The two main villains of The Lord of the Rings are often compared, but Sauron comes out on top for a few reasons, with one significant advantage. Morgoth is Lord of the Rings’ original villain, described at length in The Silmarillion. Casual Lord of the Rings fans may not be aware of him, since he doesn’t feature in the franchise’s titular novel or movie trilogy. But his importance can’t be underestimated — he was the one to corrupt Sauron in the first place. Meanwhile, Sauron is the eponymous villain of The Lord of the Rings and its best-known antagonist.

Sauron appeared as a terrifying Dark Lord in the prologue of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie. From this point on, the character had viewers hooked, although he was probably the greatest villain in literature even before that point. Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power launched in 2022 to critical acclaim, with Sauron’s role in the show developing steadily. Through it all, Sauron proved how he became the best villain in The Lord of the Rings and wider fantasy in general, even against the titanic Morgoth.

Morgoth Is The Lord Of The Rings’ Strongest Villain, But Sauron Is More Interesting

Sauron Is A Better Villain Than Morgoth

Morgoth may have been stronger than Sauron while they were both in Arda, but Sauron is a more well-rounded villain as far as the story goes. This is not to mention that Sauron was more powerful at the end of Lord of the Rings’ Second Age than Morgoth was by the end of his reign of terror. Importantly, Sauron existed in Morgoth’s shadow, at least initially. Sauron was good for many long years, then had to carve out his own path under Morgoth. This resulted in an intriguing journey and motives beyond Morgoth’s nihilistic evil.

The Silmarillion was published posthumously in 1977.

Morgoth was cast into the void after his defeat in the War of Wrath, which was so cataclysmic it ended the First Age and began the Second. “Sauron was ‘greater,’ effectively, in the Second Age than Morgoth at the end of the First,” according to one of Tolkien’s letters, proving that Sauron could have beaten Morgoth in the Second Age if Morgoth was around. However, it is Sauron’s prevailing influence and depth that makes him the better villain, with enough bizarre sides to his character to keep readers and viewers debating for years.

Sauron’s Motives In LOTR Make Him More Compelling Than His Former Master

Sauron Has Marginally More Relatable Motives Than Morgoth

Although it remains an interesting question whether Sauron or Morgoth was stronger, Sauron’s complex psychology makes him the more versatile villain. Morgoth is intriguing because he operates out of hate and destruction, which is hard to compare to most human psychologies. Murderers and those who commit assault are sometimes coming from a place of trying to destroy what they can’t possess. But Morgoth’s semi-divine intelligence and power blew his dominance and destructiveness up to a cosmic scale. Meanwhile, Sauron is marginally more relatable.

Tolkien discussed Sauron’s motives in Morgoth’s Ring, confirming that he disliked wasteful friction.

No one was evil at first in Lord of the Rings, or indeed, in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Catholic worldview. Galadriel pointed this out in the opening lines of Rings of Power. Sauron was “beginning with fair motives,” as Tolkien commented in a letter. Morgoth’s desire to make life was innocent enough at first, but it belied a desire to contradict the will of the One Eru Ilúvatar. Sauron’s fair motives were ordering the wasteful friction in Arda, and he wanted to heal it after the War of Wrath. This relatable kernel of good inside him, becoming increasingly twisted, makes him compelling.

Sauron Benefits From J.R.R. Tolkien’s Focus On His Reign

Sauron Is The Main Villain Of The Lord Of The Rings

Lord of the Rings villain Sauron is given pride of place in J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium, so he gets to be the superior character overall. Morgoth appears in The Silmarillion and its surrounding texts, often cropping up in The History of Middle-earth. This 12-volume series is composed of Tolkien’s essays, stories, and drafts from across the ages, and helps to explain the editorial choices that Christopher Tolkien made for The Silmarillion, which his father had entrusted to him to edit and publish. But Sauron is featured in these texts too, while having a leading role in LotR itself.

Sauron’s threat, realm, scope, and power get a lot of definition in these novels, while also retaining an air of mystery. Tolkien retroactively fit Sauron into his first published Middle-earth work, The Hobbit, as well. Tolkien didn’t originally intend for the Necromancer to be Sauron but edited The Hobbit to fit him into the wider story. This move placed Sauron at the heart of all of Tolkien’s most detailed tales. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are written as comprehensive novels, unlike The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth. Sauron’s threat, realm, scope, and power get a lot of definition in these novels, while also retaining an air of mystery. This helps to make Sauron the premier villain of Middle-earth.While Sauron is covered by Tolkien’s best-known works to a far greater extent than Morgoth, who only gets mentioned in the appendices of Lord of the Rings, he is also given a surprising number of layers across the whole legendarium. The vindictive, cruel, sadistic torturer of the novel was also repentant and languished in shame and fear of his various persecutors, Morgoth included. A perfectionist until the end, this mysterious, neurotic villain is the best of The Lord of the Rings and will continue to be fascinating in adaptations like The Rings of Power years into the future.