has been assailed it's a curious exchange though we shouldn't take it as an indication that the Mouth of Sauron is not after all powerful all-mouth and no powers so to speak no Aragorn is good at these kind of battles of will he even held his own against Sauron himself through the palantir in fact Perhaps it is a little literary trick by Tolkien reminding us of that we are supposed to see the Mouth of Sauron not just as a powerful functionary of Mordor but a confrontation with Sauron himself or as close as we will get to one Sauron is in the background throughout this story off page seen mostly only through the work of his underlings it's an audacious literary tool being used by Tolkien if you think about it the standard Trope would be for a climactic confrontation between the heroes and the main villain but not so here instead we get this hearing sauron's words relayed through another one detail that worked really well in the films in my view was how they showed this character as the Mouth of Sauron his actual mouth was shown to be decayed and rotten through relaying sauron's words and if you listen closely in the extended version you can even hear Saron whispering to the mouth telling him what to say the Mouth of Sauron is just a mouthpiece for Sauron not given autonomy but controlled which is how Sauron works it's all about control so why is the Mouth of Sauron such an important character because he more than any other character shows us the character of Sauron himself he knew much of the mind of Sauron we're told and we see it we hear sauron's words we see the mockery disdain and lies and also the fear and so Tolkien uses the mouth of Saron as a proxy for Saron himself giving us the readers a chance to see sauron's reaction to his own downfall by proxy Gandalf seemingly knowing magically that Frodo is approaching the cracks of Doom suddenly stops the negotiations saying as for your terms we reject them utterly get you gone if your Embassy is over and death is near to you we did not come here to waste words in treating with Sauron faithless and accursed still less with one of his slaves be gone then the messenger of Mordor laughed no more his face was twisted with amazement and anger to the likeness of some wild beast that as it crouches on its prey is smitten on the muzzle with a stinging Rod rage filled him and his mouth slathered and shapeless sounds of Fury came strangling from his throat but he looked at the fell faces of the captains and their deadly eyes and fear overcame his wrath he gave a great cry and turned leaped upon his Steed and with his company galloped madly back to kirith gorgore in this moment of rage disbelief and fear we see a microcosm of sauron's own reaction to his defeat Tolkien spares us that sight except in Shadow and metaphor but he shows us the Mouth of Sauron realizing his own defeat and that gives us the payoff we need the Mouth of Sauron knew much of the mind of Sauron represented Sauron and spoke on behalf of Sauron his downfall shows us sauron's downfall if you'd like more videos digging into the world of The Lord of the Rings and tolkien's wider legendarium please click on the playlist on the left of your screen now or to support this channel the best way to do that is to click on the link to my patreon page on the right of your screen now that's all for this time thanks for watching I'll see you again soon

Channel: In Deep Geek

Views: 301,780

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Id: b6H78o_jTuY

Length: 12min 28sec (748 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2023