⚠️  This section is currently under construction. Expect significant revisions.

When Sauron first appears as Annatar, his clothing resembles the styles worn by Finrod and Galadriel in Valinor. Annatar’s robes feature the decorative green embroidery seen on Galadriel’s dress, and mimic the flowing robe and belt worn by her brother Finrod. He intentionally employs visuals that Celebrimbor associates with Valinor.

The embroidery around his collar and lining his robes epitomizes elvish designs familiar to fans of the LOTR live-action films. The embroidery features interlace, a style pervasive in medieval times which creates intricate interweaving, looping patterns, often of plants and animals. Interlace, especially depicting vegetation, pervades the art and craftsmanship of the elves as depicted in LOTR and ROP: reminiscent of Celtic, Art Nouveau, and Arts and Crafts styles, interlace patterns feature prominently their architecture, clothing, and jewelry. Finrod’s dagger features interlace of gold and silver, crafted to look like the Two Trees of Valinor with roots entwined.

Fun fact: Tolkien employs a literary device known as entrelacement, which is French for ‘interlacement’ or ‘interlace.’ This structure weaves together multiple rings from ring composition, as well as multiple ‘threads’ of story. When the Fellowship breaks, the story splits into multiple threads, which interweave in moments of overlap.

If not for the pattern on his cuirass in the final episode of Season 2, one might not notice anything about Annatar’s clothing beyond the obvious intent to appear believable as an ‘emissary’ from Valinor. His cuirass, however, features two symmetrical serpents entwined in the interlace fashion (more on this below), and his bracers feature snakes winding around his arms.

Nothing in the show is done without considerable thought. Closer inspection of the robes he first wears as Annatar reveals that what appear to be interlaced, leafy vines, are in fact a motif of two intertwined snakes, and the diadem he wears resembles stylized snakes in a similarly repeating figure-eight design.

The snake knot is prevalent in Celtic and Viking art as a form of interlace, often found in illuminated manuscripts, rune stones, and jewelry (see images from the Book of Kells and examples of figure-eight snake-knot brooches). The pattern on Annatar’s robes is strikingly similar to the looping figure-eight pattern of entwined snakes on the Viking Age fragment of plank, an example of the Urnes Style, named for the Urnes stave church in Norway that features stunning interlace of serpents intertwining in figure-eights from the same period.

Wood fragment found in a church in Hørning, Denmark and dating to about 1070

Snake-knot interlace in the Book of Kells

Images of brooches from the Vendel Period in Scandinavia

In more recent times, the Urnes-style snake knot has come to be associated with the norse god Loki, who is both a trickster and shapeshifter. Loki has been attested in Norse mythology as strongly associated with snakes, not least because he shapeshifts into a snake, is at one time bound by a snake, and is father to Jörmungandr, the serpent who encircles the world, swallowing its tail.

The etymology of the name for the Norse god Loki is interestingly complex and debated. Two meanings emerge as primary contenders. The first is the Old Norse word logi, which means flame. This may refer to Loki’s association and overlap with an old Norse household deity called Ash Lad, who dwells beneath the hearth and manipulates fire. More likely is a German root *luk- which refers to loops, knots, and hooks (as well as locks), and which emerges in Scandinavian variants (Norwegian Loke and Lokke, Faroese Lokki, Danish Lokkemand, Swedish Luki and Luku), and may refer to Loki as a tangler and weaver, one who creates chaos as well as beauty. Both descriptions convey Loki’s role as simultaneously vital and threatening—opposites that can arguably also be reconciled in Sauron, whose role is both threatening and vital in the rebirth of Middle-earth according to the vision of Eru. In Morgoth’s Ring, Tolkien writes:

Manwë was the spirit of greatest wisdom and prudence in Arda…. He must have grasped with great clarity that even we may perceive dimly: that it was the essential mode of the process of ‘history’ in Arda that evil should constantly arise, and that out of it new good should constantly come.

In Ainulindalë :

*But as the theme progressed, it came into the heart of Melkor to interweave ***matters of his own imagining [evil] that were not in accord with the theme of Iluvatar [good, emphasis mine]….

Later Ilúvatar admonishes:

No theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.

While Loki is associated with both snakes and knots, there is no evidence the figure-eight snake knot in ancient works was specifically intended as a symbol for Loki, though an internet search for ‘Loki symbol’ now returns endless images of a figure-eight snake knot.

The similarity between Sauron and Loki owes largely to Sauron’s use of shapeshifting and trickery as The Deceiver, and deception is another meaning ascribed to snake imagery. To speak with a forked-tongue in English refers to the forked tongue of a snake and implies saying one thing and meaning another, to intentionally mislead. As The Deceiver, Sauron speaks fragments of truth rather than outright lies, often allowing others to interpret a different meaning and using their own misapprehension to deceive them.

Interestingly—and very relevant to Annatar—fork-tongued also connotes an element of charm, i.e. speaking with a forked tongue isn’t simply to be intentionally deceptive, but enchantingly so. The Icelandic epic The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue, tells the tale of *Gunnlaug Ormstungu (*Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue), a poet whose talent for performing is as great as his talent for insult, his ‘sharp tongue’ earning him enemies as easily as friends. As protagonist of the saga, his poetic talent claims more emphasis than his invectives, a nod to the mix of deception and charm implied in the descriptor fork-tongued. (The literal translation of Gunnlaug Ormstungu can also be read as Gunnlaugh Worm-Tongue, which inspired the name of Tolkien’s character Grima Wormtongue in LOTR.)

And [Sauron] was crafty, well skilled to gain what he would by subtlety when force might not avail. Therefore he humbled himself before Ar-Pharazôn and smoothed his tongue; and men wondered, for all that he said seemed fair and wise. —Alkallabêth

The Sumerians often represented Lord Enki (also known as Ea in later Akkadian mythology) as a serpent. Ea was known as a god of wisdom, creation, renewal, and magic, a keeper of hidden knowledge who upheld the cosmic balance of order and chaos. The similarity of the name Ea to Tolkien’s Eä is unmistakable, and the serpent imagery as representing a divine being who upholds order and chaos echoes Sauron’s willingness to employ chaos as a means to achieve the order he desires. He sees himself as the savior of Middle-earth following the War of Wrath.

Seeing the desolation of the world, Sauron said in his heart that the Valar, having overthrown Morgoth, had again forgotten Middle-earth; and his pride grew apace. —Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age