The Lord of the Rings is known for its detailed costumes and sets, but it took me years to realize that Sauron was holding a dagger in the prologue. Sauron is the Lord of the Rings himself, but he only got brief screen time in Peter Jackson’s trilogy. Just as he was written by English high fantasy originator J.R.R. Tolkien, Sauron was a terrifying mystery in the movies. When I finally noticed the dagger in his hand, literature and cinema’s greatest villain became even more mysterious. I racked my brain, but couldn’t link it to the books.

Tolkien’s The Hobbit was published in 1937, and The Lord of the Rings was published in three parts between 1954 and 1955. Peter Jackson’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies adapted these, creating a trilogy per novel. Unfaithfully but impactfully presented as a giant, disembodied eye, Sauron’s actual activity wasn’t clear in the movies, but was more detailed in the books. Despite this, not once in either novel is there mention of the dagger. But there is an explanation for the dagger in Sauron’s hand, on deep investigation into the movies.

Why Sauron Is Holding A Dagger In The Lord Of The Rings’ Prologue

Sauron Is Up To No Good In The Fellowship Of The Ring Prologue

By The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’s ending, it is clear that Sauron was never up to any good in Mount Doom, which is reflected at the start. The movie is based around Gandalf’s discovery of the One Ring being in Frodo’s possession, and the quest that results from that. That is exactly why the film begins with the prologue concocted by Peter Jackson (it differs from Tolkien’s prologue, which concerned Hobbits). As Galadriel strongly implied in her voiceover, the prologue showed Sauron forging the ring.

The prologue features Sauron standing at the Cracks of Doom that Frodo and Sam would end up at in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Sauron held Lord of the Rings’ One Ring aloft on his maniacal finger, and somehow, Sala Baker embodied all the character’s hubris in this fleeting sH๏τ. Having forged the ring in the fires of Mount Doom, Sauron was beholding his handiwork. And the dagger helped him carry it out. As per the book, Sauron poured himself into the ring, which the dagger helped him do.

A Deleted LOTR Scene Would Have Revealed The Purpose Of Sauron’s Dagger

The Fellowship Of The Ring Originally Contained More Sauron Material

There was originally a Fellowship of the Ring scene planned that showed how Sauron used the dagger in his creation of the ring, but it was scrapped. Although Tolkien never mentioned Sauron using a dagger in his forging of the Lord of the Rings’ Rings of Power, it is easy to see how Jackson made the narrative stretch. Sauron poured his essence into the One Ring. As per Morgoth’s Ring, this was a similar process to the one Morgoth used to pour his essence into the fabric of Arda when it was being made, therefore corrupting it until its destruction.

Morgoth and Sauron were both immortal Ainur and ëalar – they were innately spirit beings. But Sauron took a body in Lord of the Rings’ Second Age. A storyboard for the scrapped scene showed Sauron cutting himself with the dagger and placing the ring on the wound, in the palm of his hand. The ring merged with the blood to complete the magic ritual needed to pour Sauron’s essence into the One Ring. This is a smart interpretation of the text, and I would have enjoyed this scene in The Lord of the Rings, but you can’t have it all.