What Happened to Sauron After the Ring Was Destroyed? LOTR Lore

Have you ever wondered what fate befell Sauron's spirit once the ring was destroyed?
Sauron was no mere mortal; his essence was blessed with an immortality that could never be fully eliminated. Yet, he poured the very essence of his being, into the One Ring, which would ultimately spell his doom.
But what of the fragments of Sauron’s spirit, the remnants of his power? Does the spirit of Sauron linger, a shadowy wraith, lying in wait until the forces of darkness rise once more? Or has the Dark Lord's era truly concluded, banished to oblivion for all eternity?
00:00 INTRO
03:12 TAKING PHYSICAL FORM
14:30 THE FORGING OF THE RING
17:21 TWICE DESTROYED, YET UNDEFEATED
25:26 SAURON RETURNS
30:33 THE GHOST OF SAURON
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[@kippesnikkel5217]

5 years from now in cinema: "Somehow.. Sauron returned"

[@NJ-e]

I Dare u.

[@HelloMyFriend_]

Hell no. BTW Disney trilogy is not canon no matter how hard they try.

[@cameronjones8641]

😂😂😂👌🏼. You forgot to add. As a boss bitch💪🏼

[@cameronjones8641]

​@@HelloMyFriend_Agreed 👍🏼

[@darkhighwayman1757]

Do not tempt fate

[@Cmdtheartist]

Morgoth (chopped up and drifting in the Endless Void): "Okay, okay, don't panic, Morgy, Sauron knows the plan, we talked about it, he's gonna do the ring thing, he's gonna take over, he's gonna fish me out of this place-" Sauron (bodiless) " Hey." Morgoth: ".....fuuuccckkkkkkkkk...."

[@joeramirez5460]

I had a good chuckle

[@kaievoke]

Morgy had me dying

[@joeramirez5460]

@@kaievoke I would of imagined that Morgoth would of been like Gordon Ramsay "You Fucking Donkey why would you put so much of your essence into a ring for it to be destroyed by a hobbit and a foul looking creature with Multiple personalities!"

[@clarencewoodbine6266]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@chadpeterson5698]

@@joeramirez5460 He would also say “If I had my hands and legs, I’d beat your ass into a pulp.”

[@tomardans4258]

He drifted off into the East, and now does cold calls selling solar panels

[@joelsullivan1248]

I saw him working at Starbucks. Can’t knock a guy for just trying to move forward

[@tomardans4258]

@@joelsullivan1248 that might have been one of the Nazgûl. Many of them work in retail as well. Very bitchy.

[@Technotranceism]

I thought it was extended car warranty calls 🤷

[@rabd3721]

He's the one that keeps calling about your car's extended warranty.

[@rabd3721]

@@Technotranceism Got dangit I literally came here to write that joke!

[@gh-ik3jp]

Sauron would be happy with the way things are going today.

[@NeonNijahn]

😅

[@nathanmeredith]

Well duh. Who do you think started the Ukraine war? /s

[@nivastudios2258]

😂😂😂😂

[@thomasderouin72]

We don't have Sauron... We have Soros. Both are evil and just won't die!

[@evilmoffintop6081]

That is a horrifying thought, though yeah, he probably would be

[@TheLondekZdroj]

I forgot for a second that Sauron is a fictional character and felt his dark presence. Excellent storytelling!

[@Minifutzi_o.O]

hug him

[@eruiluvatar3061]

Those artworks, the constant deep dark ambient melody in the background, the narration puts you into the story as if you are a part of it. Massive. Well done.

[@vdimasteremeritus]

Tolkien wrote he was maimed and became a “spirit of malice” that would gnaw at itself in the dark, but never again could he recover or take shape.

[@ZeroOmega-vg8nq]

stuck in the retconium with horus lupercal and malal lol

[@lewislewis3531]

He got beat so bad, he became a cosmic fart

[@pancakes8670]

A fitting followup to the idea of "Evil destroying itself", the reason Sauron lost in the first place (Gollum and Frodo fighting over the Ring). Whatever remains of Sauron is stuck in a forever war with itself. Nothing left to hate but himself.

[@wesleyfilms]

I couldn’t imagine a worse fate than being a shrivelled husk, forced to watch the world pass you by, forever.

[@julianmarco4185]

Allow me to introduce you to something called an Old Folks home.

[@wesleyfilms]

Imagine being in an old folks home, but it lasts forever 👻

[@vezolf4313]

Morgoth do this to Hurin. With his power he seated Hurin in stone throne, and show him how his children and his dynasty fall by his manipulation and after that he let him go. Thats how fall of gondolin start

[@hackett152332]

Joe Biden

[@MycketTuff]

How are you any different?

