What did Sauron do in the Second Age?

what was sauron like in the second age of middle-earth according to the books what did he look like and what did he do hi everyone this is robert welcome to in deep geek on this channel we cover lord of the rings a song of ice and fire and much more if you love in-depth discussion of great fantasy and science fiction then please consider clicking the subscribe button in the bottom right of your screen sauron is the key character in the second age of middle earth his actions laid waste to the continent and brought entire civilizations crashing down even his less obviously dramatic actions had implications that carried forward thousands of years into the third age so what was he doing and when well for the first few hundred years or so he was very very quiet to understand why we need to go back a little further in time to the end of the first age of middle-earth sauron had been the right-hand man of morgoth the original and biggest big baddie in tolkien's legendarium the ward of wrath at the end of the first age put an end to morgoth's rule he was chained and thrown into the abyss sauron initially surrendered but then seemingly changed his mind escaping back out into middle earth he was the most high profile person on morgoth's side to escape capture or death but no one could find him so by the beginning of the second age sauron had been defeated was angry and holding grudges against those who had beaten him he wasn't the only one of morgoth's old army to be doing so a smattering of orcs survived a few balrogs including durin's bane had hidden beneath kazardum a handful of dragons flew off into the northern waste the forces of darkness though were defeated demoralized and scattered in the far-flung places of middle-earth while the elves built beautiful linden humans prospered on numenor and the dwarves built the greatest city ever known under the misty mountains it's not actually that hard to understand how sauron could stay hidden for so long at that time he could change shape almost at will and not just to a human shape in the first age she memorably took the form of a wolf a vampire and lots of other shapes and he was probably the most powerful being in all middle earth now morgoth was gone the valar weren't visiting anymore and the astari had yet to arrive if sauron wanted to remain hidden it was very hard to find him we first see his influence if not see him in the late 800s of the second age gil galad was the one to notice he wrote to the king of numenor that a new shadow arises in the east it is no tyranny of evil men as your son believes but a servant of morgoth is stirring and evil things wake again each year it gains in strength for most men are ripe to its purpose not far off is the day i judge when it will become too great for the elder unaided to withstand tolkien tells us in the appendices to the lord of the rings that saron started stirring around the year 500 but it was only later that gilgalod warned the numenoreans this warning was not really heeded though and we're told that around the year 1000 sauron began construction of baradur fortifying mordor so he seems to have been based down in the south and east of the continent for a while at least what else was he doing during that time we don't know tolkien simply doesn't tell us and it has to be said there are lots of gaps in the narrative of the second age not just in sauron's story but everywhere often hundreds of years go by without any update on what different characters are doing this seems to have been deliberate on tolkien's part he wanted to draw the mythological and historical outlines of his legendarium but leave room for in his words other minds and hands to fill in some of the gaps but we first see satron around the year 1200 of the second age he took on an appearance of fair hue yes this is sexy sauron and the name anata the lord of gifts and went around to the elves offering to teach them how to craft rings of power gil gallard and co were a bit suspicious but keller brimboar and the smiths of oregon loved the idea and welcomed anatar in yes in hindsight this was a bad move but at the time no one knew this was sauron he'd been missing for more than a millennium and the rings they forged together seemed powerful and benign and it was a very long con anatar had been around for 400 years before he snuck off and forged the one ring to rule all the others but he did do that of course raising his banner over the newly finished fortress of barador only for his plan to fail miserably although we think of nine rings for mortal men seven for dwarf lords and three for the elves sauron initially seems to have planned for all of the rings to go to elves which he would then control but the elves sensed what he was doing and took off the rings and the three rings were both very powerful and not corrupted by sauron they were kelebrimbour's own work so a failure onto plan b sauron invaded aragyon in the year 1695 and got the rings calabrimbo was brutally murdered but before he was he managed to get the three rings safely out to galadriel gilgalad and kierdan sauron pushed on with his invasion covering almost all of middle earth right up to the blue mountains but by 1700 the numenoreans came to the aid of gilgallot and pushed sauron all the way back to his own lands this short-lived invasion is often overshadowed in tolkien fans minds by the later and more famous last alliance of elves and men but the geopolitical implications were huge the elf realm of oregon was destroyed kazadoom closed to the outside world rivendell founded and the numenoreans increasingly involved themselves in the politics of middle-earth and sauron himself then had the time to solidify his power base in south and east of middle-earth his plan c for the second age then also involved in distributing the rings of power he had managed to claim during his invasion of eriador with the aim of bringing those people under his power instead of the elves it worked very well with the nine mortal men who became the nazgul and not so well with the seven dwarf lords after which followed another thousand years where we don't really hear much about what saron was up to he ruled over his part of middle earth as a sort of god king taking on a variety of titles like king of men and lord of the world eventually the numenoreans were growing prouder and stronger and their egos couldn't take it any longer king ar farazon led a force attacking mordor and captured sauron taking him as prisoner back to numenor in the year 32 62. there is more than a hint here that this was actually what sauron wanted he certainly used the opportunity he slowly gained in influence in numenor corrupting the people and our falazon the king turning them to melkor morgoth worship the white tree at the heart of our menolos was cut down the faithful persecuted and our fanazon was slowly persuaded that the valar were hiding the secret to eternal life in the undying lands and what he should really do is build a massive fleet and invade there which he did regardless of the ban of the valar explicitly forbidding them from sailing there eru eluvatar destroyed that fleet and the entire island of numenor where sauron was which does seem to have caught sauron by surprise a bit he will surely have expected some kind of retaliation against the numenoreans that was why he pushed them into it after all but not the destruction of the entire island continent men women and children all he clearly wasn't expecting that and his body was destroyed so great was this destruction for sauron personally that his immortal spirit the spirits of maya live on even when their physical bodies are destroyed after it had fled back to mordor discovered that it could no longer choose the physical form it would inhabit hence him taking on the form of a dark lord terrible and horrifying it was simply a physical representation of who he was so sauron had got his revenge on the numenoreans for foiling his plans earlier in the age but at great personal cost and he soon discovered that some of the numenoreans the faithful who had opposed him in numenor had also escaped it took him another hundred years or so to gather his strength again but he was determined to finish the job attacking the newly formed gondor we know what happened next the last alliance of elves and men formed pushing sauron back to mordor he made a last stand killing both elendil and gil galad but isildu with the broken sword cut the one ring from his finger and he was once more without physical form his army and influence scattered and the second age drew to a close i said at the start of this video that sauron was the key character in the second age but for his presence there may not have been peace all the time but so much of the death and destruction would have been avoided aragion fell because of him baradur grew to be the greatest fortress because of him numenor was wiped off the map because of him the rings of power that affected so much that followed happened because of him and all this from someone who tolkien wrote very little about for the first millennium or more of the age or in the millennium or more after his first defeat by the elves and humans the story of the second age is more than can be said for any other character the story of sauron and his desire to gain power and get revenge on the elves and humans who had defied him sauron wasn't always active in the second age but when he was empires and civilizations fell before him if you'd like to see more videos on the world of j.r.r tolkien and the lord of the rings please click on the link to the playlist on the left of your screen or if you'd like to support this channel or get access to some content i produce just from my patrons please click on the link to my patreon page on the right of the screen thanks for watching that's all for this time i'll see you again soon

Channel: In Deep Geek

Views: 106,955

Keywords: in deep geek, deep geek, idg, lord of the rings, lotr, the lord of the rings, silmarillion, rings of power, the rings of power, sauron, annatar, second age lotr, second age lord of the rings, second age, middle earth, history, lore

Id: BYqr7g-yjUQ

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 16 2022