How much did Sauron know?

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Johnny1a <shermanlee1 RemoveThis @hotmail.com> spoke these staves:
>

[What was Sauron thinking of, when he changed sides?]

> I have a hunch that Sauron probably _started out_ thinking that he
> was 'using' Morgoth, sort of like Saruman tried to sell Gandalf on
> the idea that they could 'ride the storm' of Sauron's victory in
> the Third Age (albeit on a vastly smaller scale).

That is an intriguing and attractive idea, though I'm not sure that
I'm going to buy into it -- not right away, at least

Saruman was, after all, of the same order as Sauron and, according to
the descriptions in UT originally a peer of Sauron, so there is at
least a minimum of justification to the idea that he might be able to
ride off the storm and gradually steer Sauron in a more desirable
direction (though I think it is more likely that Saruman believed
this even less than Gandalf and only wanted to weather the storm --
to be on the winning side).

The original gap between Sauron and Melkor, however, was mind-
staggering. The idea that Sauron would be able to exert any kind of
control over Melkor would seem to me exceedingly naive -- personally
I would find it much easier to believe that Sauron was blinded by the
sheer power of Melkor, and forgot to look at what Melkor was using
his power for.

But on the other hand Sauron has at other times shown a tendency
towards self-delusion, so perhaps I shouldn't balk at adding a little
naivité

I've been reading Tom Shippey's essay, 'Orcs, Wraiths, Wights,
Tolkien's Images of Evil' in /Roots and Branches/, where he spends
some effort on the question of that aspect of evil, which is the
corruption of good. He argues convincingly that this was a topic
which occupied not only Tolkien, but also Lewis, and goes on to
mention various examples.

Shippey makes it clear that it is not unimportant how a person is
corrupted to evil, and so I think the question of Sauron's corruption
deserves some attention.

I don't know if it is significant that Sauron almost inevitably used
the lure of power when he tried to corrupt others, with the Rings of
Power and above all the One Ring embodying this above all else.

In view of what Tolkien wrote about Sauron initially being drawn to
Melkor by his 'apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his
designs quickly and masterfully,' it could be argued that Sauron in
later ages was merely trying to corrupt others in the same way as he
himself was corrupted.

<snip>

> Sauron, by at least some accounts, started by giving Morgoth
> _information_ from within the ranks of the loyal Ainur, he was a
> spy before he was openly in Morgoth's service.

I don't remember reading that anywhere -- where is it from?

> I also note that Sauron and Saruman are both members of Aule's
> Maiar, or started out so. I have a theory about why Aule's people
> seem especially vulnerable to Melkoric temptation: they are
> fascinated by the _materials_ of the world, and the arts and
> cracts and sciences of their manipulation. When they seek to make
> the world better, their instinct is to apply the same thinking
> that works when dealing with the inanimate to the animate.

I have been thinking that their easy corruptibility is related to
their work with the /hroa/ of Arda -- precisely because this is where
the power of Melkor expresses itself the clearest: the power to
manipulate matter.

It appears to me that our thinking takes its outset in the same
place: the desire to manipulate, to order and dominate the material
world, and by extension also its inhabitants. I don't, however, think
that Sauron thought he could manipulate Melkor any more than he
thought he could manipulate Aulë, but he would be fascinated by
Melkor's far greater ability to manipulate and dominate the world and
that, I think, could easily have blinded him to the ends towards
which Melkor used his power.

We agree entirely that Sauron would try to control, to order, shape
and manipulate the Eruhíni in the same way he would, as a maia of
Aulë, order, shape and manipulate the /hroa/ of Arda.

<snip>

--
Troels Forchhammer
Valid e-mail is <troelsfo(a)gmail.com>
Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.

Elen síla lúmenn' omentielvo
- /The Fellowship of the Ring/ (J.R.R. Tolkien)