Quote:
Originally Posted by Morthoron
But what would Sauron think with the hand of Eru violently drowning Numenor, destroying the greatest armada ever assembled under Ar-Pharazon, and reshaping the very earth itself after interceding for the Valar? What would Sauron think when his own ruin was almost encompassed in that vengeful tidal wave initiated by Illuvatar Himself? Sauron could not possibly hold any hope for Morgoth's release when the hand of God was against him. And Sauron indeed knew it was Eru who had caused the great tumult:
"For Sauron himself was filled with great fear at the wrath of the Valar, and the doom that Eru laid upon the sea and land."
Like Morgoth, Sauron's reach had exceeded his grasp, and Sauron decided that Valinor was out of reach of Middle-earth forever. He would concentrate his power on the sole dominion of the world that is as Tyrannus Imperator and God of this World, eschewing any thought of Morgoth's return.
As for the Balrog, it was an age and more that it was under any direction from his Dark Lord, Morgorth. The Balrog was a Maia, like Sauron, and seeing Gandalf's fearful denial of the Ring and Saruman's descent from greatness to degeneracy at the mere consideration of holding the Ring, would not the Balrog, too, succumb to the Ring's lure? The Balrog was not like the Wraiths, beholden to Sauron for their existence and enslaved by Rings of their own. He was not some automaton moving at the behest of Sauron. He would not blithely surrender up such a thing as powerful and tempting as the One Ring because Tolkien was quite specific about the effects on even the greatest of beings.
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As I pointed out in my prior post, the issue has less to do with Sauron's Faithfulness to Morgoth, and more to do with the Balrog's.
I quote from
Morgoth's Ring (in my previous post) a note that Tolkien made regarding Balrogs, and how they remained the most Faithful of Morgoth's servants.
The latter part of that post contains a response to your last question.
And... I suspect you will find that Tolkien was less specific on the effects of the
One Ring than you imagine.
His descriptions dealt merely with those who sought to use the
One Ring, or withhold it from its
Rightful Owner. Absent in those descriptions are what effects it has upon co-evals of Sauron
and Servants of Morgoth of similar power and "kind."
Can we really assume that the effects of the
One Ring are similar in effort upon/between those who are "Good" (Capital-G) and those who are already "Evil" (Capital-E)?
Would not that assumption require the thing that Tolkien himself failed to reach: a Functional Metaphysics for Middle-earth that would have allowed him to define the mechanism by which the
One Ring operated?
MB