How Sauron was mauled by a single dog more than 6,000 years before The Lord of the Rings

Sauron is The Lord of the Ringsthe greatest villain in literature and namesake of JRR Tolkien’s masterpiece, but he was defeated by a dog named Huan millennia before the story of the Third Age of romance and cinema. This surprising defeat is an example of Tolkien’s miracle narrative, with the small overcoming the big in David-Goliath standoffs that reflect one of Tolkien’s main messages – hope, even in the darkest of times. Sauron is an immortal Maia, a divine race of super-powered beings, which makes him very difficult to defeat. This makes Huan’s victory even more surprising.

Huan followed his master, Celegorm, into exile from Valinor, and was condemned along with the Noldor. But Huan was not exactly subject to the Bane of the Noldor, but to another prophecy. According to Tolkien The Silmarillion“it was decreed that he would meet death, but not before encountering the most powerful wolf to ever walk the world.“This strange prophecy would come to pass in a final confrontation between Huan and the Dark Lord Sauron in The Lord of the Rings’ First Age. The fight was recorded in Elvish lore in “The Lay of Leithian”.

How Huan defeated Sauron during the first age of the Lord of the Rings

Huan beat Wolf-Sauron in the first era

Huan is the only character in Tolkien’s Legendary to defeat Sauron in single combat, making him arguably the most impressive character of all. Gil-galad and Elendil defeated Sauron together, and Lúthien quarreled with Sauron to some extent, but only Huan beat him in a one-on-one fight, arguably. Sauron heard Huan’s prophecy and turned into a wolf to fight Huan, thinking about killing him, but it didn’t work out for Sauron.

Like Maia, Sauron possessed the innate ability to shapeshift, and wolves were his style. He was the Lord of Werewolves and may have had a hand in their creation, according to Tolkien. He ruled Werewolf Island and faced Huan, the powerful wolfdog. But according to “The Lay of Leithian”, Huan held Wolf-Sauron by the neck and surrendered to avoid physical death and the punishment of his soul by his master, Morgoth.

Huan was no ordinary wolfhound, even by Middle Earth standards.

Huan was a hound of Valinor

Huan was no ordinary hound, but a Hound of Valinor, gifted to the Elf Celegorm by the Vala Oromë. Oromë was one of the 15 Valar, the demigods of Middle-earth. They lived in Aman, the continent that is home to Valinor, which is the kingdom of the Valar. The hunting dogs of Oromë, and also the eagles of Manwë, were a bit of a mystery in The Lord of the Rings. In Morgoth’s RingTolkien stated that “Huan and Sorontar could be Maiar.”

Sorontar being an Eagle of the Vala Manwë implied that Huan was of the same race as Sauron, which would have explained their equally matched fight. However, Morgoth’s Ring also suggested that Huan was “language taught by the Valar and raised to a higher level,“instead of being a Maia. This makes more sense since Huan’s death in The Silmarillion it seemed very final, rather than the dislodging of an eternal spirit.

Huan had help from Lúthien while fighting Sauron

Lúthien’s magic was useful against Sauron

Celegorm was not the nicest of the Noldor Elves, so Huan switched his allegiance to the kind Elven princess, Lúthien, who helped Huan defeat Sauron. The whole fight was Lúthien’s idea – she had gone, with Huan, to the Isle of Werewolves, as it was there that her love, Beren, was being held prisoner by Sauron. The Mayan Half herself, her voice had magical properties, and “the island shook” when she sang upon arrival.

Sauron sent his wolves to fight the intruders, but they were killed one by one until he realized the task was up to him. Sauron was very happy to fulfill the prophecy of the wolf of Huanturning into “the most powerful that had ever walked the world.” He first leapt upon Lúthien, who cast a sleeping spell on him. His brief drowsiness gave Huan enough time to attack and begin the brutal fight that ultimately constituted Sauron’s most embarrassing defeat.

Sauron’s defeat against Huan is still surprising given his power during The Lord of the Rings

Huan and Lúthien were a powerful duo

Despite Lúthien and Huan’s superpowered heritage, Sauron’s defeat was surprising. Lúthien was half-Mayan on her mother’s side and a descendant of the most powerful elven royalty on her father’s side. Meanwhile, Huan was himself either a Maia or a dog who was given superpowers by one of the 15 most powerful beings in all of Middle-earth. It would be understandable if they managed to defeat Sauron together, simply. But it was still a battle against the odds. Sauron was probably almost equal to the Valar in power.

The Silmarillion confirmed that when the Valar came down to Eä – the universe – to build it, they brought many Maiar with them, “some almost as good as they are.“Eönwë was a Maia”whose power in arms is surpassed by none in Arda.“In the Third Age, Sauron’s power was so great that”Sauron’s confrontation alone, unaided, of himself was not contemplated,” as Tolkien himself stated in a letter. Sauron certainly does”almost as great“like the Valarat least in the Third Age, if not in the First or Second Age as well.

All said and done, Sauron’s defeat at the hands of a dog is one of the highlights of the legendary. It speaks of the broader excellence of “De Beren and Lúthien”, the relevant Silmarillion chapter. This chapter later received an entire book by Christopher Tolkien. Tolkien’s son Christopher published his father’s work posthumously and focused on this The Lord of the Rings story in 2017 publication Beren and Lúthien.