Sauron's Great Miscalculation

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

I wonder about the lands then west of the Misty Mountains? Eriador and the Shire?

I suspect that the impression the Captains of the West gained, that the Mouth of Sauron would "gather all that remained of the West under his sway", suggests that, in actual fact, everything between the Anduin and the Sea would be under the Mouth's jurisdiction (and thus Sauron's), and that the statement about the Mountains and the Gap of Rohan was just empty politicking intended to sound more reasonable. After all, despite how duplicitous the Mouth was being in any event, there was no one present to represent two of the major powers of the North, Erebor and Dale, who would have come under Sauron's 'East of the Anduin' dominion.