After Morgoth's defeat, the Dark Lord Sauron, his chief lieutenant, initially feigned repentance and hid in Middle-earth, fearing the Valar's judgment; he then gradually re-emerged in the Second Age, becoming the new Dark Lord, forging the One Ring to dominate all, and eventually being defeated by the Last Alliance, losing his physical form but not his spirit until the Ring's destruction in the Third Age.
But in the show, when Sauron is murdered by Adar, he emits a beam of light and then turns into black gunk. After consuming the flesh of various beings he takes on a humanoid form, names himself Halbrand, and pretends to be the long-lost King of the Southlands.
After the downfall of Morgoth, Sauron continually strove to conquer Middle-earth throughout the Second and Third Ages. In the Second Age, under the guise of Annatar, he deceived the Elves of Eregion, who under his guidance had created the Rings of Power, whilst he secretly forged the One Ring in Mount Doom.
In fact, at one point, after the defeat of Morgoth at the end of The War of Wrath, Sauron renounced his evil deeds & sought the pardon of the Valar, just as Ossë (a Maia originally in the service of Ulmo who briefly served Morgoth before being brought back into the Valar's good graces by his mate, Uinen) did, but his ...
Sauron's body was destroyed, but his spirit was not diminished, and he fled back to Mordor bearing the Ring, where he slowly rebuilt a new body and strength.
His task was to do the bidding of his masters and so when he proved unfaithful in doing that task his masters stripped him of his robes and gave them to one who would do their bidding. Gandalf is now the White, Saruman as he should have been.
It's possible that Gollum's prolonged search for the ring allowed it to maintain a significant power over him, suspending his aging process. In contrast, Bilbo's exposure to the ring's influence waned after he willingly (mostly) relinquished it, allowing his aging to resume more noticeably.
Why was Sauron afraid of Aragorn potentially possessing the Ring? Gandalf explains it in the Return of the King (during the council after the battle of the Pelennor fields) that Sauron would never think somebody would want to destroy the One Ring.
Biography. Very little is known of Smaug before he attacked, in TA 2770, the Lonely Mountain and the town of Dale. What information exists dictates that he was created by Morgoth at some point after Nírnaeth Arnoediad for use in his fleet of winged Fire-drakes.
Instead, we have to consider that Sauron, the original owner, is not human, but has a quasi-divine status. Therefore ownership of the Ring is subject to Divine Law. With this precedent in mind, many of the ambiguities clear up nicely. After numerous transfers by violence and trickery, Frodo is the true owner.
Sauron needed Gandalf out of the picture permanently, as he was the only enemy with the knowledge, leadership and determination to thwart him. His biggest mistake was ego. He succeeded by trickery, by his ability to deceive others. He conquered so much land that his ability to control became out of reach .
The Ring's effects
Inversely, the hobbits' good-naturedness and lack of ambition makes them less susceptible to the Ring's promises of power, as in Frodo and Samwise Gamgee, who are able to handle the Ring for extended periods of time.
'The Fellowship of the Ring' (2001)
If Gandalf had stayed dead after his sacrifice in The Fellowship of the Ring, then his demise would be the saddest in the trilogy, but since he came back, the saddest single death scene of all three movies goes to Boromir's.
Tolkien didn't have a plan for LotR when he wrote the Hobbit. So Tolkien didn't know then. But when he wrote LotR he realised The Necromancer would become the villain of the story and have his story expanded. To be clear, if you read LotR it is made absolutely clear that Sauron is the Necromancer.
The "eye of Sauron" isn't physical in the books. At Amon Hen , Frodo sees a giant black arm stretching from Mordor, which is supposed to represent Sauron searching for his Ring. His soldiers wear a red eye on their shields because Sauron doesn't allow his name to be spoken or spelled by Orcs.
1. Eru Ilúvatar Note: The ever-encompassing swirly light is Eru, not the black figure. Anyways this should be a no-brainer. Eru Ilúvatar is the definitive supreme being of all Tolkien's Legendarium.
From what I understand, Smaug is a beast that must eat other living things to sustain himself. For example, he does not "eat" gold and jewels, he simply admires and covets them. It's implied that he ate a good deal of dwarves, men, ponies, etc., during his attack on Erebor.
Elf Immortality Means Adar Could Be Reincarnated In Rings Of Power Death Isn't The End For Elves Among those who died in the Siege of Eregion and its aftermath is Adar, the "father" of the Orcs. Though technically an Uruk himself, Adar was unique among his children in that he was born an Elf.
In the end Tolkien stated that there were probably "at most" seven Balrogs: In the margin my father wrote: 'There should not be supposed more than say 3 or at most 7 ever existed.
Elrond chose the fate of the Elves and therefore the choice was presented to his children. The reason why Eldarion and his sisters (the children of Aragorn and Arwen) were born mortal was because Arwen chose mortality and therefore that fate was passed on to the rest of their line.
Saruman first appeared during a fourth phase of writing in a rough narrative outline dated August 1940. Intended to account for Gandalf's absence, it describes how a wizard titled "Saramond the White" or "Saramund the Grey", who has fallen under the influence of Sauron, lures Gandalf to his stronghold and traps him.
Tolkien's description of Gollum conforms to a Catholic – and Thomistic – account of envy, which is a “sadness of the soul”; and it is Gollum's unbearable sadness and his unquenchable desire for the one Ring that marks his character.
In the books Bilbo hadn't even come close to catching up with his biological age until after the Ring was destroyed. (And since Gollum was destroyed with the Ring, there wasn't any chance for his age to catch up with him.)
A group of UCL medical students, led by Dr. Liz Sampson, concludes that Gollum was actually suffering from schizoid personality disorder.