The mystery of Sauron's lost finger

[Rilwen Gamgee]

One of the most memorable occurrences in the Battle of Dagorlad: Isildur cutting off Sauron’s finger and claiming the Ring. Now, possibly Tolkien did not want to delve into this matter further, but it brought about much pondering between my sister and I: exactly what happened to Sauron’s finger after it was severed? Did Elrond, on his way leading Isildur up Mt. Doom, stoop to pick it up, put it in his pocket, and bring it back to Rivendell to encase in a glass box for preservation?

My sister and I have looked for information, but have found none. Perhaps we looked in the wrong place? (As we don’t own HoME, we could not search there.) So, as wild as they may be, what are your thoughts?

[elronds_daughter]

an excellent question. I personally have never come across any information as regards this, and have really never thought of it. but now the gears are turning. what did happen to Sauron's finger? perhaps Isildur took it (along with the ring) to be an heirloom. or maybe a passing orc picked it up and took a bite, promptly decided it was not worth sinking his fangs into, and threw it out. there are many possiblities. I leave the rest to you.

Cheers!

Elrond's (other) daughter

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Agreed. Too much is heard of the Eye. We need stories about the Finger.

Good topic! If I ever have a funny suggestion I will post it.

[Kransha]

Well, I have a theory, which would only be appropriate in a mirthful forum...

Sauron (read: Gorthaur) was, as is known, Maiar. When, beneath the flames of Orodruin, he was slain inadvertantly by Isildur, the son took the Ring, forgetting rather absent-mindedly to dump it in Mt. Doom's fires. The finger most likely lay where it fell, severed from Sauron along with the Ring. Sauron was forced, when he returned an age later, to re-use the same body, as his spirit had 'fled far away and hid in waste places,' since Gollum notes in The Two Towers that the body, new or old, of the Dark Lord had nine fingers, leading us to believe that the same bereft, semi-disintegrated cadaver of Sauron was used again. But, that corpse was, as I said, 'bereft of life' (pining for the fjords, really).

What was not so bereft, was the finger, leeching Sauron's essence. It survived, lived on, after Sauron's body was removed from its moved moveliness, so to speak (senseless, I know). Thus, the Finger of Sauron remained living and probably crawled off cautiously while Elrond and Isildur babbled on about rings and things and Balrog wings. Over the years, and with the return of Sauron, it obviously decided not to return to its master, for he remains minus a finger, and lived reclusively, much like Shelob in Cirith Ungol.

As far as I know it, one can deduce the whereabouts of the Finger from the more conjectural sections of The History of Middle-Earth. In the north, near the foundation of Angmar, west of Carn Dum, sits a small pass in the upermost Misty Mountains known as Cirith Knukol, or The Pass of the Finger. Why else would it be named thus unless something finger-like lurked there? The roaming Khazad who ventued there in search of petroleum nitrate where never heard from again, now were the elusive 'company of Halfling Archers' sent to the aid of Earnur to retake Arthedain from the Witch-King. The Elves and Men who fought the Witch-Kings orcs tell no tales of Hobbit bravery, and deny openly that the hobbits were present. We must conclude that the hapless perrianath went astray and were devoured by the Finger. What say ye all?

[One of the Nine]

I think an orc ate it, personally. It may not have tasted to good to him, but it was food that he needed. That's my opinion, although Kransha does have a point, I'm sticking with the meeting with an orcs stomach.

[Bombadil]

Ah yes Kransha, I see you possess a great knowledge of what happenned to the ring. But your story ends too soon. You see the finger then crawled to the Old Forest and became Tom Bombadil. Mystery solved! When Tom refers to being around before the dark lord came from the outside he simply forgot about his former lord Melkor, noting Sauron as the only dark lord. Thus Sauron must've come into Arda hands first.

Now, this is why when Tom puts on the ring he is not affected, for it's old news to him. He had worn the thing for years before, and never went invisible either may I note. So there you have it: Tom Bombadil is not a Maia, Vala, Eru, a forest spirit, nor an enigma. It's simple- he is the finger of Sauron.