[@Kyosukedono]

Hold on a second. This makes me wonder... Sauron's ring is not so much a ring of power but a ring of defeat mitigation. In RPG terms, imagine a game in which everytime you die your stats are reset to 1 when you respawn and you have to grind again or wait and slowly recover the stats back through resting. So then, in order to mitigate this you forge a ring and you transfer 60% of all your stats when you're the most powerful you've been. That means when you die again you will reset back to 1 but put the ring back on and you get all those stats you had stored in the ring previously. Allowing to bypass a lot of penalty from defeat

[@AxleTrade]

Imo it’s more like the journal in project zomboid where, like your description, when you read it you immediately get skill exp boosts and they also return to the same level during your peak. But once it’s gone you’re forever spectating the other players on the server as a ghost that can send an incoherent message once a day to the chat that will be ignored because it’s rolling by so fast.

[@pavelslama5543]

A good ending for Sauron would be to lose his malice and his will to dominate all life, as he poured that into the ring and it would be destroyed together with the ring. This would make Sauron probably still vengeful for some time, but he would find himself unable to focus on his old character traits and would have to get used to the existence without them.

[@Ar-Pharazon21]

He essentially was just there. No directed thought or malice. Until dagor dagorath

[@masonmag]

I had never thought of it like that 👍

[@FirstLast_Nba]

@pavelslama5543 His malice IS him! His personality, if changed, would be as if he developed amnesia, he would not be himself anymore. It is identical to Satan not being satanic! He would not be him anymore. They are who they are because they HAVE to be who they are. It is the degree of your ego that will or will not allow you to change, and their ego would most definitely NEVER allow that, with or without power. IMHO.

[@socrabe]

He would pledge his life to find the Entwives

[@cameronjones8641]

​@@FirstLast_NbaExcellent post and very accurate.

[@Bretlklansk]

He is hanging out with his old master Melkor, testing each other with riddles, to see who gets to go hunt for the ‘Imperishable Flame 🔥’ of Illuvatar

[@literalsarcasm1830]

I love that this feels like a documentary made in universe.

[@firatsanliturk]

Off to the void with you. Void being the cold nothingness of space. No stars or anything else, just cold, dark, lifeless void.

[@markg.7865]

The void is the absence of God, where the lake of fire/hell will be cast.

[@Quetzalcoatl_Feathered_Serpent]

@@markg.7865 The void is just that. A void. Where nothing exist. Lake of fire and or hell would make the void no longer a void.

[@dretchlord873]

We don't even know what a void would look like. Even black is something but not a void

[@belmiris1371]

Sauron existing today would explain a lot.

[@MycketTuff]

Sauron and his master Melkor are merely misunderstood

[@-Gut--]

⁠​⁠@@MycketTuffevery JoeBin supporter lol

[@antonk.653]

@@MycketTuff Yeah, you sound like an average Griffith enjoyer.

[@ziephel-6780]

It does actually

[@Aristocratic13]

@@antonk.653FrFr

[@peopleskarmasquad1042]

Poor Sauron. He was a good boy. He just got with the wrong crowd. He was misunderstood.

[@NCfrost82]

Im pretty sure big S's mom said that.

[@fallenberet7955]

If disney ever took the IP this is the way they would tell the story

[@DoctorFail]

Free my boi he didn't do nothin'!

[@AeroZephron]

Melkor and Sauron sitting there in a dark void... waiting. What could ever possibly go wrong? 😅

[@Enerdhil]

That's how we get the Dagor Dagorath.

[@darkhighwayman1757]

I always imagined a far future middle earth with high science and old tales of elves and dwarves. Then scientists find something in a volcanic region of the state of Gondor....

[@AeroZephron]

@@darkhighwayman1757 "Let him cook." ;)

[@Enerdhil]

@@darkhighwayman1757 A Palantir perhaps?🤔

[@Iflie]

Some goth kid with a ouija board.... let's summon Sauron! haha

[@darthvectivus9234]

This video immediately enthralled me just wow this channel never fails to impress, all the love and admiration of the Valar

[@hothmandon]

Imagine Sauron came back today, and the Orcs have access to modern military equipment and an air force.

[@markaguilera493]

Sounds like Russia.

