Out of a trilogy that lasted over nine hours (with the extended editions), Sauron the Dark Lord only got a sliver of screen time, but the frightening suit of armor he wore, the horned helmet that rested on his head, and the giant mace he wielded were enough to leave a lasting impression on Lord of the Rings fans. Like Darth Vader in Star Wars and Thanos in the Avengers, Sauron's malice needed to be as memorable as other great cinematic villains.
One of the ways this is accomplished, especially for a character like Sauron with limited lines of dialogue, is with a truly unique costume. Peter Jackson and the creative team at Weta Studios spent long hours deg exactly what Sauron's would look like. Since J.R.R. Tolkien never fully explained what Sauron appeared like in his epic fantasy novels, it was up to them to bring him to life. Jackson's trilogy was praised for its painstaking attention to detail in regards to its costumes, and the Dark Lord's was no exception. Below you'll find 10 details about Sauron's costume you never noticed.
Updated on September 1st, 2022 by Kayleena Pierce-Bohen: With the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime Video, fans have once again been swept up in the magic of Tolkien's Middle-Earth during its Second Age, thousands of years before the events of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings series. Sauron isn't the Dark Lord that rules over Mordor, but that hasn't stopped fans from iring his most iconic costume.
His Armor Was A Collaborative Design
According to the Lord of the Rings companion book, The Lord of the Rings: The Art of the Fellowship of the Ring by Gary Russell, the design for Sauron's armor was the result of a team of artists. The Armoury section lists John Howe as credited with some of the earliest design sketches for Sauron's armor.
Warren Mahy and Christian Rivers are also among the names mentioned that provided additional concepts for the armor that we see in the trilogy's first film Alan Lee is credited with the evolution and final design of Sauron's spiky helm, which gives his "face" a terrifying and formidable appearance.
It Was Meant To Reflect Sauron's Craftsmanship
Since Sauron was a Maia spirit and a servant to Aule, the Smith to the Valar, his craftsmanship was beyond compare. The armor that he created when Middle Earth was still young was said to be as fine as any Elven suit of mithril, if not even more grand.
When Sauron faced the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, his armor was ancient and decayed, reflecting centuries of use. At the time, he was no longer the Great Lidless Eye, but had some semblance of a corporeal form, and thus still required protection against any weapons.
It Was Based Off Designs For Morgoth
Sauron's armor is never described in Tolkien's books, but Peter Jackson decided to use elements of Morgoth's armor to explain to designers what he felt it should look like. Morgoth was a fallen member of the Valar who decided to conquer Middle Earth, and wooed Sauron to be his devoted servant with promises of order from chaos.
John Howe, Tolkien's illustrator for The Silmarillion, imagined Sauron's master with a crown of three jagged spikes on his helmet, full plate armor, a giant cape, and a giant sword that he could wield two-handedly. Jackson decided it would make sense that when Morgoth was taken away in chains for his war crimes, Sauron would construct armor in the same style to take his place.
It Was As Unique As The One Ring He Forged
The design of the armor was intended to reflect Sauron as a character and be unique to him, and as singular in its forging as the One Ring. The entwining of the intaglio decoration was intended to contrast with the strong ugliness of all the sharp spikes, blades and sharp edges, mimicking the look of black thorns.
Its look was intended by the Weta Workshop designers to be disharmonious, because Sauron would not have wanted to wear anything that resembled the armor of Elves, Men, or any other race. He would have wanted to channel all the intimidating darkness and wickedness that he could to reflect his poisonous malice.
It Was Surprisingly Complex
Sauron is one of the best characters in Lord of the Rings with limited screen time, yet his armor is wildly complex. He wears both jagged pieces of armor plate and mail, as well as a skirt and sleeves. He wore a collar, a cuirass, pauldrons, vambraces, rerebraces, cuisses, greaves, and sabatons, all in a variety of curved, jagged, or straight silhouettes.
His helmet was meant to resemble a horse's skull, with great spikes atop its pate like a crown or the horns of Barad-dur. It was said that his helm and his armor were burned black from their prolonged time on his body, which burned from within with a violent rage that had long since consumed him.
His Mace Was Highly Detailed
For as large as Sauron's mace was (five feet in length), it was difficult to see just how much detail was put into it. It was made from the same black iron as his armor, and affixed with six sharply angled blades at the head. The same intaglio design that wound around his armor was also etched along the handle, made to look like an ivy-like weed found to grow at the bottom of the bridge at Minas Morgul.
While it isn't the most iconic weapon in Lord of the Rings, Sauron crafted it to mimic Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld, known to have been carried by his master Morgoth during the First Age when he sought to slaughter the high-ranking of the Eldar.
It Came With A Special Dagger
A concept for how the One Ring was forged involves a special dagger that was a part of Sauron's armaments. As legend goes, his rage was so strong that gold melted in his palm, and by plunging the dagger into his palm, the gold encircled it in a ring shape.
The blood from his wound also found its way into the molten gold, and worked as a sort of alchemy in forging the One Ring through magic. The dagger then shattered, and was never seen again. It mattered little, because his main weapon of choice was his giant mace.
It Was Worn By A Man In Deleted Scenes
In the First and Second Age, before his spirit was completely consumed in service of Morgoth, Sauron could take on a beautiful appearance. In order to charm Elves or the Men of Numenor, he would frequently assume the form of a man that was handsome, elegant and ethereal.
Peter Jackson almost included scenes during the confrontation of Aragorn at the Black Gate, with Sauron appearing in that way. In the extended edition with deleted scenes, you can view what Sauron might have looked like when he had a corporeal form and wasn't a Lidless Eye or a wraith-like shadow.
Blu-Ray Editions Show Exquisite Detail On His Vestments To Reflect His Past
While the majority of Sauron's armor is utilitarian or simply terrifying, the Blu-Ray editions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy reveal that the sleeves and tunic that can be glimpsed under his armor are made up of a rich woven fabric very similar to what he would have worn among the Elves.
The creative craftspeople at Weta have been known to add details to costumes that won't be given prominence in the films, appearing as small Easter eggs for those curious enough to look out for them. That attention to detail not only acts as their calling card, but also indicates pieces of the Dark Lord's past, when he was depicted as a fair-haired man in the Second Age.
Several People Brought Him To Life
Though most viewers assume that Sauron was almost completely fabricated with CGI, they would be wrong, as there were several people who wore the armor and brought the Dark Lord to life. According to Peter Jackson and the DVD commentary for the trilogy, he wanted someone that could convincingly appear "nine feet tall."
When he's in the form of a "towering black knight," he's portrayed by Sala Baker in the suit of armor and voiced by Alan Howard. In The Hobbit trilogy, when he appears as The Necromancer in an almost-corporeal form, he's voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, who also provided his motion-capture to give Sauron some sort of shape.
Unused Aspects Were Used For The Witch-King
If there are similarities between the Witch-King of Angmar and Sauron the Dark Lord (or if you perhaps wondered why it appeared Sauron changed his armor in the third film), it's not a coincidence. Over the course of developing Sauron's final design, many discarded portions were then used to bring the Witch-King to life.
He wore a similarly elaborate set of armor, carried both a mace and a dagger (which he used to stab Frodo), and to mimic the fell beast that he rode, his pauldrons and greaves fanned out to look like dragon wings in places. The jagged, spiked appearance of his crown and armor was meant to convey Sauron's will, even if Sauron himself wasn't present.
