Everything about War Of The Elves And Sauron totally explained
In the fiction of
J. R. R. Tolkien's
legendarium, the
War of the Elves and Sauron was a great conflict fought in the
Second Age. This is one of the great wars of Middle-earth, and it's sometimes informally referred to as the
Invasion of Eriador. It is the war caused by the forging of the
One Ring.
Rings of Power
The war began in, almost a century after
Sauron had deceived the
Noldor smiths of
Eregion and had secretly forged the
One Ring to rule over the other
Rings of Power. When Sauron put on the One Ring,
Celebrimbor, lord of Eregion, realized that the Elves had been betrayed and revolted against the Dark Lord's influence. With his disguise uncovered, Sauron then demanded that all of the great rings in Eregion be surrendered to him, as all of them were made with Sauron's counsel, except the
Three Rings of the
Elves. Celebrimbor refused and sent the Three to
Gil-galad and
Galadriel, while Sauron raised a great force to invade Eriador.
The War
Messages of the invasion were sent north to
Lindon where the High King Gil-galad ruled, and he began amassing his forces, preparing for war. He also appealed for help from
Tar-Minastir of
Númenor and the latter obliged, but the Númenóreans were delayed.
In S.A. 1695 Sauron had reached Eregion, though his vanguard was temporarily driven off by
Celeborn's sortie. (While Celeborn's wife Galadriel had entered
Moria to reach
Lothlórien, Celeborn himself refused to enter the mansion of the dwarves, and he was disregarded in Eregion by Celebrimbor until the One Ring.)
Elrond had been sent to Eregion by Gil-galad but Sauron's host was great enough to ward him off while concentrating on the assault upon Eregion. In S.A. 1697 Celebrimbor tried to make a last stand at the doors of the
Ost-in-Edhil, the main fortress of Eregion where the Noldor's chief works were held, but he was overwhelmed and taken captive. Placed under torment, he revealed the location of the Nine and Seven rings but would tell nothing about the Three, at which Sauron put him to death. It is clear that Sauron seized the Nine from Eregion, though it's less sure whether he or Celebrimbor had given the Seven to the Dwarves.
Elrond gathered with Celeborn and the survivors of Eregion and they were almost overwhelmed by Sauron's pursuit, but the Dark Lord's host was unexpectedly assailed in the rear by
Durin of Moria and some Elves of Lórien. Sauron then halted his advance and drove the Dwarves back but he could accomplish little as
Khazad-dûm's gates were closed. Afterwards, Sauron harboured deep hatred for Moria and ordered his Orcs to trouble the Dwarves at every turn. Elrond managed to escape to the north and established
Imladris.
By S.A. 1699 all of
Eriador fell under Sauron's control. Imladris was besieged, and Lindon cut off from Imladris and Khazad-dûm.
The next year, the great army of
Númenor which was sent by
Tar-Minastir landed in
Lindon, at
Tharbad on the
Gwathló, and south near
Pelargir. The intervention at Lindon was in the nick of time, as Gil-galad and Círdan were desperately holding
Mithlond, but the arrival of the Númenóreans turned the tide and Sauron was heavily defeated and driven back. The Dark Lord was subsequently forced on the retreat after the great slaughter on the
Brandywine. The Númenórean admiral
Ciryatur landed forces further south at
Lond Daer and hurried up the river to
Tharbad, catching Sauron in the rear for the second time. At the resulting
Battle of the Gwathló, Sauron was utterly routed and he fled back to
Mordor with only his guard. His remaining army besieging Imladris was caught between the allies and destroyed. The war ended in S.A 1701 but Eregion was gone, and most of Eriador was in ruins.
Aftermath
Sauron was at his pinnacle of his power as a sorcerer, but not militarily, when he initiated the war. The strength of Elves was still then great enough to resist him, and the growing aid from Númenor enough to defeat him in the field and force him to retreat from Eriador. It would take a long time before Sauron could rebuild his former military strength and he abandoned Eriador while he built power eastwards using the Rings. This conflict is perhaps the only time that Sauron managed to, for a short while, master most of Middle-earth.
Around the end of the War of the Elves and Sauron, the great forests in
Enedwaith and
Minhiriath, which the Gwathló flows through, have been completely destroyed. The Númenóreans since
Tar-Aldarion had already been felling many trees for
shipbuilding, incurring the wrath of the locals when the extent of the devastation became known. Sauron allied himself with some of the tribes to harass the Númenóreans, setting fire in the woods and burning their wood-stores; the Númenóreans responded by ruthlessly felling timber without any thought of conservation or replanting.
Some fifteen hundred years later, Sauron would exact his revenge against the Númenóreans by corrupting
Ar-Pharazôn, the king, and causing the utter
downfall of Númenor. However, a remnant (the Lords of Andúnië) escaped the ruin and established the kingdoms of
Arnor and
Gondor, the latter being close to
Mordor. Meanwhile, the power of Gil-galad had spread east of the Misty Mountains to
Greenwood the Great and even towards Mordor during Sauron's absence. Sauron hoped to defeat his enemies, but he underestimated the strength of the Exiles and the Elves, striking Gondor before his own power had been rebuilt, and he was overthrown by the
Last Alliance of Elves and Men.
In the Third Age, when Sauron returned, he was but a shadow of his former power as he'd lost the One Ring. Still, he'd greater forces than the Men and the Elves, who had themselves declined precipitously. Indeed, Sauron was relatively more powerful in the Third Age than he'd been at his strongest in the Second Age. Near the end of the Third Age, as told in
The Fellowship of the Ring,
Gandalf tells
Frodo Baggins that Sauron needed to recover the One Ring in order to "cover the lands in a second darkness", referring to the first darkness caused by
Morgoth, the Great Enemy, during the
First Age.
(2001)]]
Adaptations
Though both the 1978 animated film and the 2001 live-action film based on
The Lord of the Rings show the forging of the Rings of Power, the War of the Elves and Sauron is skipped and the films go straight to the much later
War of the Last Alliance.
Further Information
Get more info on 'War Of The Elves And Sauron'.
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