[@z1az285]

erik prince

[@HowlinWilf13]

He's back and he invaded Ukraine. He's getting his ass kicked. Once again. 😁

[@z1az285]

@@HowlinWilf13 No, try dick Cheney or rumsfeld. there was a cartoon about the four horseman of the apocalypse. the other two were gw bush and wolfowitz

[@HowlinWilf13]

@@z1az285 No, the only one trying to steal another country's sovereign territory is Sauron putin.

[@Titanscreaming]

Sauron being a malignant spectre gnawing at itself without the best part of himself from the beginning from which all his strength came must be such a curse indeed... Forever as time went on... All his memory gets older and older and that time that he once was the dark lord is gone. To have lost the war for middle earth must impress upon him forever like a doom worse than death.

[@Trandhal]

The artwork in this one is fantastic. These just keep getting better and better!

[@Philtopy]

The Numenorian Soliers who followed their King into the undying lands, but werent actually evil but just following orders, entrapped in earth for eternity until the last day: "Man this blows. ..."

[@stefanol7814]

Excellent video! Only one small remark: at the end of the Third Age, what "killed" Sauron (i.e irretrievably damaged his body ) was not the destruction of the One Ring, it was instead the collapse of Barad-Dur that immediately followed.

[@Unpainted_Huffhines]

My own head cannon has always been that Sauron lost the ability to manifest himself in any physical way. He exists in Middle Earth, barely coherent, nearly insensate, lingering forever in quasi unconsciousness.

[@black_rabbit_0f_inle805]

Thats what Tolkien said.

[@Voidliife]

Man.. you've put this whole franchise into a beautiful perspective for me. Because at the end of the trilogy, the only thing I wondered was: "what happened to Sauron after all this?"

[@MrKzup]

A surprisingly good video. I expected the usual "he lost his ability to interact with and affect the world", but this was a very indepth and thoughtful analysis

[@jlvfr]

The One Ring was the original Horcrux...

[@takeiteasy2232]

Voldemort is a Lich in the end...

[@invisibleman4827]

​@takeiteasy2232 both sauron and voldemort had a similar fate in the end

[@Enerdhil]

Actually when men die, their fëar first go to the Halls of Mandos for a short time and then go to a place set aside by Eru as a "Gift."

[@ryansauchuk7290]

The only reason for a constant supply of souls of insanely simple and stupid beings is food. Eru intervened because Melky and S boy were screwing up the harvest

[@mikitadou]

Sauron is waiting for Half-Live 3 to have an excuse to return.

[@user-wq9vh9ik1m]

He was reincarnated into our reality as a guy who tends the shoe rental counter at a bowling alley. Probably one in Toledo.

[@ryandeimel3195]

I like to imagine sauron managing a dmv somewhere on the east coast these days.

[@annellspethraven5798]

The co-author of the fandom's longest fiction-in-progress applauds you for this extremely well-presented exposition! While our own creation has taken a different tack with Mairon/Sauron in order to explore different eschatological themes, it's wonderful to find a video containing such thorough research that also differentiates the critical elements of publications personally approved by the Professor vs. not, and (standing ovation here) sifts the prejudices/reliability of in-story narrators (the Elves, or even words about Sauron voiced by Gandalf while in his role as an Istar vs. what he might understand when possessed of his faculties while serving as Olórin). Bravo!

[@hypercomms2001]

From what I hear, he's been hanging around, spending most of his time in the pub at the bar, and getting drunk... And reminiscing about the good old days!! He is making an absolute pain on himself! Yet it must be hard being a former dictator, now exiled, knowing that everyone hates you.... Meanwhile he's plotting his revenge!!!

[@yurikendal4868]

Hes not capable of plotting

[@babystacks]

Locked up in the basement of The Winchester

[@tobyclayton2597]

That might be Saruman. I thought that Sauron was working behind the scenes while the eight remaining wraiths had possessed the top mandarins of each and every leader of the eight most powerful nations. 😂🤔

[@black_rabbit_0f_inle805]

Im imagining a LOTR inspired Cheers where Sauron is Norm.

[@2012Beckster]

In other words, a Hungry Ghost, wandering in the Bardo.

[@flxhr5855]

Great channel! I also like the new narration voice

[@Noleme]

I commend you for not only your reading of the texts in the HoME series, but more importantly your solid COMPRESSION of them. Well done indeed. This video is what is getting me to subscribe. If it's quality is representative of all your content, I'm only sad I didn't find the channel sooner. ❤

[@ImCelest]

Love this channel 🖤

[@PaleWhiteDot]

This channel is delightful. The soothing ambience, the narrator's clear articulation, the fantastical artwork, all set a right and proper tone from the start. Cheers!