[Firefoot]

You see, when the Finger cut off, Isildur took it and put it in his pocket, where he promptly forgot about it. When he returned to Minas Tirith, he had it mummified and placed in a small box. He brought the box with him on his way up the Anduin, where he was as everyone knows, waylaid by Orcs and killed. The Finger was not given to Ohtar to take to Rivendell, as Isildur was in the middle of battle and had much more important things to think about than Sauron's Finger. When Isildur tried to swim to safety, the box with the Finger floated out of his pocket to shore, where an Orc found it. The said Orc was actually one of the Goblins of Moria, and he took it back to the caves in the Misty Mountains. However, being a dim-witted sort of creature, he could not figure out how to open the box, and abandoned the box, for he had no use for something that he could not understand. The box laid in the tunnels until several hundred years later Gollum found the box and took it to his little island underneath the mountains. When he left to find Bilbo and his precious, he happened to take the little box with him. Miraculously enough, he was able to hide the box from Sauron when he went to Mordor, though he was not so lucky when he was captured by Aragorn and taken to Mirkwood. The Elves discovered the trick to opening the box, and realized what it actually was. Legolas then took it with him when he went to the Council of Elrond. It was there decided that it should be destroyed along with the Ring, as long as Frodo was going to Mt. Doom anyways. So Frodo took it with him, and when he got to Mt. Doom he had no trouble casting the Finger into the Fire (alas that the same could not be said of the Ring!). So ended the journey of Sauron's finger.

[Elennar Starfire]

Who would've thought a mere finger could be so amusing?

[One of the Nine]

Ok, I've abandoned the orc eating the finger thing. It seems to improbable for me, now that I think about it. I think that the finger, being cut off from Sauron, ceased to be evil. It then crawled around not knowing where it was going. It was then picked up by an orc who, on finding it, threw it as far as it would go down a stream because he did not find it amusing and had no use for such a thing. The finger floated down the stream and ended up in the open sea where a giant fish ate it. The fish then swam northward for it's annual mating season, and spit up the finger. The finger then floated to the shore and continued in an easterly route, somehow managing to stay away from all of the towns. It then fell into a river, the same river that Isildur would soon be killed in, and just sat at the bottom for awhile. When Deogle found the Ring, he also found the finger, and Smeogle having killed him, took it as an extra birthday present. He took the finger to the caves when all his family and friends abandoned him, and set it on his island along with the Ring. Now, when Gollum lost the Ring, he also lost the finger, because he always put the Ring on the finger when he took it out with him, taking it off when he used it to catch and eat a goblin. The sinnews that held the finger onto him snapped. When Bilbo found the Ring, he also found the finger. So, he took it as an extra, maybe wierd, token of chance. He left the finger out when he finally let out the secret of the Ring, thinking nothing of it. But, when he passed the Ring on to Frodo, he was in fact very attached to the finger, and brought it along with him and kept it close to him. He then spent many years regreting keeping it, because the finger was very lively, and hard to keep from the elves ever watchful eyes. When he crossed over to Valinor, he dropped the finger into the ocean. It then sank to the bottom of the ocean and was forgotten forever. It is now under 10 feet of sand and still sinking. So ends the tale of Sauron's finger.

[Nimrothiel]

Personally, I'm rather partial to Bombadil's version, and he should know more about this matter than anyone, shouldn't he?

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

He, after all, is Sauron's finger.

But I've been wondering? How could a finger like Bombadil get Goldberry for a wife? Perhaps Goldberry was Ungoliant's mouth - I don't think even she could eat her mouth - who crossed Eriador, and fell into a river.

Now I'm totally lost. How did a spider's mouth become a person?

[Rilwen Gamgee]

These are great theories, everyone!

My sister just informed me that she didn't think of this herself. She found the original idea here: on the "Tolkien Sarcasm Page".

perhaps Isildur took it (along with the ring) to be an heirloom.

Possibly...

Elrond approached Aragorn and presented him with the heirlooms of his line. One was the Scepter of Arnor-- and the other, a mysterious gift carefully wrapped in black cloth.

“You, Aragorn son of Arathorn, are the rightful King of Gondor. Take these heirlooms which have been bestowed upon thee in honour and rule well! Here is the Scepter of Arnor,” and he carefully placed it in Aragorn’s hands, “and…the One Finger.” Elrond raised the small item and unwrapped it as one would with a deadly creature. And behold! in the midst of the cloth there lay a black finger. It seemed no less fearful than if it was still attached to its master’s hand and emitted a cold chill into the air.

Aragorn looked upon Elrond with disbelief and fear. “The Finger? The one that was severed from Sauron’s hand? Alas! that is a foul token!”

[Bombadil]

How could a finger like Bombadil get Goldberry for a wife?

