Sauron Rebuilt

The Point

Recall the pattern from the Third Age.

“Always after a defeat and a respite, the Shadow takes another shape and grows again. […] His plans are far from ripe, I think, but they are ripening. […] The Enemy still lacks one thing to give him strength and knowledge to beat down all resistance, break the last defences, and cover all the lands in a second darkness.”

In the Second Age, the defeat was brought about by Adar, the respite lasted roughly two thousand years, the Shadow took another shape “over a thousand years” before the beginning of the show, which was not-so-coincidentally around the time of suspicious occurrences.

Sauron’s strength grew and his plans ripened in that time until he was finally able to act. However, he lacked something to give him his last bit of strength and knowledge. In the Third Age, he needed the One Ring because it contained most of his power.

“He only needs the One; for he made that Ring himself, it is his, and he let a great part of his own former power pass into it, so that he could rule all the others.”

Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: The Shadow of the Past

In the Second Age, we theorize that much of his power (likely not as much as was in the One Ring) was contained within the dagger and mithril. He would only need those two items to “give him strength and knowledge to beat down all resistance.” After he obtained them, it was mere months before his power was suddenly rebuilt to a significant degree.

The Signs

First, he obtained the dagger. He wanted to get to Galadriel, of course.

I can use you to get what I want, and effect my designs faster.
Charlie Vickers

He called Galadriel to him by means of the dagger, “exerting all his power to find it or draw it to himself.” We met him on the raft in a pitiful condition.

Then he found it.

And he rested.

Suddenly, his whole personality, demeanor, energy, physicality—his entire being—changed from episodes 2 to 3. He was no longer weak and bitter, but spry and lighthearted. His body recovered faster than one of the Noldor.

In the words of Gil-galad: “To what do you credit this new invigoration?” —The dagger.

Where once there was a glare now lay a knowing smirk.

One moment, he insinuated that he would never find peace.

“You didn’t cause my suffering, and you can’t fix it” (1×02).

Then, he asked to keep it. Because he had found it.

“I have been searching for my peace for longer than you know. Please. For both our sakes, let me keep it” (1×03).

Perhaps some peace could do Galadriel good, as well. What peace? —The dagger.

“While [Sauron] wore [the Ring], his power on earth was actually enhanced. But even if he did not wear it, that power existed and was in ‘rapport’ with himself: he was not ‘diminished.’ Unless some other seized it and became possessed of it. If that happened, the new possessor could (if sufficiently strong and heroic by nature) challenge Sauron, become master of all that he had learned or done since the making of the One Ring, and so overthrow him and usurp his place.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (#131)

Where once there was bitterness now lay… a knowing smirk.

He would be able to part with the dagger without being diminished, but if the hands of a naturally strong and heroic person obtained it, he could be challenged. Therefore, before he let go of the dagger, he parted with Galadriel on the following terms:

“And at the very least, do try not to make any new enemies” (1×03).

He was patient, but he had to act fast after Orodruin erupted, so he inflicted a poisonous wound upon himself so he would be taken to Eregion, knowing that “the only way he can be healed is through [the Elves’] power and magic” (Charlie Vickers). Yet, he did not need extensive rest.

“Shouldn’t you be resting?” (Celebrimbor, 1×08).

He knew where the missing piece of his power was—within the mithril, in Eregion. He found it, touched it, and gladly returned it to Celebrimbor, saying:

“Call it a gift.”

Now compare his strength.

In the beginning, he struggled to climb aboard the raft.

Then, he expended some effort to best four Númenóreans.

…is he just a good fighter, or is there something a little superhuman about what he just did?
J.D. Payne

Later, he effortlessly blocked the arm of the Elf, who proved her abilities earlier by single-handedly besting four Númenóreans, like Sauron. As a bonus, he warped her mind.

Sauron was much stronger after obtaining the dagger, but after he obtained the mithril, he seemed to finally have the “strength and knowledge to beat down all resistance.”

He acquired the dagger, and the next time he spoke to Galadriel, he looked like this:

He acquired the mithril, and the next time he spoke to Galadriel, he made the same expression:

“You believed in me. You saw strength in me. You pushed me to heights that no one else could have. I will never forget that. And I’ll see to it that no one else does, either” (1×08).

After the Three Rings were made, this was the face he made:

“In those days the smiths of Ost-in-Edhil surpassed all that they had contrived before; and they took thought, and they made Rings of Power. But Sauron guided their labours, and he was aware of all that they did; for his desire was to set a bond upon the Elves and to bring them under his vigilance.”

Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age