The Sauron Strategies: One War to Win Them All, Except... - Page 7
© Michael Martinez
In 2758, Wulf launched an attack against Rohan from Dunland. At the same time, Corsairs from Umbar or other parts of the Harad attacked Rohan from the west, and Balchoth or other Easterlings attacked Rohan from the east. Gondor itself was attacked and thus prevented from sending aid to Rohan. The Rohirrim were defeated in open battle and driven into the mountains. Wulf took possession of most of the land. Sauron undoubtedly planned the assault, and the extended period of cold, called the Long Winter, ensured that the people of Rohan (and Eriador) suffered terribly. But if it was Sauron's goal to destroy the Rohirrim in this conflict, he failed. Although Helm himself perished during the Long Winter, his nephew Frealaf defeated Wulf and his allies the next spring with help from Gondor, which repulsed the attacks in the south. But the conflict produced one other setback, which Sauron most likely did not see coming.
In 2590, the Longbeard Dwarves re-established the Kingdom under the Mountain in Erebor, which lay to the east of northern Mirkwood. While Erebor posed no threat to Dol Guldur, it allied itself with the Northman Kingdom of Dale. The two realms increased in wealth, fame, and power. In 2770 the dragon Smaug came out of the distant north and destroyed both Erebor and Dale. The surviving Dwarves went into exile and the royal family ended up in Dunland. In 2990, Thror, who had been King under the Mountain, decided to return east. He was murdered by Azog, a chieftain of the Orcs in Khazad-dum, who decapitated Thror and mutilated the Dwarf-king's head.
Thror's son Thrain assembled an alliance of all the Dwarven peoples for a seven-year war against the Orcs of the Misty Mountains. Although the Dwarves suffered grievous losses, they nearly wiped out the Orcs. Sauron's control over the Misty Mountains was effectively destroyed in that war. Coupled with his failure to destroy or seize control over Rohan, losing the Misty Mountains diminished Sauron's chances of destroying Lothlorien or of finding the One Ring.
Not to be thwarted for long, Sauron may at this time have begun retrieving the other Rings of Power he had given out in the Second Age. The Dwarves had the Seven and the Nazgul had the Nine. Commanding the Nazgul to surrender their Rings would be no problem. But Sauron had to hunt down the Dwarf-kings one by one and take their Rings from them. And of those kings, only three still possessed their Rings. Four of the Rings had apparently been destroyed by dragons. Thrain was the last Ring-keeper to fall into Sauron's hands. Although Tolkien offers no explanation for why Sauron took back the Rings of Power, it may be that he used them to enhance his own strength. Or perhaps he intended, at some point, to distribute them again to potential new slaves. Gloin reported to the Council of Elrond in 3018 that Sauron had offered three Rings to King Dain II, although we cannot say that Sauron would actually have restored the Rings to the Dwarves.
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