Lord Of The Rings: What Is The Eye Of Sauron Exactly?
Every fantasy fan knows about the Dark Lord Sauron. J.R.R. Tolkien's legendary Lord of the Rings is one of the most terrifying literary villains of all time. He's also a pretty enigmatic presence, especially later in Middle-earth history. Earlier, Sauron moves between attractive and terrifying personas as he weaves his will to corrupt and control others. In "The Lord of the Rings" story, though, the baddie is, for all intents and purposes, bound to his tower of Barad-dûr. In Peter Jackson's film trilogy, Sauron is specifically shown as an animate, oversized eyeball made of fire. It's one of the most confusing things in all of "The Lord of the Rings."
As we see more of the villain in other forms — such as the Necromancer from "The Hobbit" or Elf-like Annatar in "The Rings of Power" — it begs the question: What is the eye of Sauron version of the villain, exactly? Why is he humanoid and mobile in some stories and ocular and home-bound in others?
The answer is complex (as is often the case with Tolkien), but in a nutshell, the "Eye of Sauron" in Peter Jackson's films is a misleading and restrictive adaptation of the author's original vision. There is ample evidence of Sauron having some kind of humanoid form at that time. Rather, the "Eye" concept is part of Sauron's larger-than-life persona. It is part of the terrifying aura that the Dark Lord wraps himself in for many of his late-Second Age and Third Age conquests. It is a symbol of his domination and a reminder of his all-seeing power.
Let's take a closer look at where the "Eye of Sauron" concept comes from in Tolkien's writings, some of Sauron's additional forms, and why Peter Jackson's adaptation is so wonky and unhelpful for movie-only audiences.
The Eye of Sauron in the books
Sauron is a being of many forms and appearances. As Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) says in "The Rings of Power" series, the character has been around since the breaking of the first silence (i.e., the beginning of creation), and in that time, he's had many names. Those names have come with a variety of appearances. At different times, Sauron dons an angelic form as well as that of a wolf, serpent, monster, and bat-shaped vampire. He also operates as the shady Necromancer and in a more intimidating humanoid form later in life. Those last two are for a specific reason. By "The Lord of the Rings," Sauron has lost his bodies so often (and poured so much power into the One Ring) that he can no longer take on any humanoid form easily.
Sauron completely loses his body twice at the end of the Second Age alone. After the first of these physical destructions, "The Silmarillion" says, "He wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible." It also says that by this time, "He could never again appear fair to the eyes of Men." Interestingly, while describing a full-body reincarnation, the text also calls out one bodily feature above all others, saying, "and the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure."
This is the point where Sauron really starts identifying with the terrifying eye element of his persona. His soldiers paint the Lidless Eye on their helmets and banners and use it as a form of graffiti. But even then, there's no indication that Sauron is only an eyeball. In fact, this starts before the One Ring is cut from his hand, when it's pretty safe to assume that he has a full body, fingers and all.
Sauron still has a body during The Lord of the Rings
When reading "The Lord of the Rings" books, there's no description of Sauron as an oversized, out-of-socket eye permanently perched between two spires of a tower. On the contrary, while he remains quietly hidden behind his people and the mountains of Mordor, there are a couple of times that we get a glimpse of Sauron under the armor.
For instance, at one point Isildur writes about Sauron's hand, which he says was black and burned like fire. Gollum also refers to the "Black Hand" of the Dark Lord, detailing that by the War of the Ring, Sauron only has four fingers due to his Ring-losing run-in with Isildur an age earlier. In a letter in 1963, J.R.R. Tolkien got even more specific, writing, "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."
While he's a human, though, the eye element is still pronounced. When Frodo sees the Dark Lord in the Mirror of Galadriel, for instance, the "Fellowship of the Ring" book says that the entire mirror is filled with Sauron's Eye (the proper noun is used). It adds, "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."
"The Two Towers" book adds that Frodo is troubled by what it calls, "The Eye: that horrible growing sense of a hostile will that strove with great power to pierce all shadows of cloud, and earth, and flesh, and to see you: to pin you under its deadly gaze, naked, immovable."
Peter Jackson's interesting ocular interpretation
All of this about a symbolic but not necessarily literal "Eye" of Sauron leads us back to Peter Jackson's interesting iteration of the Dark Lord in "The Lord of the Rings" story. Why did the director go for the stationary, intimidating eyeball? There are a couple of passages that might help unravel the mystery.
First, we have the aforementioned description of the Eye of Sauron in the Mirror of Galadriel. While there isn't an indication that this is detached from a body, it certainly matches the description of Jackson's Eyeball Sauron pretty closely.
And then there's the moment in the "Return of the King" book where Frodo approaches the Cracks of Doom and compulsively looks over his shoulder, through the shadows of Mordor, at the Dark Lords' terrifying tower of Barad-dûr. The text says, "One moment only it stared out, but as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye; and then the shadows were furled again and the terrible vision was removed." This gives the indication of a literal, visible eye looking out from the tower and visible from a great distance away.
However, we have to remember that this is seen by a Frodo who is half in the spirit world himself at this point. The fact that he sees a physical eye doesn't mean Sauron is, himself, just an eye. Instead, the Eye concept remains a vague but constant element of the Dark Lord persona throughout the later stages of Middle-earth history. It hints at Sauron's impressively far-reaching sight and his ability to "see" others and dominate (or at the least oppress) their wills.