Why Doesn’t Sauron Say Anything in the Lord of the Rings?
Evil rarely gets a voice in Tolkien, but Sauron gets not one word. Why?
(Pictured: the Lord of the Nazgul vs. Eowyn of Rohan)
Tolkien spends a great deal of time writing the dialog of good people in his magum opus The Lord of the Rings. Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli: all these characters are very good people and we hear from them throughout the novel.
Evil, by contrast, gets very short shrift.
Orcs are often seen but rarely heard. The only rational, thoughtful things Orcs ever say is found in the dialog between two Orc captains which takes place at the end of the Two Towers as they discuss matters, while Sam listens in on their conversation.
The Ringwraiths’s almost never say words to anyone that the reader knows, instead they cry out in shrieking voices which can terrorize all but the bravest men. The leader of the Nagul speaks once to Gandalf at the ruined gate of Minas Tirith and speaks twice to Eowyn just before she & Merry kill him.
The Balrog, an immortal being who has existed since the beginning of time - a master of magic capable of breaking Gandalf’s spells - says not one syllable in response to Gandalf impassioned speech on the Bridge of Khazadum.
Shelob, the spider-shaped demi-goddess of darkness, a creature from the 1st age, says nothing to Frodo or Sam, though we are told she talked to Gollum.
Saruman speaks a fair amount, and it’s wonderfully well written dialog, but Saruman used to be a good demi-god and he carried on the pretense of being one of the good guys for more than 2,000 years - so it’s not surprising that he can speak eloquently. He is evil, yes, but he knows a great deal about being good. Saruman’s language is mostly the language of lies, or truths which are so overstated as to be lies by omission.
Near the very end of the book we have the climactic battle in front of the Gates of Mordor, between Aragorn’s combined army of Gondor and Rohan vs. Sauron’s much larger army of Orcs, Trolls, and tens of thousands of deluded men. If there is ever a time for Sauron to appear - this is it! Here is Sauron’s big chance to strut and fret his hour upon the stage. And, as the reader is about to learn, this is Sauron’s last chance to speak because he is about to be destroyed, thanks to the efforts of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum.
Yet Tolkien decided not to bring Sauron on stage for this climactic scene. Instead, Sauron remains off stage for the entire book, never seen, never heard. The reader is left completely in the dark as to why everyone is so afraid of Sauron. Sauron is said to be the big bad power, the greatest threat the world has ever known, and yet… we never see him do anything, or issue any orders. Sauron is never once described in the present day.
Clearly, Tolkien thought about bringing Sauron on stage at this time, because he explains Sauron’s thinking for the first and only time, with regard to this final meeting. Tolkien writes Sauron’s thoughts as the delegation from his army rides up to parlay with Aragorn and Gandalf. At this point, who else but Sauron would appear when Gandalf, Aragon, and Elrond’s sons challenge him to battle? But no, it’s not Sauron who gets to finally appear and justify himself to the reader. Instead, we get the The Mouth of Sauron.
The Mouth of Sauron is such a minor character, that before he appears he was never mentioned and after he gallops away under Gandalf’s menacing gaze, he is never talked about even once. A loose-end which Tolkien couldn’t be bothered to tie up.
Why didn’t Tolkien use one of the Ringwraiths to talk on Sauron’s behalf?
Why Didn’t Tolkien let Sauron Speak?
We know Sauron had a form, because Isildur cut the ring from Sauron’s hand during a desperate fight at the end of the 2nd Age. You can’t cut a finger off a cloud, nor from a disembodied eye. No, Sauron had a man-like shape at the end of the 2nd age, and there is no reason to think he didn’t have a man-like shape in the 3rd age also. We know Sauron had a voice and could speak. He took on a highly convincing appearance when he worked closely with the Elves to make the other rings of power.
Finally, from a novel writing perspective, why not show the reader the big enemy at least once in the story? Tolkien spent 15 years writing the Lord of the Rings, he had the time to write at least once scene with Sauron in it, so the reader of his 1,000 page novel would know exactly what his heroes were fighting against.
Tolkien chose not to. Tolkien chose to leave Sauron off stage always and forever. This has to be regarded as a deliberate authorial choice - and I think it was a mistake.
Yes, the scene would have been hard to write. Yes, Sauron is immensely powerful such that all the other mortals would have likely quailed in his presence. Only Gandalf was Sauron’s near-equal, and five wizards (divine spirits) were sent by the Gods to oppose Sauron, not just Gandalf alone.
Perhaps Tolkien choose not to give Sauron any screen time to make the implied argument that truly great evil is beyond comprehension. In Catholic theology, Satan cannot be explained. Nor can Satan be understood. We mortals cannot defeat Satan. Instead, we must trust that God will save us from Satan, by faith and mercy alone. Tolkien was a very serious Catholic.
The Sage guess is that Tolkien felt incapable of writing a scene where our heroes confront Sauron. I suspect that he tried, and he couldn’t do it. Tolkien may have felt that if Sauron walked across the plain of Morannon, surrounded by his bodyguard of Ringwraiths, to meet with Gandalf, Aragorn, Eomer, and the rest, most everyone would have fled in terror at this approach. Which would have been be a rather humiliating start to this final battle. Perhaps Tolkien felt that Sauron was too much of a coward to have come out to face his enemies. OK, but at least have him there, yelling out his words from a safe distance. And if Sauron was too cowardly to even show up at the battle, why did anyone follow him?
There is an old idea from Hollywood that a monster is better left unseen, as the audience’s imagine will conjure up a terror worse than what can be shown. This is no longer true thanks to CGI effects and it does not apply to writing. The most terrifying monsters and demons have been described in books which go back to the dawn of literature, and Homer. In the Odyssey, the Cyclops, a son of Poseidon, is an immortal giant. The Cyclops could not be killed. He was a terrifying monster, of enormous size and strength, and he ate men. There was no escape from him, and there was no defeating him, until Odysseus figured out a plan.
Tolkien could have described Sauron as he walked up to intimidate the host of Gondor and Rohan. Tolkien could have written dialog for Sauron, dialog of arrogance and power. He choose not to. When the One Ring is finally destroyed in Mount Doom, Sauron simply vanishes, just like a cloud, blown away by a strong wind.
The Sage thinks Tolkien was afraid of this great evil. Afraid to describe it in words. Afraid of bringing it into any form of life, even though he wrote his entire book about the successful quest to destroy Satan/Sauron forever.
What would it be like to meet a divine entity like Sauron? Tolkien didn’t want to face that prospect. Tolkien was willing to describe for us Sauron’s servants, but not the great evil itself.
Worth thinking about.
(revised slightly 11-2022)