Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfirin
Actually you may be on to something there. Given the amount of Norse mythology Tolkein used for inspiration, and the general way Sauron behaved (especially in the First and Second ages) I've always seen a sort of Loki-ish strain in him. And a lot of depictions of Loki also give him red hair (of course I've seen a lot of blonde ones as well)
I suppose it is also possible that, in his Annatar form (since Sauron has multiple body forms, we should really be talking about his hair color on a body by body basis, with each new form, he could have had a different one.) Sauron had silver hair. Making himself look "fair" to the men of Numenor probably meant looking as Elven as possible, and silver is the only hair color that (as far as we know) Elves have and humans don't (or at least don't have often)
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Red hair isn't really a Viking thing, it's a 'Celtic fringe' (no pun intended
) thing. The Irish referred to the Vikings who invaded them as the dubgaill and finngaill which suggests they were mostly either dark or blonde haired.
But yes, there are lots of artworks made where they portray Vikings with red hair. This is probably because even now it scares people and there's a stereotype that us redheads are a bit bad tempered. I'm not going to disabuse anyone from this myth, it's quite handy...
The Elves primarily had very dark or very fair hair, so either would seem beautiful to them, surely, and whichever way you choose to picture Sauron as Annatar is equally valid.
I always picture him as very blonde though I'm not sure he would be, thinking about Tolkien's references to blonde hair and Light or divinity - see Gimli's request for some of Galadriel's hair to use in crafting a jewel that would capture her 'Light'. Would Sauron be able to clothe himself in such a way?