"The Necromancer"

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by skip spence

The other night I picked up my copy of Home X, Morgoth's Ring, browsed it randomly and started reading from The Later Quenta Silmarillion. And happened to come across a part that hints at why Sauron is called the Necromancer.

I noticed this once myself. As Inzil has said it does seem to explain Barrow-wights and so on, doesn't it?

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Creepy dark dude in a dark tower in a dark land that spreads dark shadow and feeling of something ghostly or undead or just pure evil. What more ground is needed for his nickname? It's not like they called him Mr. Sunshine.

That's true, but Professor Tolkien was hardly one to use names without putting any thought into them, was he? Is it more modern usage that defines 'Necromancer' as just 'Evil Sorcerer'? Because surely the Professor wouldn't have used it if he didn't have the connotations of interacting with the spirits of the dead in mind. I suppose though he might have been thinking of the "nigromancer" Latin (as opposed to Greek) folk etymology for the English word necromancer, which would of course suggest 'black magic practitioner' but that would seem like very sloppy usage from a philologist. Then again, 'Dwarves'...

[Alfirin]

Well, there are things done in ME by the servant's of Shadow that certainly SOUND like straightforward necromancy, if not by Sauron than by the WK (and if the WK can do necromantic sorceries, I very much doubt his master cannot). We've covered the Barrow Wights, and I earlier mentioned the Watchers, which certainly sound like fea placed in statues (either that, or something golem-ish).
There is also the threat the WK makes to Eowyn, assuming it is not idle (i.e. that that he threatens to do to her he or his master is actually capable of.). I would say that destroying a persons body while still leaving their mind/soul trapped in this world to be tortured (which is what I think the WK is threatening) sounds like it fits squarely within the realm of necromancy.

[mhagain]

Thû is referred to as a necromancer as far back as the Lay of Leithian:

Men called him Thû, and as a god
in after days beneath his rod
bewildered bowed to him, and made
his ghastly temples in the shade.
Not yet by men enthralled adored,
now was he Morgoth's mightiest lord,
Master of Wolves, whose shivering howl
for ever echoed in the hills, and foul
enchantments and dark sigaldry
did weave and wield. In glamoury
that necromancer held his hosts
of phantoms and of wandering ghosts...

This is actually the passage in which he emerges almost fully-formed; the only things really missing were the Rings and Númenor (the latter of these also came from pre-LotR texts), and of course all the Third Age stuff, but otherwise we have the concept of his survival beyond the First Age ("in after days"), Lord of Werewolves, Morgoth's second-in-command, his liking for temples, his later worship by Men, etc.

So even then, in a pre-Hobbit work, the concept of Thû as a necromancer who meddled with phantoms and ghosts, was all present and correct.

[skip spence]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

I noticed this once myself. As Inzil has said it does seem to explain Barrow-wights and so on, doesn't it?

Yeah sure and also I think the werewolves, that are associated with Sauron too. A werewolf was, it seems, essentially a wolf inhabited by an evil spirit, like Carcharoth (but less formidable). It was likely werewolves that attached the fellowship near the Misty Mountains.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by skip spence

Yeah sure and also I think the werewolves, that are associated with Sauron too. A werewolf was, it seems, essentially a wolf inhabited by an evil spirit, like Carcharoth (but less formidable). It was likely werewolves that attached the fellowship near the Misty Mountains.

Were those Tol-In-Gaurhoth type "werewolves" though? I would think the Wargs were a distinct breed of wolf with increased sentience, based on their descriptions in TH and FOTR. Since Orcs were known to actually ride on them, maybe they were Morgoth/Sauron's versions of the Mearas.