Ah yes, well you see this is why Bombadil had to kidnap Goldberry:

He caught her, held her fast! Water-rats went scuttering
reeds hissed, herons cried, and her heart was fluttering.
Said Tom Bombadil: 'Here's my pretty maiden!
You shall come home with me! The table is all laden:
yellow cream, honeycomb, white bread and butter;
roses at the window-sill and peeping round the shutter.
You shall come under Hill! Never mind your mother
in her deep weedy pool: there you'll find no lover!'

Then over time she developed the stockholm syndrome and fell in love with Tom.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

I presume then, that Tom Bombadil was destroyed when the One Ring went into the fire. Gandalf clearly hid this fact from the Hobbits by refusing to take them with him into the Old Forest. 'Away to see Tom' indeed! Instead he sent them to the Shire all alone where they almost got themselves killed in a big battle.

Or maybe Bombadil wasn't destroyed, and the War betwixt Gandalf and Sauron continued into the Fourth Age.

[Thorongil]

And why do you think he went to the forest? To make sure the finger was gone, of course!

But why would Saurons finger help Frodo?

[Nimrothiel]

Frodo gave him a half-off coupon for a manicure at "Hard as Nails."

[Elennar Starfire]

The finger remained where it had fallen. It lay unnoticed by orcs, for when the ring was removed it became invisible. (you see, the ring had the opposite effect on Sauron. Instead of making him invisible, it made him visible. This is the reason the ring was created in the first place, Sauron grew tired of being sat upon.) When Sauron returned, all he could find of his body was the finger. As it was much too small (not to mention lacking arms, legs, and other convenient parts) he could not reinhabit the finger, so he had the orcs build a tower to look like the finger. This tower was Barad-Dur. He put the finger in a glass case in the heart of the tower. This confused the orcs, seeing only a seemingly empty glass case, but they dared not question their great master. So there the finger remained. When Barad-Dur collapsed after the destruction of the ring, the finger was buried under the rubble. Over thousands of years, the rubble was covered with dirt, and more dirt, and became a mountain. Under this mountain, the finger of Sauron remains today.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

Originally Posted by Bombadil

Then over time she developed the stockholm syndrome and fell in love with Tom.

So it should have been named "Old Forest" syndrome...hmmm...

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

I presume then, that Tom Bombadil was destroyed when the One Ring went into the fire.

I think otherwise. Sauron was not truly destroyed when the Ring was destroyed. He was reduced to a powerless spirit. Bombadil, perhaps, received the pardon of the Valar - maybe Gandalf himself delivered the message - and was permitted to stay in Middle-earth while the rest of Sauron was deported to the Void.

Sauron, of course, complained of a mssing finger while playing "Rock, Paper, Scissor" with Morgoth.

Or perhaps, with the One Ring undone, he returned to his original form and startled Goldberry, who threw him into some river. Gandalf came and saw Goldberry single again, and they lived happily ever after.

No, wait Gandalf returned to Valinor. Middle-earth is full of such sadness.

[Nimrothiel]

*Or perhaps, with the One Ring undone, he returned to his original form and startled Goldberry, who threw him into some river. Gandalf came and saw Goldberry single again, and they lived happily ever after.

No, wait Gandalf returned to Valinor. Middle-earth is full of such sadness.*

So he turned her into a newt and snuck her along in his pocket...pouch...carrying-thing. Once they got to Valinor she got better and after a long discussion with the Valar she was allowed to remain with Gandalf on the condition that she remain amphibious and must submerge herself in water for eight hours a day. She agreed, and they lived happily ever after; the end.

[Bombadil]

Ah yes, I believe you are most correct, except it is unknown what particular animal she was turned into by Gandalf. Some say it was a baby Iguana, other speculations are that is was a toad. But yes, there is a significant amount of evidence that she was in fact turned into a newt. There are numerous classes developing in Universities across the world, and some of the best research at Oxford.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

Interesting, Nimrothiel.

Going back to Kransha's theory and Cirith Knukol...how then could a hobbit-destroying - or devouring - finger turn into Bombadil? Is it because, during the course of the hobbits' digestion, the Finger grew in size and assimilated the life-force - for lack of better words - of the hobbits, thus gaining their jolly disposition and rotund belly? I would find such an act unforgivable, despite the acts of kindness done later to Frodo's company.

Or perhaps the hobbits also experienced Stockholm syndrome...nah!

