Naked and Ashamed [Conference Presentation]
Impaired Self-image and the Persistence of Sauron’s Bodily Wounds
This paper has been presented at:
May 10th, 2024 | ICMS
Abstract
Sauron’s relationship to corporeality, impairment, and disability is in many ways unique within the Legendarium. While not an incarnate being by nature he is nevertheless incarnate in two distinct “bodies” at the same time during much of the Second and Third Ages (himself and The Ring) both of which seem to exhibit at least some amount of agency. He is dismembered in the prose of The Lord of the Rings through metonymy and metaphor, yet those under his domination extend his bodily reach. His relationship to the aesthetics of his form (and the eventual limitations thereof) plays a narrative role as does his skill as a shapeshifter, and his capabilities as a necromancer include the “unnatural” manipulation of body and spirit independent of each other. Perhaps most curiously, Sauron twice himself receives physical injuries that persist across his own bodily transformations: a wound to his throat that drips blood and the loss of a single finger. That is, unlike Morgoth, Sauron maintains the ability to “shift” or “rebuild” his shape following these injuries, but cannot (or will not) “heal” these wounds as a part of that process.
Sauron is a master of deception and illusions, muddying the waters when it comes to readings of his relationship to his bodily form, but the above characteristics offer tantalizing glimpses into how we might read Sauron through the lenses of disability, impairment, and their understanding in Medieval thought. Building on the work of Flieger, Kisor, Metzler, and Moore, and utilizing both a Medieval understanding of the post-resurrection wounds of martyrs and saints as well as Price’s modern concept of “bodymind,” I will explore possible interpretations of the persistence of Sauron’s wounds and ask what might constitute impairment and disability for an Ainu, if their bodies are in fact reflections of their spirit.
Publication
Forthcoming!
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