The Lord of the Rings: How long did Sauron’s reign of terror last?

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER

January 19, 2024 at 1:38 p.m

In “The Lord of the Rings” Sauron wants to rule over Middle-earth. He almost succeeds, but how long could he actually cause fear and terror?

In “The Lord of the Rings” Sauron is the absolute boss, at least in the films and the Amazon series “The Rings of Power”. He tries to subjugate all of Middle-earth, but the free peoples resist. Nevertheless, he and his army manage to instill fear and terror in Middle-earth for millennia.

In the First Age he was still a servant of Morgoth, but after Morgoth’s defeat Sauron went into hiding and returned in the Second Age to conquer Middle-earth once and for all.

Over 3,000 years of fear and terror in Middle-earth

It wasn’t until around 1000 years in the Second Age that Sauron began building his fortress Barad-dur, and 500 years later he seduced the Elves to forge the rings of power. It is a gradual process in which Sauron gradually tries to take control of Middle-earth.

Of course, he also relies on violence and causes warlike mischief, but is defeated and captured by the Númenóreans. On Númenor, Sauron then begins to seduce the local king and tricks him into sailing against Valinor. Here Sauron takes on a villainous ambush role.

Númenor is eventually sunk by the Valar of Valinor and Sauron must hide again and build his armies from the shadows. Once again he gains great strength and finally the Battle of the Last Alliance occurs, which marks the end of the Second Age.

Marking the construction of his fortress as the starting point of his reign of terror, we come to a reign of terror that lasted around 2,500 years in the Second Age. After his defeat at the Battle of the Last Alliance (seen in the prologue of “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”), it takes another 500 years in the Third Age before Sauron begins to gather his armies again.

Because his life energy is bound to the One Ring, he was able to survive the Battle of the Last Alliance, but was unable to take physical form. In the aftermath, Sauron hides in the shadows and tries to rebuild his army in Mordor and Dol Guldur and to find the One Ring and thus regain his old strength.

There is a fragile peace and only 60 years before “The Lord of the Rings” the White Council takes action against Sauron, as seen in “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” when Saruman (Christopher Lee), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Elrond (Hugo Weaving) drive Sauron out of Dol Guldur.

If we still count Sauron’s first rise in strength in the Third Age as the starting point of his new reign of terror, which is a generous interpretation, we would get 1,000 years in the Third Age in which Sauron and his minions terrorized Middle-earth, which would give Sauron a total reign of 3,500 years.

We’ll see much of Sauron’s terror in the Second Age in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Season 2 of “The Lord of the Rings” series is currently being worked on. A launch date for Amazon Prime Video has not yet been set.