[Silmiel of Imladris]

Hmmm... reminds me of a poem called the Orc Marching Chant

Sauron made some rings and they were very usefu things,
And he only wanted one to keep,
But Isildur took the one just to have a little fun,
Sauron's finger was inside, What a creep!

So according to this Isildur took the ring along with the finger. The finger was probably lost with the ring but unlike the ring it was never found. Maybe if Degol had let the fish put him a little farther he would have picked up a finger instead of the ring.

[Osse]

I have a theory... not on what happened to the finger, but on why it was chopped off...


Now imagine... Sauron has just killed Elendil, and Isildur is peeved. He sits there and Sauron comes up to him. With the shards of Narsil in one hand, he grits his teeth and gives Sauron the "Bird". Whereupon Sauron bends down, and clenching his fingers to expose the middle one, returns the kind gesture. Unfortunately for him, this was a cunning ploy on the part of Isildur, who jumps up and chops it off!!

[Mithalwen]

Well my theory as to what happened is that since Maia don't have proper bodies, they just "cloth themselves" with them rather than live in them properly and when they trash them and have to leave them the body just goes whooof... but I think that when his finger was severed.... part of Sauron's self was split off and when he was able to take on a body again it formed a "mini-me", a tiny Sauron clone casting it's tiny lidless eye around the place.....

[Nimrothiel]

Roflmao!!! Oh dear, dear, dear, dear! A Sauron "Mini-Me;" ahahahahahaha!!
That is one of the more amusing ideas I've heard. So does he like his chocolate?

[Mithalwen]

Oh Behave! *places hand to mouth in exaggerated manner*

[Morsul the Dark]

ok everyone i finally found the answer it was on page 456 of LOTR(dont check im making that up obviously)

I think it wasn't eaten by an orc rather it was eaten by a Took. It was cut off wondered around and eventually got to the Old Forest just in thime for the hobbits war with the trees all the hobbits took a root from one of the trees and ate as a symbol of their victory. one of the Tooks after all being "a fool of a Took" thought the finger was a root and ate it. that is why there is somthing odd about the tooks and why bilbo found the ring it was attracted to the finger.

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

Our new batch of Downers should find this interesting.

[Tuor of Gondolin]

Elrond approached Aragorn and presented him with the heirlooms of his line. One was the Scepter of Arnor-- and the other, a mysterious gift carefully wrapped in black cloth.

“You, Aragorn son of Arathorn, are the rightful King of Gondor. Take these heirlooms which have been bestowed upon thee in honour and rule well! Here is the Scepter of Arnor,” and he carefully placed it in Aragorn’s hands, “and…the One Finger.” Elrond raised the small item and unwrapped it as one would with a deadly creature. And behold! in the midst of the cloth there lay a black finger. It seemed no less fearful than if it was still attached to its master’s hand and emitted a cold chill into the air.

Aragorn looked upon Elrond with disbelief and fear. “The Finger? The one that was severed from Sauron’s hand? Alas! that is a foul token!”

So according to the above Elrond gave Strider the finger!
Perhaps PJ's crabby patty Elrond was correct after all.

[Hookbill the Goomba]

It's obvious what happened! The finger was left on the floor until an Orc with an eye infection ate it. The finger worked within him, making the eye grow bigger and brighter, and making the Orc a little too obsessed with fire and ordering folk around. When Sauron (Necromancer) returned, he found this giant eye bossing everyone around and so burst it with a pin. He then had the idea for becoming a giant eye, as that was all the Orcs seemed to want to follow.

[Rumil]

And so it came to pass that on a time Aragorn, tiring of errantry in the company of Elladan and Elrohir, wandered through the pinewoods of Rivendell and did espy an elven maiden. "Luthien! Luthien!" he called, for indeed did she seem the twin of Tinuviel of ancient days, the most fair of the children of Illuvatur ever to walk upon this Middle Earth. The maiden replied "why call'st thou 'Luthien' ? For I am Arwen, daughter of Master Elrond. Grim and travel-stained dost thou appear but of fair and noble birth thou art, I deem".

"Pssst", qouth Aragorn, son of Arathorn and descendant of mighty Isildur and Elendil, "Wanna look in my matchbox?"

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Elrond did take up the Finger and present it to Isildur who grew enraged. "Who are you, Half-Elven," he cried in the wrath and madness of his new ownership of the Ring, "to give me the Finger?" Isildur then did go down to the army and take up a chicken, which he threw at Elrond, and many did say then that no good would come from the flipping of a bird.

