why sauron cant breed werewolves/dragons?

[tom the eldest]

Why sauron cant breed them,like morgoth did?is it because he dont have enough time?

[Zigûr]

I don't think he had enough power. The spiritual power of all Ainur was limited, but compared to that of, say, Morgoth, who bred the dragons and the werewolves, Sauron's power was miniscule.

Morgoth invested a great deal of his native power in his "superweapons" - the dragons in particular. Sauron's power was great, but not great enough to breed such creatures. Perhaps he might have come to control one, or bargain with one for alliance, as Gandalf believed he intended to do with Smaug, but such power as he had he needed to control his armies. This was sufficient, because by the Third Age especially his victory was inevitable due to sheer weight of numbers, both of Orcs and of the fallen Men enslaved to him.

I think we can see Sauron's awareness of the limitations of his power in the fact that his policies towards both Elves and Men in the West began with subterfuge, involving the Rings, rather than main force.

We might see the Ringwraiths as Sauron's equivalent of servants like dragons and werewolves, although their position was obviously more comparable to that of the Balrogs.

[tom the eldest]

Did sauron breed the werewolves?if so,why he dont breed them anymore?the werewolves would have wrecked gondor,and the rangers of ithilien wouldnt be so effective.after all,why would anyone patrolling in a land full of werewolves?

[tom the eldest]

I read the tolkien ateway,and they say sauron is the one who breed them.

[Zigûr]

He was certainly their master in the First Age, and Gandalf mentions werewolves among Sauron's servants in The Lord of the Rings ("Wargs and werewolves"), so perhaps he did have sufficient power for them - although given how little we see of the "Hounds of Sauron" evidently they were either not numerous or not as useful as they might have been.

I think dragons were probably beyond his power.

[tom the eldest]

Dragon is undoubtebly beyond sauron's power,but werewolves seem not far fetched.the reason why werewolves not showing that much was maybe sauron fear the elves would hunt them,of he made them his personal guard at barad-dur.

[Alfirin]

I think there may also be a breeding stock issue. I'm going by the words of my A-Z of Tolkein (which is not always all that accurate) but I seem to recall that the main difference between Wolves and Werewolves in ME is that wolves are basic biological creatures, whereas Werewolves are actually minor spirits of Arda (i.e. Maiar) brought over by Morgoth who took the forms of wolves in ME. Sauron was Commander of the Werewolves, but I'm not sure he was their creator (in the same way he could command Orcs, but did not make them.) In otherwords, to make a werewolf, you have to have Maiar under your command. And Sauron, a Maiar himself, doesn't, he just isn't that powerful. In all likelyhood by the third age Sauron would not be able to turn HIMSELF into a werewolf (like it used to be able to do). Also based on those other rare occasions where we see Maiar having children in ME (like Melian), thier offspring are not themselves Maiar, though they may have some "boost" due to thier Maiar blood. So in all likelyhood, the spawn of werewolves would be ordinary wolves, though possibly of greater than normal size and power (actuallty, since we don't here of them before the Third age, maybe that what Wargs are biolocally, the spawn and decendants of the spawn of the werewolves Sauron had under his command before.) Any werewolves Sauron still had in the Third Age would likely be ones who escaped the massacre on Tol-um-Gauroth or were not actually there when it occured (Maiar usually don't die of old age, so any werewolves who were not killed would likey keep going on) who would be few and sparse (which would explain why they play no large part in his attack plans.)
Dragons would have a similar problem. It is said that Smaug was the last of the great dragons. Who would one breed with him? A cold-drake hen from the ones that pestered the dwarves? Even going back further Great dragons seem to have become a little sparse post-Morgoth. Given how much creatures seem to have diminished by the Third Age, the possible dragon breeding stock was probably too weak to give a likelyhood of spawning extra Smaug's or even dragons close enough to him in power to be useful. Sauron was lucky to find the nest of Fell Beasts in the Mountains of the Moon (who, based on their description, could be some sort of dragon kin biologically) and as far as we know, he couldn't even get THEM to reproduce (or why he had such limited numbers, and was not fielding a full Mordorian Airforce.)

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

I'm going by the words of my A-Z of Tolkein (which is not always all that accurate)

David Day's "A to Z of Tolkien" or Robert Foster's "Complete Guide to Middle-earth" which is sometimes introduced with the line "Tolkien's world from A to Z"? Because the former (David Day) is not to be trusted. This is to a degree accurate, but it's just general advice about Day. He as good as claims outright that Sauron was literally a big eye (which he wasn't) and that Bombadil was a Maia (which he almost certainly wasn't).

Sauron was lucky to find the nest of Fell Beasts in the Mountains of the Moon

I believe the phrasing that the winged steeds of the Nazgûl derived from "forgotten mountains cold beneath the Moon" is a figure of speech rather than an item of geography.
I always considered those creatures to be birds rather than reptilian in any event. I know birds are descended from reptiles, but in any event they do not seem like close relations of dragons to my mind.

[mhagain]

For the Fell Beasts see Letter 211:

I did not intend the steed of the Witch-King to be what is now called a 'pterodactyl', and often is drawn (with rather less shadowy evidence than lies behind many monsters of the new and fascinating semi-scientific mythology of the 'Prehistoric'). But obviously it is pterodactylic and owes much to the new mythology, and its description even provides a sort of way in which it could be a last survivor of older geological eras.

Of course the letters can reflect fleeting concepts that may be subsequently revised when Tolkien has more time to think about things, and can contain errors based on misremembered info, but in this case it seems as valid an interpretation as any.