[@ahmedjouhari8122]

Amazing work

[@alottaguala9766]

came across ur channel about a month ago, watched all ur vids and GET SO FRICKIN HYPE WHENEVER U DROP ANOTHER 1 LETS GO BABY WOOOOOOOO!!!

[@StitchingSword]

Where did this channel come from? It’s amazing; respectful of the source material, informative and sophisticated and the narrators voice is just *chefs kiss*

[@shamelessplace11]

He is at a retirement community in Florida called the villages. He's having fun and meeting new and exciting people.

[@zaprowsdower9390]

Where he forged a mighty pineapple 🍍.

[@andrewblundall5475]

So Sauron became Disney...

[@999haunted]

And Amazon

[@ryannn97227]

I love how Disney is just a meaningless buzzword commented on videos lmao. Just noise. Wyem??

[@coolieo2222]

11/10 LOTR lore vid. Thanks for this, it makes the story so much richer

[@KazgarothUsher]

Presentation, narration and visual images are excellent - had me engrossed throughout. :)

[@ravenhill_firelord_1968]

sauron was probably thrown into a remote part of the galaxy.

[@ArchetypeGotoh]

dude, those images from the Silmarillion at the beginning of the video were amazing, excellent find/make

[@Umbiriel]

I love to watch these before sleep

[@wallanuke9101]

Thank you for this one! keep up the amazing work!

[@justinhammer3196]

Sauron lives on as a powerless evil fart cloud. Yet though he strives mighty to dealt it no one in Middle Earth ever again smelt it. Mainly because Tolkien never wrote Return of the Shadow.

[@tommyrott9213]

is it an odorless fart cloud?

[@Ryan-gw3yv]

If a fart cloud exists where no one can smell it, does it have a scent?

[@resonator23]

​@@Ryan-gw3yv does a balrog sh!t in the woods?

[@timothypanngam2249]

Great video - it also brings to mind the demise of Saruman (a fellow Maiar), …”about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the west came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.”

[@vennsung]

That was absolutely a joy to watch. So full from both book ends of imagination and written lore. Illustrations and tone bringing it in as a warm scary cup of smoking delicious Elvin tea.

[@PainfullySubjective]

very nice video. love the sound effects & music in particular

[@DarthZevrel66]

So well done

[@Aetlaify]

This is a masterpiece good sir. I can not express how I've fascinated by this work of art. Hats off

[@toradora1439]

Really makes you wonder why they would ever want to leave the spirit state when it seems like such a chill state of existence.

[@SilentReflection101]

This type of content is why I'm subscribed. Thank you for this.

[@adrianmorris5546]

A great understanding and background history of the Sauron and the Lord of the rings thank you for your brilliant analysis

[@jackhampton2062]

This is unbelievably good! My favorite villain of all time. Thank you!

[@carlbernard7615]

Excellent research on this one. You went deep.

[@SpeakyDeak]

that was really good, thank you, very glad i subbed recently

[@MichaelMedici61W2]

Great video. Thanks for posting

[@saladinbob]

Was "King of Kings" vainglorious though? Was it really? Or was it all part of the plan to allow Sauron to get close to Ar-Pharazôn so he could poison him against the Valar? Seems much more likely to be the latter to me.

[@Ar-Pharazon21]

You are correct

[@Enerdhil]

"King of Men" and "Lord of the World" are two other titles Sauron gave to himself. I think he was "vainglorious" with the titles because he did not really know how powerful the Numenorians were until they came knocking on his door at Barad-dür.

[@nIhIl34]

well spotted. Sauron doesn't want to be 'seen' as king of kings, he just wants to be the king of kings; it was psy ops to provoke ar phaeazon to war and then beguile him with skill and bribe him with esoteric power that would help him against the elves he had a cultural rivalry with. Sauron spends lives for his own advancement so the armies were an easy waste, because he can always rely on the vast hordes of orcs he has under his disposal to enforce his will.

[@vezolf4313]

Why dont read the books 🙄

[@Fan_Made_Videos]

I bet Gandalf missed the Leaf of the Halflings when he returned to Valinor, but then again, perhaps Frodo brought some seeds with him 😂

[@ryansauchuk7290]

The Chad Longbottom vs the Virgin Yavanna

[@STMukr]

Narrator voice is perfect ❤ Focusing me. Sharping my mind and thoughts❤

[@MxKtl]

Great analysis, thank you! 🙌🏻 I like more the previous voice, but this was fine as well.

[@tron1007r]

I really appreciate the time you put into this.

[@mercertevyn]

Fantastic work, good fellow! I am going to spend all day going down the "rabbit hole" that is your channel. Thank you!

