Summary
Don’t call him Sauron, because the big bad ofThe Lord of the Ringsisn’t particularly fond of his name. And it is understandable why. His original name, from when he wasn’t a corrupted servant of Morgoth or a Dark Lord, makes ‘Sauron’ sound almost…stinky, for more than one reason.
While it’s not so evident inThe Lord of the Ringstrilogy,The Rings of PowerTV series more accurately portrays Sauron’s touchy feelings regarding his name. Any time a character in the series tries to call him Sauron, he shirks from it and says that he has many names, suggesting that others use any of those names but Sauron. What’s the story here, and why is the name Sauron distasteful to him?
What is Sauron’s Real Name?
Sauron wasn’t always Sauron. Back when the world was yet to be sung into existence by the music of the Ainur and Eru Ilúvatar (the One God),Sauron was one of the Maiar— angelic beings, though lesser in class than the Valar. His name then wasMairon, a word in the Quenya language of the High Elves meaning ‘The Admirable.’
When the most powerful of the Valar, Melkor, rebelled against Ilúvatar and became the first Dark Lord, he became Morgoth (meaning Dark Foe). Mairon the Maia had been a follower of Melkor, and in his dark deeds, too, he followed him. Twisted and corrupted by Morgoth, Mairon the Admirable became Sauron.
Why Is The Name Sauron So Insulting?
The name was given to Sauron in the First Age by the elves of Beleriand, the location in Middle-earth where most of the events of the First Age occurred, including the War of Wrath that led to Morgoth’s defeat. Sauron is a Quenya word which means ‘The Abhorred’ or ‘The Abominable.’
But here’s where the mockery comes in. The word ‘Sauron’ is derived from the Quenya word ‘Saura,’ which means foul, putrid, or rank. In other words, the elves essentially designated Sauron as “Lord Stinky.” The fall from being called “The Admirable” to “Stinky” is quite a steep drop. It’s no wonder that Sauron doesn’t like using this name, and doesn’t allow his followers to use it either.
InThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, chapter “The Departure of Boromir,” Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are trying to figure out where the Orcs that attacked the Fellowship came from. Gimli spots the ‘S; rune on their helmets and declares,“S is for Sauron.” WhenLegolas tells him that Sauron does not use elf-runes, Aragorn adds:
“Neither does he use his right name, nor permit it to be spelt or spoken.”
To quote a wise witch from Harry Potter, “Fear of the name increases fear of the thing itself.” Sauron employs this very tactic by forbidding the use of his name and killing two birds with one stone. By calling him the Dark Lord or The Eye, he instills fear in the hearts of his slaves and his enemies alike, with the added benefit of not having to hear himself being called “Stinky.”
Why Do We Still Hear The Name ‘Sauron’?
It’s worth pondering why, at various points in the books and the movies, we hear the characters refer to him as Sauron. In fact, there’s evena character named Mouth of Sauron, which seems to be at odds with Sauron’s feelings about his name. One reason could be that the name Sauron is the most widely known and instills the proper amount of terror. The other reason could be that the story is chronicled by Frodo Baggins in the Red Book of Westmarch, and is a hobbit’s account of the events as he experienced them and as he was told by his friends who stood before the Black Gate to face Sauron. Any distinction might have been lost in translation.
After Mairon became Sauron, he earned many names from his terrible deeds. In the First Age, Sauron could shape-shift into a vampire, was the master of the werewolves in Morgoth’s service, and a necromancer and dark sorcerer. The elves named him Gorthaur the Cruel for this. In the Second Age, after he took the fair form of the elf Annatar, Lord of Gifts, and deceived the elven smiths of Eregion,he was called Sauron the Deceiver. In the Third Age, too, Sauron added more names to his repertoire. He was called The Necromancer or Dark Sorcerer when he took up residence in Dol Guldur, and The Eye when he returned to Mordor atop the tower of Barad-dûr.
However, it was always the name ‘Sauron’ that he found most insulting and irksome. But unfortunately, it was the most widely used name to refer to him, even though he might have tried his best to change that. In the 17th edition of the Parma Eldalamberon, a linguistics journal on the Elvish languages and names used by J.R.R. Tolkien, it is mentioned that even after being corrupted by Melkor, Sauron continued to call himself ‘Mairon’ or ‘Tar-Mairon, which means ‘King Excellent’, until the fall of Númenor. If no one else referred to him with this self-aggrandizing title, it would have probably made the name Sauron feel even more insulting.
