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Very early inThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Galadriel speaks of an evil that she continues to hunt down. While many Elves believe this evil to be gone from Middle Earth, Galadriel cannot rest until she is positive.
Unlike many of the other Elves during the Second Age of Middle Earth, Galadriel is driven by more than a need to rid the land of evil. She’s driven by revenge. Her eldest brother, Finrod, who was a King of the Noldor, was killed by Sauron during the Elves' war with Morgoth. AlthoughMorgoth is now gone, Galadriel still believes Sauron is somewhere out there, largely because of the state of Finrod’s body.
He was killed in a place of darkness and despair. By servants of Sauron.
InThe Rings of Power, when Finrod’s body was recovered, it was discovered that Sauron had mutilated it by carving a mark into his chest. The Elves discerned that the mark was a sigil, but even the wisest of the Elves could never determine what Sauron’s sigil meant or why he left it on Finrod’s body. But the sigil was enough for Galadriel and her company to continue searching Middle Earth forany sign of Sauron.
Sauron’s Sigil Is A Sign To His Followers
Galadriel was right that Sauron was not completely gone. She and her company discoveredthe fortress of Dúrnost, an abandoned stronghold once belonging toMorgoth in the realm of Angband. Inside the fortress, Galadriel found the same sigil that was marked on Finrod’s body. This was a sign that Sauron had escaped to Dúrnost when Morgoth was defeated. But it was more than just a sign that Sauron survived.
Although the true meaning of the sigil was still unknown to Galadriel and the Elves, one thing was certain: Sauron’s sigil was serving as a sign to his followers. He left the sigil carved into an anvil within the fortress of Dúrnost, so that the orcs who survived the war would be able to follow him and know where to go. While Galadriel didn’t know it at the time, the sigil was more than just a sign to the orcs.
Sauron’s Mysterious Sigil Is Actually A Map
While in Númenor, Elendil takes Galadriel to the hall of lore, where they comb for any sign of the sigil. What they come across is an account of a human spy that was kept in the dungeon of the enemy. This spy recorded where the enemy’s tower was located, so that it might be found again.
Sauron’s Sigil, which closely resembles the Eye of Sauron, was actuallya map to show the orcs where to gather.Just glancing at the sigil wouldn’t give this away, especially if the Elves believed that all the orcs were destroyed and didn’t know that they were looking for a map. But when the sigil is turned horizontally, it lines up with aparticular area on a map of Middle Earth, an area that no longer exists during the Third Age.
On a map of Middle Earth, Sauron’s sigil lines up exactly withthe mountain ranges in the Southlands.This is the discovery that Galadriel and Elendil made in the Hall of Lore. Galadriel also realizes that Sauron is planning on having orcs attack the Southlands. The only thing she doesn’t know is that orcs have already arrived in the Southlands, causing ruin for the people of Tirharad (where Bronwyn and her son live) and other neighboring villages with poisoned grass and sinkholes.
Black Speech Reveals The True Intentions Of The Sigil
Although the sigil itself doesn’t reveal anything besides a meeting place, while in the Hall of Lore, Galadriel and Elendil find an account in Black Speech.Black Speech, also calledthe Dark Tongue of Mordor,is the language of the enemy, the same language that is inscribed upon the One Ring. Sauron created this language to replace the many dialects of Orcish, giving the orcs one united language. It would later come to be known as the official language of Mordor. It’s a tongue that few can understand, and even fewer dare to speak.
As one of the few who can understand Black Speech inThe Rings of Power, Galadriel is able to decipher the account, which details a horrible plan surrounding the sigil and the Southlands. In the event that Morgoth is defeated, this plan was put in place so that the orcs and Sauron could have a home.
As luck would have it, the Elves, with the help of the men of Númenor, defeated Morgoth long ago. Once Morgoth was gone, Sauron made it known to his servants by leaving the sigil marked on the anvil in Dúrnost that it was time to enact this master plan. The Black Speech reveals that the sigil is a map of where Sauron and his followers plan to make a realm of their own. They intend to do this by destroying the Southlands andturning it into the realm of Mordor.
