The Sauron Strategies: Footsteps into Failure - Page 6
© Michael Martinez
A failure to capitalize on his victories in the east may have been the reason for why Sauron decided to burn the forests of Eriador. His eastern armies must have cleared the open lands of Men and Elves and been stopped in the forests. Either the eastern forces were wiped out in pitched, desperate battles, or else they withdrew when they could go no further. Durin's attack on Sauron's western forces may have been completely unexpected, and Sauron could have realized that if he took his army through the great woodlands of Eriador, the Eldar and Edain would ravage his troops and supply lines.
Hence, after crushing Eregion, Sauron sent enough troops northward to ensure that Elrond's army was pinned down, and then he proceeded to eradicate the whole of Eriador. In a way, the devastation Sauron wreaked upon the world would serve as a statement, a sort of declaration of sovereignty. "This is mine to do with as I please." He would be telling the Elves in no uncertain terms that he, and not they, would control Middle-earth. The cake was his, not theirs. The Elves must have understood this, too.
After the war was over, and Sauron had been defeated, there apparently was no talk of marching into Mordor and taking Sauron down a peg. Many Elves fled Middle-earth and Gil-galad elected to establish a new outpost at Imladris, which was farther north (and distant from Mordor) and more defensible than Eregion had been. The army or armies which had pursued Sauron back to Mordor must not have had sufficient resources to force their way into the land. So the implication of their withrdawal is that the Eldar and Numenoreans ran into something they were not ready to deal with.
Mordor, surrounded by high mountains, was very defensible, and undoubtedly Sauron chose to make it his fortress because of the advantages offered by the geography. But Gil-galad had few if any resources for maintaining a lengthy siege so far from Lindon. Numenor had no bases in the area (Pelargir would not exist for another 600 years), and the only peoples in the area were unfriendly (except possibly for the Ent-wives, who may have been willing to support the cause, but might also have stood aside).
"The Tale of Years" says that, beginning around the year 1800, Sauron extended his power eastward. It would seem that Sauron, like the Eldar and Numenoreans, felt it was time for a change in policy. Rather than take on the Eldar directly, he elected instead to build up his power among other peoples (presumably among the Men of eastern Middle-earth, whose ancestors had once been loyal or friendly to Morgoth). The evolution of Sauron's goals emerges as a consequence of his several failures: he failed to accept responsibility for his rebellion and refused to go to Valinor; he failed to seduce the Eldar to his full service; he failed to crush the Eldar and eliminate them as potential rivals for control over Middle-earth.
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