Part 1 Summary (¶1-3)
According to our speculations…
Sauron sought a power of the Unseen World to heal Middle-earth at the time of Finrod’s death. After his encounter with Lúthien and Huan, he went missing.
Many years later, at the turn of the age, Morgoth fell and Sauron suddenly reappeared. He sued for pardon at the feet of Eönwë, but afterwards fled and became an outlaw. He bid as many as he could to follow him far north, was at the command of a legion of Orcs, and sought to craft the power he had been seeking when Finrod died.
In Dúrnost, Sauron endeavored to harness this power in something tangible, but using too much force to harness too much power into one object, the result was catastrophic, yet somewhat successful; the power was distributed in an entire deposit of mithril.
While vulnerable, Sauron was split open by Adar, who sacrificed enough of his children for Sauron’s aspirations. Being of the sort that knows how to survive, Sauron escaped death.
Having been brought low in power, Sauron wandered upon his homeland (Forodwaith) as a solitary outlaw, for a time, until he was “pressed so hard that at last he was forced to flee.” The way he sees it, it wasn’t Elves that chased him from his homeland. It was Orcs: the Orcs who could not “find tooth nor tail of him.” Sauron “must’ve got smart and scarpered.”
Atop Ered Mithrin, Sauron shaped in his heart to venture into Númenor (in due time), but for long he dissembled his mind and concealed his dark designs. He traveled south along Hithaeglir, where he possibly encountered Shelob (one of the fell race of Ungoliant) and plotted against the Eldar. He traveled through Elven territory, where he planted at least one apocryphal tale, then set for the Southlands, where his accomplishments are yet unknown.
Centuries later, the seeds Sauron planted had fully ripened, and it was time for his plot to begin. The Great Tree in Lindon was poisoned, provoking the fear of extinction in the Elves. Sauron gave them a means of mastering their fear so he could master them. By means of a Mirror, he suggested:
- Send the she-Elf away.
- Prepare to craft a new power out of mithril.
Sauron then departed from the Southlands, and set sail from Harad into the Sundering Seas; but none know how he found a way, for he spoke of it to no one after. He passed through the mazes that Ulmo wove about the island kingdom of Númenor, even as it was foretold in the Palantir, for a great doom lay upon him.
After all that, he met Galadriel on the raft.
