board77

I've posted this on TORC but I see no reason why people here shouldn't have something to gnaw on too.
When Sauron made his long planned secret return to Mordor from Dol Guldur, which route might he have taken? The Black gates were closest but might have still had a residual Gondor garrison. I think a possibility was through the Pass of Minas Morgul where the Witch King was in control. Or less likely or striking, a long route and entry to Mordor from the East.
If I pick up this screenplay idea again I will be coming to the part where this has to be described and I would like to get it either accurate or logically believable.

For some reason I seem to remember him returning through the eastern gap, but that may have been my own mental extrapolation rather than based on any actual text.

First you need to consider whether he had physical shape at all - otherwise he could have just 'drifted' across the mountains.

As we all know, he lost his shape at the end of the Second Age:

"...he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away and hid in waste places; and he took no visible shape again for many long years."

Certainly he had a physical shape after Dol Gulder, since Gollum described his hand:

"He has only four on the Black Hand, but they are enough."

But what about the intervening period when the ring started to 'wake up' along with Sauron gaining in strength and power?

Tolkien's letters are slightly ambiguous on this point.

"...the year 1000 of the Third Age, when the shadow of Sauron began first to grow again to new shape." (Letter 144)

This does not necessarily mean a physical shape for Sauron's body at that time. Perhaps that was later once he had finally settled in Barad Dur.

"Sauron should be thought of as very terrible. The form that he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic." (Letter 246)

Again, no timeline on this.

Also non-definitive is Gandalf in the Council Of Elrong:

"Some here will remember that many years ago I myself dared to pass the doors of the NEcromancer in Dol Guldur, and secretly explored his ways, and found thus that our fears were true: he was none other than Sauron, our Enemy of old, at length taking shape and power again."

Note that Gandalf says that Sauron is in the process of taking shape, not specifically saying that the task is completed.

So therefore I guess you have some artistic licence here, though if you assume he already had a physical shape whilst in Dol Gulder I doubt you can get away with saying he had enough power to shape-shift into a bat and simply fly home.

Thanks. I've presumed by this stage he was corporeal and my personal image of him has been somewhat similar to a ferocious Buddhist demon.
I have found it hard to imagine the half finished process of taking shape as Tolkien describes but various alternatives could be possible.
I wish Jackson could have absorbed Tolkien's description of his size, one of PJ's faults was a love of gigantism.
My vote goes to a secret journey through Ithilien to the Pass of Minas Morgul. He was essentially a coward though so any risk would have to be weighed carefully.

I'm with Alatar on this. Sauron wanted to get to Mordor secretly, so it's unlikely that he would pass that near Gondor. I imagine he went east, where he had many allies (or is subjects a better word), and from there came into Mordor from the east.

I'd also guess that he had physical form at the time, though as Lidless says, it can't be proven.

I guess the Eastern approach is correct though it is not so cinematic.


*goes back to thinking about a long delayed task*