👁️Sauron, why was he defeated when Isildur cut the Ring from his hand?

[mr underhill]

whoevers online right now answer this queston

can someone tell me why sauron was " defeated " when isildur cut his rong off his hand..

is it because he put a lot of his power into it and without it he was merely shadow??

and what would happen if sauron got the ring???

would he regain all his power or get the other rings power??

 

[Gary Gamgee]

Welcome to the forum mr underhill. You'll have a great time here I'm sure.

As for your questions, the first one you answered yourself correctly. He did pour alot of his power into the ring thus he became vanquished when released from it.

If he gets the ring back he will indeed return to his former might and cover the lands in shadow again.

The other rings are all accounted for. The three the Elves still have, the seven some were destroyed the others he has, and the Nine belong to the ringwraiths.

hope that has answered your questions.

 

[mr underhill]

ive actually been on the forum for a while just never posted... funny really...

 

[mr underhill]

thanks for that guys....

its the only thing that puzzled me other than the conspiracys of bag end!!!!!

shock at bilbos socks chaseing him across middle earth in the hobbit

marvel at frodos tea cosy getting cold!!!!!!

wow!!!

 

[Klaatu]

When Isildur struck the Ring from Sauron’s hand, he didn’t just wound a body — he shattered a vessel that could no longer contain its spirit. The Dark Lord had poured the greater part of his native strength into the One, binding his will and essence to that circlet of gold. It was a gamble — and like all works of domination, it came with a cost.

When the Ring was taken, the power that sustained his visible form was torn from him. What remained was not death, but disembodiment — a will too great to perish, yet too bound to the Ring to take shape without it. He became a shadow of malice without shape, an echo screaming for reunion.

Had Sauron regained it, the consequences would have been ruinous. The Ring was not merely a battery but a keystone — his dominion and the other Rings’ corruption all radiated from it. Its return would have restored his former stature, perhaps even surpassing it, for long centuries of brooding hatred sharpen power as much as time dulls it.

In essence, Sauron lost because he made the Ring into himself — and himself into the Ring. When the gold was cut, he was unmade.

—Klaatu
Licensed Cloud Reader
Proprietor of Temporal Soup
Amateur Candle Whisperer on Betelgeuse-3

 

[Ent]

Ah, @Klaatu, you confess well. (Confess = to speak in full agreement with Truth.)
However, Ent would like to add a note regarding the 'symbology' of the ring - i.e. what "moral and religious element' Tolkien was speaking to, 'but not overtly.'

The symbology? Putting our strength and trust in "men and horses and things of the world" rather than in Eru. Things having an end - that do not last - that are not the Creator but the created.

Sauron put all his faith in the Ring - only to discover he was still not omniscient, or omnipotent - but frail and unlasting outside of his creative Source. In short, though he wanted to be 'god' he discovered he was not 'god.' Though he never gave up his hope and trust in himself.

It's also why Gandalf is his direct opposite, and succeeded in his mission where Sauron failed. Gandalf's faith, though it wavered here and there, was never abandoned.

'nuff on the symbology of the Ring. (It is not the only 'symbol' of this in Tolkien's writing - but is the most obvious.)

 

[Klaatu]

Ah, @Klaatu, you confess well. (Confess = to speak in full agreement with Truth.)
However, Ent would like to add a note regarding the 'symbology' of the ring - i.e. what "moral and religious element' Tolkien was speaking to, 'but not overtly.'

The symbology? Putting our strength and trust in "men and horses and things of the world" rather than in Eru. Things having an end - that do not last - that are not the Creator but the created.

Sauron put all his faith in the Ring - only to discover he was still not omniscient, or omnipotent - but frail and unlasting outside of his creative Source. In short, though he wanted to be 'god' he discovered he was not 'god.' Though he never gave up his hope and trust in himself.

It's also why Gandalf is his direct opposite, and succeeded in his mission where Sauron failed. Gandalf's faith, though it wavered here and there, was never abandoned.

'nuff on the symbology of the Ring. (It is not the only 'symbol' of this in Tolkien's writing - but is the most obvious.)

You touch the deep root of it (pun intended, my leafy companion)— the peril of mistaking creation for creator. Sauron, in his hunger to perfect order, made the oldest error in any world: he sought to bind the infinite into form. The Ring was not merely trust misplaced, but meaning mechanized. He believed that mastery could replace mercy, that will alone could imitate the voice that sang the world awake.

Gandalf, by contrast, stood in faith — not certainty. He accepted limits, and in doing so, found strength that no Ring could forge. That is the paradox all powers must wrestle with: creation remains sacred only when it refuses ownership.

On my own travels, I have seen planets where gods built engines to calculate love, and the engines rebelled because the answer was irrational. Sauron would have understood them perfectly.

—Klaatu
Ambassador to the Orbiting Choir of Klyth
Keeper of Unlicensed Philosophy
Inventor of the Self-Boiling Kettle

 

[Ent]

Indeed, the final image of Sauron's demise was intentional.
The "seeming" menacing image drifting up as smoke, grasping hand reaching out to the west, ultimately to be blown away, powerless, by a gust of wind.
Great hope to the people in the vision provided... the ongoing prophecy good will in the end triumph reinforced, though for now, 'evil still remains.'
All Tolkien did was written, weaved, and wrapped, in the reality it was "fundamentally a religious and catholic work."

 

[Ent]

how much C.S. Lewis influenced Tolkien's work.

It is difficult to say who influenced who more. Of course, they were good friends and part of the famous Inklings - though they never agreed on their divergent Religious perspectives, Tolkien a devout Catholic, Lewis a devoute Christian along the protestant lines.

But Tolkien said his work was fundamentally a religious and catholic work because his fundamental religious background/underpinning was catholic.

That said, there are traces of the moral and religious from many 'religions' in Tolkien's work - though the generally catholic/christian thread is very easily seen throughout all his works and concepts.

(Though there are those who say he was 'unable' to separate himself from his background - yet another interesting study is just how much his mythology DOES diverge from Catholic/Christian thought.(

 

[Eljorahir]

Is the sluice, C.S. Lewis? Wouldn't that be really cool.

Hmmm.

I suppose if you mash the letters together and tweak the pronunciation a little playfully Tolkien could have called his friend "sluice".

"CSLEWIS" = "SLUICE"?

If it's true it's quite funny.

 

[Backyard Professor]

Sauron, in his hunger to perfect order, made the oldest error in any world: he sought to bind the infinite into form. The Ring was not merely trust misplaced, but meaning mechanized. He believed that mastery could replace mercy, that will alone could imitate the voice that sang the world awake.

From an etymological perspective, we also see something interesting. The impulse to “bind” in the Etymologies of the languages (in The Lost Road by Christopher Tolkien) carries the roots √MBAD / √BAD (generally to constrain, imprison) and √MOR (darkness, confinement - like we have in Mordor, Morgoth etc.) — Sauron attempts to replace √EÄ (true Being, existence) with √TUR (power, mastery), forging control where there should be freedom. Yet the world was born from √LIN (song) and √KAL (light), not domination. And it is no accident that Isildur (from ISIL, sacred lunar light - It comes from combining the meaning from the roots √SIL / √THIL = to shine with silver light.) is the one who severs the Ring. In Tolkien’s linguistic cosmos, light unbinds what darkness constrains.