[Zsinj16]

Okay, this subject has been debated on several LOTR Boards, and it usually ends up turning into vicious arguments by hardcore, starched-pants LOTR fans, but I thought it would get a more mild reply and reaction here since this isn't a "Strictly LOTR" board. What I'm wondering is, what did readers of the "LOTR Trilogy" on this thread imagine the Dark Lord Sauron to look like? Personally, I imagined him to be a brooding, demonic darkness that had no absolute, palpable form. Although, one picture of Sauron drawn by J.R.R. Tolkien that I saw did somehow seem to reflect a bit how I thought he looked like.
Also, I imagined Sauron's voice to sound like some deep, demonic rasp.

[Demandred]

Because he died and returned as a thing of spirit, I always imagined him to be a big dark shadowy figure radiating hatred, with a big large red eye barely visible looking around all the time.

[Bardos]

A black-clad, hooded, cloaked figure, with a deep daemonic voice.

[Zsinj16]

Do you mean in your mind you imagine him appearing to look like one of the Ringwraiths, Bardos?

[Zeddicus]

I imagined him as a sort of shadowy, semi translucent figure, cloaked and Coweled, though not seeming to be of the world.

His voice would be more of a projection in your mind rather than spoken word. Cold, hard and rather unpleasant to experience.

Yea, sort of what the nazgul look like, though more to an extreme level.

[Cygnus]

Just like the devil from the movie Legend. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif Just teasing! I never imagined him to look like anything.. he was just a formless kind of evil in my head.

I had a Tolkien calander a few years back and there was a painting of the balrog attacking Gandalf, and it was perfect. I didn't really have a good idea of it until I saw that picture. If that artist ever did a rendering of Sauron, it would be the definitive picture for me.

[Bardos]

Zsinj16> Hmm... Something like that, but more... ah... majestic in appearence.

And this topic gave me an idea for another one!

[lior]

Zsinj16, It is intresting to know you saw a Sauron picture drawn by Tolkien, where exactly did you see it?
Tolkien never describes Sauron in LOTR, and if I'm not mistaken, Sauron is almost never heard speaking directly to anyone, only through the Witch king. this is a great aspect of the book and what makes the villains to forbidding, it's left almost entirely to the imagination, and as others have pointed out, because Sauron was essentialy a spirit,I too saw him as something intangible, brooding, and very very dark, with no definitive form.

[Cadfael]

I imagine if Souron had any visible manifestation... he would seem to be pathetic, all his power went into making the ring... however his spirit would be very strong... this is hinted in the description of the ring-wraiths... they can hardly walk, but their power is strong.

[Zsinj16]

Lior, I forget exactly where I found this drawing of Sauron by Tolkien, but I'm sure you can find it if you look on the site called "Rolozo Tolkien" because they have virtually every LOTR-based picture drawn by professional fantasy artists. The picture consisted of Sauron hovering over a ridge of mountains which I think are in Mordor and he seems to be pointing at something. Also on Rolozo Tolkien, I found another picture drawn of Sauron where he looked like a black demonic creature with red glowing eyes, fangs, sort of a gotee, and ram's horns, and he was hovering over a dark fortress and seen below are the Nazgul and orcs going to war. It was a cool picture, but not quite how I imagined Sauron, because as I said, I don't imagine him in any "definite" form in the "LOTR" novels.
Cygnus,was that Balrog painting you saw by Jon Howe? Because I saw that same painting and I thought it was excellent and captured the very essence of the Balrog! I think that Jon Howe also drew two other "Balrog" paitntings: one of the Balrog attacking Gandalf from another angle, and one of the Balrog (although I'm not sure it was the same Balrog) attacking Fingolfin on a mountain cliff in "The Silmarillion". I have the Silmarillion Balrog painting as my computer desktop wallpaper by the way, very cool!