I spy with my little eye.....

[Elianna]

Sorry to continue on this tangent....

Another way Santa and Sauron are related: Forcing elves to do their will! Sauron's elves just happen to already be turned into orcs. I don't think Santa's elves are far from being changed. How can the elves, lovers of nature and all things that grow, survive in the frozen desert of the North Pole?!

[Encaitare]

I wonder how long it'll be before this thread is closed, or we're reprimanded for going completely OT... but I'll jump on the bandwagon. Maybe they're stragglers from when the elves crossed the Helcaraxe. They have since evolved into smaller creatures better suited to the icy environment.

[The Perky Ent]

But back to the eye. The omni-presense of an eye looming over the world strikes more fear then

"It's evil! Very evil! But it doesn't really exsist...well it does! But it's not in any kinda form. It's just there"

I've always thought of Santa...and Clowns for that matter to be crazy stalkers. And if Sauron has to resort to their level to be scary, then why shouldn't he?

[Son of Númenor]

Sauron was never just an eye. And he could and did take physical form after Isildur took the Ring; specifically, he took physical form circa the years leading up to the War of the Ring.

[Guinevere]

originally posted by DancingSpawn of Ungoliant:

After Sauron's defeat in the battle of Dagorlad, he wasn't able to embody himself. As we know, he didn't die but his spirit just couldn't take a new form.

As Son of Numenor says, this isn't so - Sauron did have a body! He's just never described, since none of the protagonists have ever seen him.

"Then Sauron was vanquished and his spirit fled and was hidden for long years, until his shadow took shape again."

Someone has seen him, though: Gollum! He tells Frodo that

He has only four (fingers) on the black hand, but they are enough.

In letter #200 Tolkien wrote:

....It was thus that Sauron appeared in this shape. It is mythologically supposed that when this shape was "real" (that is a physical actuality in the world and not a vision) it took some time to build up. It was then destructible like other physical organisms. But that of course did not destroy the spirit, nor dismiss it from the wolrd to which it was bound until the end.
After the battle with Gil-Galad and Elendil, Sauron took a long while to re-build, longer than he had done after the Downfall of Númenor. (I suppose because each building-up used some of the inherent energy of the spirit, which might be called the "will" or the effetive link between the indestructible mind and being and the realization of its imagination.)

And a quote from letter #246

Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic.

[Boromir88]

Also other proof is found in the palantir, when Pippin sees the Dark lord in the Palantir. We know this has to be evidence because Sauron can't "alter" the Palantir, I mean what the Palantir show's is reality, he can't change it. If I lost you, because sometimes I don't know how to word things, here's an example...lol.

Ok, Sauron can't make the palantir "lie." For example, say Sauron has 10,000 orcs, in the palantir you'll see that 10,000 orcs, he can't make the palantir lie and show you 40,000 orcs. Hopefully, I've made it a little clearer.

[Son of Númenor]

Legolas provided this quote from the Letters in Sauron - Physical Form In the War of the Ring or Not?:

In his actual presence none but very few of equal stature could have hoped to withhold it from him. Of 'mortals' no one, not even Aragorn. In the contest with the Palantír Aragorn was the rightful owner. Also the contest took place at a distance, and in a tale which allows the incarnation of great spirits in a physical and destructible form their power must be far greater when actually physically present. Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic. In his earlier incarnation he was able to veil his power (as Gandalf did) and could appear as a commanding figure of great strength of body and supremely royal demeanour and countenance (Letters, #246).