[@joannecunliffe8067]

This was a masterful documentary, as good as any produced for broadcast television. It was wonderful and spellbinding - thank you 🥰

[@MrEnjoivolcom1]

2:56 “Flickering endlessly, never to truly be extinguished.”

[@derekmiller6091]

The thing is, Melkor and Sauron could return. That was what Sauron was trying to do on Numenor after all - open the gates of night

[@christopherrichardbass-bar5727]

Excellent analysis - the ending was *chef's kiss*

[@cameronjones8641]

Best LOTR video ever! Thank you.

[@UROTSUKIDOYI]

This channels needs to be a podcast format too!! Its great!!!!

[@RobertoMagnoV]

Absolutely astonishing video ! Thanks a lot!

[@denissavgir2881]

Ahh, the story of how SAURON became SAUROFF

[@OwnedbyCorgis]

😂😂😂

[@NotGodel]

Really great work!

[@TheCrafter365]

You my friend, are one of the best narrator's I have ever heard. I coud listen to anything being narrated with your voice.

[@Ben-yw8be]

Sauron will always be around. He’s immortal. He’s part of Alluvitar’s plan.

[@nbagoats4819]

In other words, Sauron will spend eternity in the Void which is devoid of time. That is worse than hell if you think about it.

[@2serveand2protect]

Very well done!

[@Nightcoregayness]

I really love your channel. Thank you for your work.

[@rabb1tjones921]

Great job as always! The narrator has a wonderful voice.

[@MentalMachine]

Sauron's Dark Soul was forever cast away, I think.

[@formerastronaut]

How lucky that Mt Doom didn't become dormant in the third age! ;)

[@theseageek]

He’s now Sauroff

[@jasonmurdoc9533]

I’ve always felt like death isn’t a punishment if anything it can be a way to escape consequences. I like the idea that evil dies in every way that matters but is still alive enough to know it.

[@marconeves1979]

Excellent video. Subscribed and liked.

[@mightythor-9286]

I’ll save you 30 minutes. He’s floating in the void playing solitaire until end of time.

[@Enerdhil]

No. Just until the Dagor Dagorath. Then he can reunite with his master Morgoth and fight against the Ainur, Elves and Edain.

[@markg.7865]

​@@EnerdhilIs that before or after the rise of the Empire and destruction of the Death Star......😊

[@Enerdhil]

@@markg.7865 Yes.😜

[@WilliamStreiff]

Sauron is going to haunt your nightmares

[@mam162]

It's worth noting that there's a Battle of Armageddon analogue that's prophesied in the Silmarillion. In "Dagor Dagorath" Morgoth is able to escape from the Void and wreaks havoc before making one last stand against the Valar. It's unclear whether Sauron is able to rejoin his old master for this final battle, but it certainly can't be ruled out.

[@theproplady]

Fan canon theory: Sauron is the same character as "The Beast" in the movie "Poltergeist." "He knows what frightens you. He has from the beginning..."

[@cmoneill]

These are really, really spectacular. I hope you cover every single topic forwards and backwards

[@Enerdhil]

It covers most of the important things you need to know in order to answer the question in the title.

[@cmoneill]

@@Enerdhil what?

[@Enerdhil]

@@cmoneill I assumed you had just started watching the video and wanted to reassure you that "every single topic forwards and backwards" was covered.

[@cmoneill]

@@Enerdhil ah, thank you. No, I meant that I wish for him to continue covering all of the topics related to middle earth in future videos

[@SawyerKnight]

I have often pondered that the darkness in the world and indeed the twisted plots for control throughout history are the work of that faint yet ever discontented spirit of Sauron, whispering madness to even the Greatest of Men.

[@shayhannah5430]

This was outstanding! Bravo, Sir.

[@RealmsUnravelled]

Thanks for the support it's much appreciated! Today happens to be my birthday (not my 111th thankfully) so it's the ideal day to receive a gift! 🎁😁

[@shayhannah5430]

@@RealmsUnravelled Cheers.

[@Wolf-bz6kq]

A hateful shadow gnawing on itself out of impotence in the dark places of the world

[@danevirke]

Never heard that question before now.

[@taylormeyer671]

Fantastic story telling and summary of Sauron. I feel like i just lived his life

[@thetsimagas]

Excellent analysis!

[@RA10H56]

His dark spirit still persists to this day. His cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate permeates our world. The earth will disgorge the ring someday and the black nimbus will stretch forth again

[@voltfields3900]

That was scary! 😰Well made! Awesome!😮