To many he appeared fair, to others terrible; but to some evil." After the destruction of his fair form in the fall of Númenor, Sauron always took the shape of a terrible dark lord. His first incarnation after the Downfall of Númenor was hideous, "an image of malice and hatred made visible".
Sauron was initially able to shift his appearance, but when he became a servant of Morgoth, he took on a sinister form that Tolkien described in his letters as slightly bigger than human stature yet not giant. This version of Sauron had daunting eyes and appeared as malice and hatred incarnate.
As one of the Maiar, Gandalf was not a mortal Man but an angelic being who had taken human form. As one of those spirits, Olórin was in service to the Creator (Eru Ilúvatar) and the Creator's 'Secret Fire'.
Sauron's original name was Mairon, but this was altered after he was suborned by Melkor. But he continued to call himself Mairon the Admirable, or Tar-mairon 'King Excellent', until after the downfall of Númenor.
Is Sauron an elf? No Sauron is not an elf, elves are the firstborn children of iluvatar but Sauron is a maia an angelic being that has existed before the universe was even created.
Gandalf, like all the five wizards of Middle-earth, was a Maia, an angelic spirit of the same order as Sauron.
The History of Sauron and the first Dark Lord Morgoth
Before we get into Sauron, it's best to start with his predecessor and the first Dark Lord of Middle-earth: Morgoth. First known as Melkor, he was a ValarOpens in new tab—or one of the most powerful beings in ArdaOpens in new tab.
The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger writes that if there was an opposite to Sauron in The Lord of the Rings, it would not be Aragorn, his political opponent, nor Gandalf, his spiritual enemy, but Tom Bombadil, the earthly Master who is entirely free of the desire to dominate and hence cannot be dominated.
It begins after Sauron's master, the evil lord Morgoth, is defeated. Sauron may have gone into hiding, but he's still alive: the series will eventually show Sauron's creation of the titular rings of power—including the one ring to rule them all.
Galadriel immediately becomes suspicious and soon confronts Halbrand. He concedes that, yes, he is Sauron, and hopes to restore order to Middle-earth.
He wasn't truly omnipotent, but his great power allowed him knowledge of many things within the realm. Sauron insisted that the Orcs refer to him as the “Eye” because he did not allow his name to be written or spoken.
As for Sam, his resistance likely has to do with his innate goodness and loyalty. His love for Frodo helped him to overcome the pull of the Ring and his inner pureness was never fully pierced by the Ring.
Isildur took the hilt shard of his father's sword and cut the One Ring from Sauron's finger. Ignoring the advice of Elrond and Círdan, lieutenant of Gil-galad, Isildur did not destroy the Ring; instead he claimed it as a weregild for the deaths of his father and brother, and an heirloom for his House.
God is the most powerful entity in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe. The Elvish name for him is actually Eru Ilúvatar, meaning “the one, father of all.” So the question becomes: Who is the second-most powerful being? Originally, it was Melkor, “he who arises in might,” the most powerful of the Ainur (or angels).
The Inverse Analysis — In Tolkien's legendarium, the Three Elven Rings of Power are eventually given to Galadriel, Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker), and Círdan the Shipwright.
While Sauron is indeed one of the evilest entities in Middle-earth history, he wasn't always so, as The Rings of Power's premise states that "nothing is evil in the beginning." In fact, there were moments in the Second Age, after the fall of Morgoth, and even during the War of the Ring (depicted in The Lord of the ...
So, while Gil-galad and Elendil defeated Sauron on a physical level, it was Isildur's part that essentially gave Middle Earth over a thousand years of peace while Sauron tried to regain his power without the Ring.
Sauron would certainly have tried to convince Smaug that it was a trusted ally. But of course in Sauron's world, as in that of any number of other famous megalomaniacal tyrants, there are no real allies.
In The Book of Lost Tales, it is said that Orcs were "bred from the heats and slimes of the earth" through the sorcery of Morgoth. Again, Tolkien later changed this, as Morgoth could not create life on his own. This led to the most popular theory that Orcs were created from corrupted Elves.
Since the First Age spanned 590 years, this means that Sauron is at least 1500 years old in The Rings of Power - at least in terms of the history of Middle-Earth. The Lord of The Rings is set some 3000 years into the Third Age of Middle-Earth, beginning in 3018 T.A and a minimum of 4950 years after The Rings of Power.
The Rings of Power were forged by the Elven-smiths of the Noldorin settlement of Eregion. Best-known were the twenty Great Rings which conferred powers including invisibility, but many lesser rings with minor powers were also created at that time.