Oxonmoot 2024

“[N]othing is evil in the beginning, even Sauron was not so.” These words from The Fellowship of the Ring express both a theological axiom and hint at a character arc whose beginnings we are never shown. The pre-fallen Sauron remained mostly hidden and entirely nameless—until 2007. With the publication of Parma Eldalamberon volume 17 we learned that Sauron had once been “Mairon” (The Admirable). What can we glean from this name amid the dozens of other names and epithets applied to Sauron across the Legendarium? How does “Mairon” compare to names of the other Ainur in general or Sauron’s maia foils Melyanna, Curumo, and Olórin in particular? What might it suggest about the telos of its owner? What about his virtues, vices, and the circumstances of his unshown Fall? In the spirit of Croft’s and Broadwell’s work on onomastics in Tolkien, I will explore these questions with regard to how they help shape a potential “capsule story” for the Lord of the Rings, himself.