Mouth of Sauron

The Mouth of Sauron was Sauron's ambassador and messenger for Mordor in Middle-earth.

Service to Sauron
"A tall and evil shape, mounted upon a black horse… The rider was robed all in black, and black was his lofty helm; yet this was no Ringwraith but a living man."

- The Return of the King

The Mouth of Sauron was one of the Black Númenóreans, and briefly appeared in person when he haggled with the Army of the West in front of the Morannon, trying to convince Aragorn and Gandalf to give up and let Sauron win the battle for Middle-earth. When Gandalf turned his proposal down, the Mouth of Sauron set all the armies of Barad-dûr on to them.

The Mouth of Sauron was also known as the Lieutenant of Barad-dûr. He had served Sauron for so much of his life he had forgotten his own name. He was a man of great stature, potentially the equal of other Dúnedain, but had fallen into darkness.

As a Black Númenórean he probably came from Umbar, and it is stated that

...he entered the service of the Dark Tower when it first rose again

The Dark Tower rose again when rebuilding began in 2951 of the Third Age, which means he entered Sauron's service shortly after that. Umbar's fleet had been destroyed by a Gondorean raid led by Thorongil (Aragorn) 29 years later, and 'The Mouth' may possibly have responded by leaving Umbar to seek a less vulnerable realm.

Some readers interpret the words 'arose again' to refer to the power of Sauron rather than the construction of his tower. In this case, the rise of the Dark Tower, Barad-dûr in 2951 was the second arising. It first rose again some time after 3220 of the Second Age, which means that the Mouth of Sauron must have been at least 3,200 years old at the time of the War of the Ring. Even for a Númenórean this was an exceptional age, matched only by the Ringwraiths, and he therefore may have been a Ring-bearer, who by some magic of Sauron had not become a wraith himself. (He may have worn a lesser ring and not one of the great Rings of Power. Alternatively, he may have been granted one of the Seven Rings of the Dwarves, several of which Sauron had recaptured early.) Support for this extreme old age is found in the quote:

His name is remembered in no tale, for he himself had forgotten it (…) — (ibid) Some have argued that even Gollum still remembered his old name after 500 years, though in fact it is Frodo who first uses Gollum's old name Sméagol. (Gollum is the name given to Sméagol by others, imitating his utterances.)

In the Middle-earth Role Playing game, the name of the Mouth of Sauron was Urzahil, but this name was not created by Tolkien.

If, however, the reference to the second arising of the Dark Tower is taken literally rather than taken to mean something else, then the Mouth Of Sauron has been in the service of his master for 68 years. If this service began as a youth (perhaps a child taken by Sauron as a promising student of sorcery from a "renegade" family, for example) who was subsequently cowed, bewitched and indoctrinated by his new master, then The Mouth of Sauron could quite feasibly have no memory of his birth name. Sauron enjoyed nurturing very powerful beings from their infancy, as his personal rearing of the Nazgûls' 'Fell Beasts' indicates.

The Mouth's fate is nowhere recorded, and it is probable he died in the assault before the Morannon, as Gandalf warned him he would in the moments prior to the battle. However, in the 2003 film, while he was taunting Aragorn about never being king of Gondor, Aragorn decapitated him.

Role in the Film and Video Game
In the Peter Jackson movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, scenes with the Mouth of Sauron were filmed but cut from the original theatrical release. These scenes were later put back into the film in the extended edition. In the film, the Mouth of Sauron is decapitated by Aragorn. He was played by Bruce Spence. His helmet bears the words “Lammen Gorthaur” (Sindarin for Voice of the Abhorred dead) written in cirth runes. This helmet covers most of his face with only his horribly disfigured and diseased mouth visible. His mouth became this way through all the evil he has spoken. Also in the film he is blind only able to see though a combination of sorcery and telepathy, which enables him to see far and wide and possibly through the environments around him (such as the black gate before it was opened).

He appears briefly in the Rankin-Bass animated film, The Return of the King, in a shortened version of his scene from the novel. After he introduces himself, he mocks Aragorn and warns him that he is "hopelessly outnumbered." Aragorn rebuffs him with no help from Gandalf.

In the Return of the King video game, the Mouth of Sauron is a boss in the level The Black Gate, Aragorn duels with him and slays him before the host of Mordor comes forth.

Role in "The Battle for Middle Earth 2" computer game
In the computer game "The Battle for Middle Earth 2", the Mouth of Sauron was the lord of Dol Guldur. He conquers Lorien, Mirkwood, and Erebor. He also plays a part in the conquering of Rivendell alongside an army of goblins and several other villains including Shelob, Gorkil the Goblin King, Drogoth the dragon lord, the Witch-king of Angmar and five other Nazgul. These battles happened respectively in missions 1, 6, 7, and 8 of the evil campaign. In the good campaign he is first encountered and slain in mission 7 at Erebor.