Maiar are - pendantically speaking - not "minor spirits of Arda" because the Maiar are in origin Ainur, who came from outside of Arda. There's a distinction in Tolkien between beings bounded to Ea and those not.

Hmmm. I wonder did the "everything must be a Maia" trope originate with David Day? It would certainly explain a lot.

Sauron in the First Age was certainly capable of creating werewolves, per Beren and Lúthien:

Therefore an army was sent against him under the command of Sauron; and Sauron brought werewolves, fell beasts inhabited by dreadful spirits that he had imprisoned in their bodies.

Of course David Day would probably claim that these spirits were Maiar too...

We have an example of Morgoth creating a werewolf, also in Beren and Lúthien:

...he chose one from among the whelps of the race of Draugluin; and he fed him with his own hand upon living flesh, and put his power upon him. Swiftly the wolf grew, until he could creep into no den, but lay huge and hungry before the feet of Morgoth. There the fire and anguish of hell entered into him, and he became filled with a devouring spirit, tormented, terrible, and strong.

Tolkien doesn't say it anywhere, but I imagine that a similar process was involved in creating the dragons.

[Belegorn]

Originally Posted by tom the eldest

Why sauron cant breed them,like morgoth did?is it because he dont have enough time?

Sauron was the creator of the werewolf. He did so by putting spirits inside the bodies of wolves. It's said that, "Sauron brought werewolves, fell beasts inhabited by dreadful spirits that he had imprisoned in their bodies." [Sil., p. 198] Also,

"Men called him Thu, and as a god
in after days beneath his rod
bewildered bowed to him, and made
his ghastly temples in the shade.
Not yet by Men enthralled adored,
now was he Morgoth's mightiest lord,
Master of Wolves, whose shivering howl
for ever echoed in the hills, and foul
enchantments and dark sigaldry
did weave and wield. In glamoury
that necromancer held his hosts
of phantoms and of wandering ghosts
of misbegotten or spell-wronged
monsters that about him thronged,
working his bidding dark and vile:
the werewolves of the Wizard's Isle." [Lay of Leithian, v. 2064-2079]

Sauron is even called the Master of Wolves. So he could, and did, make werewolves. I'm not sure why he did not in later Ages, or if he did.

[mhagain]

The evidence is stacking up.

From Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin:

Sauron, greatest and most terrible of the servants of Morgoth, who in the Sindarin tongue was named Gorthaur, came against Orodreth, the warden of the tower upon Tol Sirion. Sauron was become now a sorcerer of dreadful power, master of shadows and of phantoms, foul in wisdom, cruel in strength, misshaping what he touched, twisting what he ruled, lord of werewolves; his dominion was torment.

And:

Then Sauron made it into a watchtower for Morgoth, a stronghold of evil, and a menace; and the fair isle of Tol Sirion became accursed, and it was called Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves.

I think we can consider it definitive that Sauron was certainly a little boy who liked playing with dogs in the First Age. The interesting question then becomes: why not later as well? One possible answer is that after he let much of his power pass into the Ring he was unable to. There are probably others.

[Belegorn]

Originally Posted by tom the eldest

Did sauron breed the werewolves?if so,why he dont breed them anymore?the werewolves would have wrecked gondor,and the rangers of ithilien wouldnt be so effective.after all,why would anyone patrolling in a land full of werewolves?

There were still Dúnedain in Gondor and the company that met Sam and Frodo were Dúnedain led by Faramir. These are not mere Men. They are of a different sort. Although Gondor is on its last legs at this point and I'm sure a focused effort by Sauron and his armies could certainly overthrow the realm.

It seems Sauron was doing other things. Making the trolls more cunning, the introduction of a new breed of trolls, the Rings of Power et cetera. It appears that Sauron may have had a hand in the making/breeding of Orcs himself. Melkor came up with the idea, and sometimes he'd grow frustrated in projects which Sauron would complete.

[mhagain]

Originally Posted by Belegorn

It seems Sauron was doing other things. Making the trolls more cunning, the introduction of a new breed of trolls, the Rings of Power et cetera. It appears that Sauron may have had a hand in the making/breeding of Orcs himself. Melkor came up with the idea, and sometimes he'd grow frustrated in projects which Sauron would complete.

That's pretty much what Tolkien himself says in one of the Myths Transformed essays ("Orcs"):

He thus was often able to achieve things, first conceived by Melkor, which his master did not or could not complete in the furious haste of his malice.

Of course Melkor didn't have his final and fullest "Fall" until after he'd destroyed the Trees and corrupted Men, but the whole chronology and storyline of this time is a complete mess.

Going by the published works there's a huge period of time when Melkor was in captivity and Sauron would have had command of the Orcs, and it's also probable that it was actually Sauron who was the one who "appeared among us, in our own form visible" (because Melkor was either in captivity, or had already become the Morgoth, by the time Men awoke). Like I said - it's a mess.

[Ivriniel]

Originally Posted by tom the eldest

Why sauron cant breed them,like morgoth did?is it because he dont have enough time?

As no Ainur, but of Maian stock, his understanding of creation as an offspring of Eru's thought, was limited, I imagine. I recall reading that Sauron was a Maia of Aule's lineage, originally, which was all about craftsmanship more than living (though look at the Dwarves--Aule's creation--pretty awesome really). By the time Sauron had corrupted and ruined long enough, he also lost the ability to assume fair form. Another theme Tolkien seems to replay over is about devolution of power, or about a kind of 'one way' path a Maia can take (e.g. Melian, when she assumed Elvish form, kinda got caught at that evolutionary point). Melkor lost the power of shape changing at some point I seem to remember....