The Eye: what was it?

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I've noticed Peter Jackson has taken a lot of flack (from bookish fans) for equating Sauron's physical shape with The Eye, you know, that huge, flaming search-light on the topmost tower of Barad Dur. With some right too I'd to say, because Sauron did in all probability have a mannish, physical shape at the end of the third age and most talk about The Eye of Sauron in Tolkien's books seems to be metaphorical rather then literal - when The Eye is on someone, they have the nagging feeling of always being watched by the Dark Lord, rather than having an actual eye staring at them.

Yet one must say that the images in the movie isn't that far fetched. There was apparently some sort of eye with a search-beam on top of Barad Dur that could turn 360 degrees, through which Sauron could see from, as this quote suggests:

Originally Posted by LotR; Mount Doom

One moment only it stared out, but as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing eye; and then the shadows were furled and the terrible vision was removed. The Eye was not turned to them: it was gazing north to where the Captains of the West stood at bay...

So, what do you think of The Eye? What was it?

[Inziladun]

Interesting.

I'd always thought of it as just a manifestation of an innate remote-viewing ability possessed by Sauron; something along the lines of Morgoth's (with my eyes you shall see', as Morgoth said to Húrin).

Maybe the Eye had a red hue because Sauron's eyes in his Third Age 'terrible' shape were red, and Frodo and Sam could see it more clearly because of their close proximity to Barad-dûr.

[Alfirin]

There is little doubt that the "eye" whether physical or not, had great signficance to Sauron, it is after all the symbol he chose for his emblem and what his Orcs (and presumably men) were marked with (as the WK's forces were marked with the White Moon and Saruman's Uruk-Hai used the White hand). Heck even the Flies in Mordor were marked with the red eye. That sound like something more than a mere "metaphorical construct to me"

As for whether Saurons pysical eyes were red I'm not sure but I think its possible. We actually get to "see" sauron's eye in the story I think; unless I've been wrong all these years, I've always beleived that the Eye Frodo saw in Galadriel's Mirror was Saurons actual factual physical eye that if one were to physically be in the room with Sauron and look at him in person he would have eyes as described, yellow, slit pupiled, wreathed in flame and ringed with darkness (as for the lidless thing, I dont know whether sauron actually had no eyelids of this was a metephor for the fact he never slept and therefore never closed them)

As for the beam that may or may not indicatethere being a eye on the tower seperate from Sauron's body. The top of the tower is Sauron's Scrying room (the place where he keeps his Palatiri (the line you quote indicates there is a physical beam there sometimes it doesn't necessarily follow that there one there at all times. As to the nature of the beam I have a little theory, we know that Sauron makes use of a Palatiri and that Palatiri can be used for veiwing as well as communcation. What if what we are seeing whne we see the red beam is Sauron's eye being transmitted through the Palantir like a light being focused through a lens; a visible path of his vision. Granted we hear no mention of such a phyical trace being seen with any of the other "scryings" with a Palatir, but I'm willing to be that Sauron is the first being using one who has actual physical light coming out of his eyes (yes, Elvish eyes "shine" but that's not the same as having actual physical light coming out) at least that's how I see it.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

What if what we are seeing whne we see the red beam is Sauron's eye being transmitted through the Palantir like a light being focused through a lens; a visible path of his vision. Granted we hear no mention of such a phyical trace being seen with any of the other "scryings" with a Palatir, but I'm willing to be that Sauron is the first being using one who has actual physical light coming out of his eyes (yes, Elvish eyes "shine" but that's not the same as having actual physical light coming out) at least that's how I see it.

I thought of that, but then, why does the path of the Eye not always show red? When Frodo sat on Amon Hen and perceived it searching for him, he saw it as a 'black shadow'. All I could think of was Frodo and Sam's nearness to Sauron, or, maybe being tinted by volcanic smoke or fumes around Barad-dûr, made it appear red.

[Mnemosyne]

Hmm...

I know that in this chapter especially Sam's point of view dominates, but Frodo was still the character who supposedly recorded all of this. Might his perception of the Eye be some side effect of his Ring-enhanced perception, much like the wheel of fire which apparently manifested itself on a physical level to him?

At any rate this eye-like imagery still comes from a window in the top of the tower and is very faint, not this dumb lighthouse-style searchlight thing that looks like nothing so much as a mussel prized from its shell and stuck between the outer tines of a fork...

What does weird me out with all the canon descriptions of the Eye is how very catlike it is, when the last time Sauron was described in catlike terms he was Tevildo!

[Loslote]

Sauron wasn't able to manifest in a form that was "pleasing" t o others. My question is, why was he able to manifest in "ugly" forms? The Ainur that entered the world, Valar and Maiar, could "clothe" themselves in whatever form they liked. I'm confused as to why Sauron was different.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Loslote

Sauron wasn't able to manifest in a form that was "pleasing" t o others. My question is, why was he able to manifest in "ugly" forms? The Ainur that entered the world, Valar and Maiar, could "clothe" themselves in whatever form they liked. I'm confused as to why Sauron was different.

Originally Sauron could take on a fair form as the other Maia. He lost the ability after the destruction of his body during the fall of Númenor.

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I thought of that, but then, why does the path of the Eye not always show red? When Frodo sat on Amon Hen and perceived it searching for him, he saw it as a 'black shadow'. All I could think of was Frodo and Sam's nearness to Sauron, or, maybe being tinted by volcanic smoke or fumes around Barad-dûr, made it appear red.

My best guess on that is as follows since the projection is of Sauron's eye in totum, it is broadcasting both light and shadow since Sauron has both emanating from his eyes. In Mordor, due to 1. The nearness and 2. The Volcanic fumes making the sky perpetually dark the light was visible. However when Frodo sat on Amon Hen, he was presumably doing so during the day and possibly a relitively sunny day at that. In daylight the light would be obscured and what you would see is just the shadow. Think of it like looking at the same campfire (out of your immediate line of site) from a distance during the day and the night. At night what's going to catch your eye most is the light from the fire, During the day it will be the plume of smoke.

[JeffF.]

in the Silmarillion chapter called Akallabeth, near the end, Tolkien wirtes that (in the fall of Numenor) " Sauron was robbed of that shape in which he had wrought so great an evil, so that he could never again appear fair to the eyes of men...he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible: and the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure."

thie is reiterated again in the chapter Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, "he had wrought for himself a new shape: and it was terrible, for his fair semblance had departed forever when he was cast into the abyss at the drowning of Numenor. He took up again the great Ring and clothed himself in power; and the malice of the Eye of Sauron few even of the great among Elves and Men could endure."

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Thanks for the comments, I'll try to respond to some of them later on. For now I'd like to throw this passage into the mix. It is from the description of Minas Morgul, and seems somehow relevant:

Originally Posted by LotR; The Stairs Of Cirith Ungol

...the topmost course of the tower revolved slowly, first one way then another, a huge ghostly head leering into the night.

A revolving, peering turret is perhaps a common feature in Dark Towers?