The Lord Of The Rings: What Sauron Really Looks Like Under The Armor
We've seen many adaptive iterations of the Dark Lord Sauron. He appeared in his guise as the necromancer in "The Hobbit" films. Director Peter Jackson created some confusing moments in "The Lord of the Rings" when he perched the Dark Lord high atop a tower as a glowing eyeball-shaped spotlight. Amazon Studios even sailed into uncharted waters when it made up its Halbrand persona (Charlie Vickers) as a non-canon version of Sauron for Season 1 of its "The Rings of Power" series.
Despite all the different manifestations, though, one of the most famous versions of Sauron is the imposing figure that we see in the opening sequence of Jackson's "The Fellowship of the Ring" movie. In that scene, the character is covered from head to toe in black armor, with the exception of the One Ring to rule them all, which glints on his finger. The question is, what is under that pitch-black exterior?
We know that when Isildur cuts the Ring from Sauron's hand, the Dark Lord implodes from the inside out, leaving him bodiless for centuries to come. So ... what body does he have less of? Does J.R.R. Tolkien explain? Kind of. Let's take a look at the tidbits of information that the Oxford professor gave us and see if we can piece together a picture of the Dark Lord on the other side of his armor.
Underneath the armor: A glimpse of the Dark Lord
Sauron's specific form beneath his armor is never explicitly stated. However, there are several instances where J.R.R. Tolkien gives us clues, leaving the bulk of the work to the imagination. The first thing to understand is that Sauron's black armor form is one that he takes on toward the end of the Second Age and then loses for the first time a little over a century later during the War of the Last Alliance. After that, he becomes the Necromancer and then eventually takes shape again, likely in a similar form.
It's interesting to note that, as far as our research could tell, Tolkien doesn't describe the armor part at all. However, in "The Silmarillion," he does explain that, after permanently losing a nicer form (which we'll talk about in a minute), "[Sauron] brooded in the dark, until he had wrought for himself a new shape; and it was terrible, for his fair semblance had departed forever."
Shortly after this, we get a description of Sauron's most famous body part when it says, "The malice of the Eye of Sauron few even of the great among Elves and Men could endure." "The Fellowship of the Ring" elaborates on Sauron's Eye when Frodo sees it in the Mirror of Galadriel, saying, "the Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing."
Sauron is, indeed, humanoid in shape
Okay, so Sauron has an eye and a terrifying "form," but that doesn't quite answer the question. Does he even have a humanoid body underneath the armor? At other times we see him as a spirit and an eyeball. Is there actually a figure with arms and legs underneath those metal-plated defenses? Or is it just an eye or a ghost squeezed into a suit of armor?
Again, we turn to "The Fellowship of the Ring" book for an answer. There Isildur writes the line, "The Ring misseth, maybe, the heat of Sauron's hand, which was black and yet burned like fire," referring to overheated appendages under the armor. In "The Two Towers" book, Gollum similarly references the "Black Hand" of Sauron and even says that at that time (during the Third Age), the Dark Lord only had four fingers on one hand, implying that he even retained his maimed status after Isildur's ring-cutting blow.
Finally, in a letter J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in 1963, he addressed Sauron's form, saying, "Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic."
To sum it up, while we don't get a specific description, we know that Sauron's armor is covering a dude with a slightly gigantic human form that includes a black, burning hot hand and a deadly, cat-like eye.
Sauron didn't always look like his Lord of the Rings form
Sauron spends a lot of his earlier life looking much nicer than a Necromancer, flaming eyeball, or a giant, black-clad, armored figure. In fact, he's supposed to be quite the looker. The previously referenced letter adds that before he took on his terrible form, "In his earlier incarnation he was able to veil his power (as Gandalf did) and could appear as a commanding figure of great strength of body and supremely royal demeanour and countenance."
"The Silmarillion" talks about how Sauron was the Dark Lord Morgoth's greatest, most trusted servant, saying, "for he could assume many forms, and for long if he willed he could still appear noble and beautiful, so as to deceive all but the most wary."
Sauron dons this fair appearance more than once, including during the Second Age, when Amazon Studios' "The Rings of Power" is set. This isn't the Halbrand form that actor Charlie Vickers portrays in Season 1, though. That mortal form is made up for the show. In J.R.R. Tolkien's original writings, along with his normal attractive form, Sauron masquerades as a character named "Annatar, Lord of Gifts." He uses this form to seduce the Elves and convince them to make Rings of Power, and based on the way Sauron looks different in the Season 2 teaser trailer, it looks like we may be getting this canonical version of the character in the show before long. But while Annatar and Sauron's other finer-looking forms may be fascinating iterations of his past glory, nothing beats the intimidating terror of his black-armored look later in life.