[The 1,000 Reader]

The finger sat idle until it rotted away.

[Alcarillo]

When Isildur sliced the finger right off Sauron's hand and took the Ring, he chucked the finger in a heap of garbage, and he would never see it again. But that is only half of the story. The finger, when it was sliced off, was actually imbued with magical powers as Isildur slipped off the Ring, it being the last part of Sauron to touch the Ring. Such are the strange and varied laws of magic and supernatural abilities. Anyways, the Ring became alive, and it crawled from the heap of garbage where Isildur left it. In fact, it traveled all the way into the furthest reaches of Middle-Earth.

After years of travel the Finger made itself known to the peoples of the East. The king of one eastern kingdom hailed the Finger as a deity, and established the Cult of the One Finger to Rule Them All (the king gave himself the honor of being high priest). Thousands of pilgrims poured into the king's city each week to pay homage to the mighty Finger. Some historians say that the Finger was actually ruling the country, but they have not been able to back up their statements with firm proof. Whether or not the Finger was king, it lived its days in luxury at the Grand Royal Holy Temple of the Finger.

But when Alatar and Pallando wandered into the East some hundreds of years later, the Finger's life of luxury was interrupted. The two Blue Wizards, after visiting the Grand Royal Holy Temple, decided that to become truly powerful, they should found their own religion. They wandered into the empire just to the north, and at the emperor's birthday banquet, they burst into the hall and declared themselves prophets of the god Sûdökú. They put on a display of colorful pyrotechnics to prove their power. At this, the emperor is said to have fallen upon his knees and to have surrendered to the power of Sûdökú. Alatar and Pallando became high priests and oracles of their new religion. Their first official statement was that all Fingerians were the enemies of the Sûdökú-ites, and that a war should be waged for the great Sûdökú against the false god of the Fingerians.

And so it was that the southern Fingerian kingdom led by the One Finger was attacked by the northern Sûdökú-ite empire led by the Blue Wizards (or Highest Grand Viziers of the Great Religion of Sûdökú, as the two were now called). For hundreds of years these two nations wrestled each other, one in the name of a finger, the other in the name of a deified number-puzzle. For 800 years the two countries were at a stalemate. It was in the year 1850 of the Third Age that the northern empire released its secret weapon the Krôs-wùrd and the southern kingdom's defenses began to fail. Huge numbers of Fingerians fled the nation and headed west. They were the Wainriders who attacked Gondor. Their shields are said to have borne an image of the One Finger, and on Gondor's battlefields they would raise their shields, challenging the Gondorians to fight. Ever since the days of that war, it has been a grave insult in Gondor to give somebody "the One Finger". *

But the One Finger's kingdom recovered from the Krôs-wùrd's blows when Sauron, regaining strength, supplied his severed appendage with orc regiments. The war was at a stalemate once more. Things were looking desperate for the northern empire. The One Finger was hard to deal with alone, but with Sauron backing him, he was unstoppable. So the Blue Wizards bided their time until Sauron's back was turned, and then they struck with all their might.

It was during the War of the Ring that the Sûdökú-ites attacked. In the winter of 3018 of the Third Age they marched an army a half-million strong straight into the southern kingdom's capital. They stormed the Grand Royal Holy Temple and slew the priests and toppled the Finger-idols and carved great Sûdökú grids in their places. But they could not find the One Finger. In fact, it was taken by a Sûdökú-ite foot soldier who had came across the finger in the midst of battle and took it as a souvenir, thinking it was an ordinary finger cut off in the fighting. The solder ended up carrying the One Finger for the next three months.

In March the soldier was sent to the western front in Sauron's war against Gondor. He was taken prisoner by the Gondorians at Pelennor. When he was interrogated, the Gondorians discovered this finger in the man's pocket. The interrogators informed their superior officer, who demanded the finger be gotten rid of and forgotten. It is not known whether he knew of the finger's true nature or, if he did, if he informed the Steward. The One Finger was locked in a tiny box and put into storage, where it still rests today millennia later, plotting its return.

As it turns out, the Blue Wizards actually succeeded in their mission against Sauron when they destroyed the One Finger's kingdom. If it were not for them, Sauron's finger would still be worshipped as a god today.

* Idea "borrowed" from Fordim. I just couldn't resist.