The return of Sauron

[mormegil]

For into the midst of all these policies comes the Ring of Power, the foundation of Barad-dur, and the hope of Sauron. Concerning this thing, my lords, you now all know enough for the understanding of our plight, and of Sauron's. If he regains it, your valour is vain, and his victory will be swift or complete: so complete that none can foresee the end of it while this world lasts. If it is destroyed, then he will fall: and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever again. For he will lose the best part of his strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape. And so a great evil of this world will be removed. Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary

3 LOTR V, 9 The Last Debate. In The War of the Ring - The Houses of Healing

This more or less answers that Sauron will never take shape again.

Originally Posted by mormegil

3 LOTR V, 9 The Last Debate. In The War of the Ring - The Houses of Healing

This more or less answers that Sauron will never take shape again.

This does not rule out the possibility of a good spirit of Sauron taking shape again - only the evil one.

[mormegil]

Originally Posted by Mansun

This does not rule out the possibility of a good spirit of Sauron taking shape again - only the evil one.

If it is destroyed, then he will fall: and his fall will be so low that none can foresee his arising ever again.

Two problems.

1. He would fall (evil or good) and none can foresee his arising. It would be impossible for him, having poured so much of his whole being and power into that ring and then the ring is destroyed, to regain any significant strength.

2. Sauron, in my opinion, will never be able to be good again. He had a chance when the Valar overthrew Morgoth and did not repent. I think that was the point of no return for him.

[Boromir88]

Let's say if even after the destruction of the One Ring, Sauron could reshape. (Though this isn't possible). There's still another way Tolkien addresses to defeat Sauron that many people miss. In Letter 200 Tolkien brings up that it takes so much "power" for Sauron to reshape time and time again, that eventually he wouldn't have enough to reshape (even if the Ring wasn't destroyed).

'But that of course did not destroy the spirit, nor dismiss it from the world to which it was bound until the end. After the battle with Gilgalad and Elendil, Sauron took a long while to re-build, longer than he had done after the Downfall of Numenor (I suppose because each building-up used up some of the inherent energy of the spirit, which might be called the 'will' or the effective link between the indestructible mind and being and the realization of its imagination).'

As Tolkien calls it the "will" or "inherent spirit," each "build up" Sauron uses to reform takes up his "spirit." And eventually just killing him enough times he would not have enough "will" to reform.

[Beleg]

Sorry, I don't have the original version of the Silmirillion next to me. I'll try a quick explaination of the extract (end of the Quenta Silmarillion)

"Quant à Morgoth, les Valar le jetèrent au-delà des Remparts du Monde par la Porte de la Nuit, dans le vide Eternel, et ils font à jamais garder ces remparts [...] Morgoth Bauglir [...] avait semés dans le coeur des Elfes et des Humains étaient une semence qui ne pouvait ni mourir ni être détruite. Elle renaît et bourgeonne de temps à autre pour donner des fruits noirs, et cela jusqu'aux derniers jours".
You'll be able to find easily this part before Akalabeth.

It is about:

1- The end of Morgoth, who's thrown out of the World by the Valar, into the Void.

2- The mischief he spread and left in this world. It is a malice that never dies and comes back up sometimes, until the end.

I think Sauron cannot come back. There is no possibility.
see all the topics above ==> When the One Ring is destroyed, it happens to him almost the same thing than to Morgoth. As Sauron put a great part of his powers into the ring, once it's destroyed, his body is cast off from Arda through the Gates of the Night (or annihilated, I don't know). His remaining power doesn't allow him to reshape, as it is not whole. For me, Sauron is not living in this world anymore.

If Sauron doesn't come back, it doesn't avoid other evil to take shape, as it is said at the end of the Quenta Silmarillion. Maybe the mischief passed into the Humans (it already happens, the Haradrims are an example). There are corrupted things left into the World when the last Elves came back to Valinor at the end of the 3rd Age. When Morgoth was banned, there were servants of him hiding in the World.
Sauron succeeded to Morgoth, another will succeed to Sauron.

I think the end of the 3rd Age means that it's the end of Sauron. (it's a parallel) With the new age, another ennemy will arise. This one is just the germ of what the two previous Dark Lords sowed.
There is no need to have Sauron coming back all the time. Things have to change. The World belongs to the Men, so let it be so with the evil, the darkness belongs to another Sauron's or Morgoth servant.

It was a pain to explain that in English.

[SarumanCymraeg]

I can't remember the exact quote but I'm 99% certain that Tolkien stated that although Men [Men specifically, of course, the other races are all doomed to end, sadly] would face many new evils in the Fourth Age and beyond, they would never again face it in a metphysical, god-like, magical form. So no return for Sauron or Morgoth - or even the Blue Wizards. To that extent, Saruman, the WK and the Nazgul would not return either, and all the balrogs were gone. Also, Aragorn subdued the Haradrim and made peace with them, so they're not a threat.

So what do we have in Fourth Age Middle-Earth? Well, there ARE some evil Dwarves in the very east, but they're not going to be the new evil. Durin's Folk are declining*. There are also possibly dragons in the far north, so that's another possibility. The Barrow-wights in the north haven't disappeared overnight, either, and they might somehow possess someone to do great evil. To that extent, the faded Elves would also become wight-like, and the bitterest of them could well cause some mischief (not all Elves are as pure and generally 'good' as they seem to be portrayed]**.

Unfortunately, with Aragorn's death I think the whole saga and magic (somewhat literally) disappeared from Middle-earth, and the new evil would come from the hearts of Men.



*This is only a possibility. Although they sometime reconquer Khazad-Dum and were there 'until the world grew old and the Dwarves failed', that could easily be interpreted as centuries, or ages away, or even at the same time that Men eventually might fail.

**As we know the Elves who stayed in Middle-earth faded, becoming in effect spirits, although personally I feel that would be a long process, and that some physical Elves, in places like Eryn Lasgalen, would stilll be found many, many years after Aragorn's death. Therefore, any possession that they might do would probably happen in a distant future.

Would anyone believe it to be possible that Eru would give Sauron another chance to prove himself by giving him life again (as with Gandalf)? It must have taken a lot of power from Eru to create Sauron, so it may be thought that resurrecting Sauron to right his wrongs may not be impossible.