The internet recalled the only sketch of Sauron created by Tolkien himself

With news about season three of "The Rings of Power" making rounds, people online are pointing out that the only sketch of Sauron ever drawn by Tolkien himself looks a lot less demonic than most fans assume.

No black armor looming over Barad-dûr here – just watercolor and a strange figure the writer sketched out in 1954.

The piece dates back to the year the first volume of "The Lord of the Rings" came out, when Middle-earth had already taken full shape in Tolkien mind down to the smallest detail, but hadn't yet been buried under decades of other people interpretations. The original is kept at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

What makes this so interesting is how far it strays from what pop culture settled on. Peter Jackson movies cemented Sauron as the burning eye and a hulking warrior in spiked armor, and later games and adaptations only doubled down on that look.

Worth remembering here – Sauron in Tolkien books is a shapeshifting being by nature. He starts out as a Maia, a spirit capable of taking many forms, from the beautiful Annatar who tricked the elves, to something monstrous. A fixed, human-like appearance for a character like that is rare, which makes it all the more valuable that the writer actually sat down once and put a face to him.