Why Sauron Wants Mithril | Tolkien Explained

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Probably helps that taking all the mithril stopped anyone else running around with a suit of mithril mail.

I think that the answer is two fold. One: He wished to deny it from his enemies, whether for making weapons, armor, enchanted items, or just beautiful objects. Two: After he had vanquished all of the free peoples of Middle Earth, he planned to use it to construct armor, weapons, and other enchanted items for himself in a future war against the Valar themselves. Foolish, I know. But his hubris was, I think, sufficient to that task. But I have no doubt he would have failed.

I like the 'because he's a smith, and it's a cool metal' theory.

Whatever Sauron's plans were for that Mithril, his stockpile is gone now. Buried under the ruins of Barad Dur.

Who wouldn’t want some nice shiny bling bling that protects you from harm?

My theory is he wanted a tiara and pendant to go with the One Ring.

My belief is that Sauron made his own version of Ithildin with Mithril. When Frodo and Co. first meet Glorifindel on the desperate route to the Ford of Bruinen, the Elf tells Aragorn that "evil things" were written on the hilt of the Morgul dagger "though maybe your eyes cannot see them". What do we have here? A metalic substance that we already know can create invisible writing... and not just writing by itself but the ability to write a spell onto another substance.... The door to Moria used Ithildin which was magically keyed in to the protection and opening spells of that door. The Morgul dagger also has an invisible writing that communicated spell work into the dagger itself though it was invisible to all except possibly to those with power in the Unseen Realm (or at least invisible to all who we are told looked at the dagger's hilt with the exception being the only person there with power in the Unseen as well). I'm guessing that Sauron, or the Witch King (or both), managed to create a form similar to Ithildin but instead of mirroring starlight and moonlight, it mirrored the Wraith world, something the Nazgul could easily read since it would have a presence in the Unseen as well, which is where the senses of the Nazgul were at their strongest. Anyways, that's my headcannon lol :)

There are only 2 kinds of beings. 1: Those who want mythril. 2: Those who have not heard of Mythril.

Secretly, Sauron was getting tired of being the evil guy, really wanted to something different. Was going to open mithrilware shop and sell custom cutlery and cooking ware.

Halfway through this video I got a weird image of Sauron ScrougeMcDucking it into a huge pile of Mithril :)

Sauron gathered it so that the elves couldn't use it to save the elf tree. That's what the dark lord Jeff Bezos has shown us.

Sauron has been alive for so long and seen so much, I’m sure nothing really excites him anymore. I don’t blame him for seeking more thrill through Mythril.

I always kind of thought it was the subtle hint from Tolkien that at heart despite his pretensions Sauron is another greedy Smaug--obsessed with power and riches. As Gandalf says, "There is such a thing as malice and revenge" and whether Sauron needs it or not, he sure would rather he controlled it than any of his enemies.

Hoarding mithril denies its use to Sauron's enemies.

I love the idea that Sauron was using Mithril to entice he southern and eastern peoples in gaining their alliance. Also, the visual of Sauron creating his own new set of armor out of Mithril certainly makes sense given his history and skill as a smith.

Two potential goals of hoarding mithril spring to mind: 1. Denial of this precious resource to the potential enemies 2. Construction of aircraft/ airships. Mithril is manufacturable, lightweight, strong and resistant to corrosion. By the time of the War of the Ring Mordor became an industrialized hellhole (who knows what technologies they already possessed), so I wouldn't be too much surprised if Sauron could have come up with an idea of establishing an air force in addition to flying Nazgul (fell beasts could be outfitted with mithril armor too, and to a great effect, I suppose).

something I absolutely love about this channel is that I get to learn facts about Middle earth that I had not learned of before watching this channel! I didn't even know that Sauron wanted mithril! Subscribe to this LOTR fan everyone!

Nah, he was swimming in it, like Scrooge McDuck.

How was Nenya made? A long, time-consuming, and expensive process called Nenya business.