This Strange Moment with Sauron in 'The Fellowship of the Ring' was Explained Only Decades Later: Jackson in Vain Cut Out a Scene Important to the Plot

It's been over 20 years since The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released, but even the most observant fans have only recently noticed a strange detail in the film's iconic prologue: Sauron is holding a dagger in his hand. It would seem to be just a spectacular prop. But this dagger has an important meaning that... has never been explained.

Because the scene in which everything becomes clear was cut by Peter Jackson at the storyboard stage.

In the film, Sauron stands at the Crack of Doom, majestically demonstrating the One Ring. But in his left hand he clutches a dagger - an object not mentioned in Tolkien's books. It turns out that, according to Jackson's original idea, the dagger was to play a key role in the creation of the Ring.

Twitter Embed

In the script, Sauron cut himself and placed the Ring into the wound to perform a magical ritual: literally pouring part of his essence into the artifact, as Morgoth, his dark mentor, did when he created and corrupted the world of Arda.

And although this episode does not appear in the books, the idea echoes Tolkien's philosophy: evil seeks to bind itself to the world through destruction. The omission of the scene is a loss of an important symbolic element. Instead of a profound magical act, we got a mysterious villain with a shining accessory.

Now that the details have emerged, the moment with the dagger ceases to be an oddity. It is the ghost of a deleted scene that could have shown that Sauron did not simply create the Ring - he gave himself to it.