Sauron's Hroa and the Missing Finger

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

1. To bury him, perhaps so his tomb could be a rallying point for further battles (granted this implies the existance in the ranks of men or orcs who hold a certain veneration for thier leader, above and beyond the fear

Given the apparent attitudes of the Orcs we see close up in the books regarding Sauron, I find it hard to believe they honestly cared enough about Sauron to have wanted to honourably dispose of his body. Moreover, it seems the majority of Men who served him were from the East and South, and I doubt their service was as much out of veneration for Sauron as it was for hate of the West and a desire for loot and pillage. The fall of Sauron would have made them think they'd backed the wrong side and their primary objective would have been to merely get home alive.

Originally Posted by Alfirin

2. Given that we know that orcs (and possibly some of the other members of the forces) are cannibalistic, maybe they wanted to do an act of sympathetic cannibalism. It's not all that uncommon in our worlds history, your enemy was strong you eat him, his strength becomes yours. And if any knew Sauron enough to know he was more or less a god (or god like being) to a cannibalistic tribe that might have been a further inducement.

Well, maybe. But if Orcs took Sauron's empty body to do so, it seems it would have been long digested by the time he was ready to rebody.