Sauron's origin: how Tolkien's evil cat Tevildo became Thu

Middle-earth has vampires, werewolves and giant spiders, and the Dark Lord himself started out as a cat. Before Sauron was Sauron, the villain of Tolkien's earliest version of Beren and Lúthien was Tevildo, Prince of Cats, and the path from that cat to the Dark Lord is set down in writing in Tolkien's own books.

I've been reading Tolkien since I was about 10. Among all the Halloween-themed creatures and monsters in his legendarium, there's one villain who keeps changing. Before Sauron was the Dark Lord, he was a cat. Well, sort of.

In 1917, Tolkien's first Beren and Lúthien villain was Tevildo, Prince of Cats

In 1917, Tolkien was writing an early version of the story of Beren and Lúthien, and the villain wasn't Sauron. It was Tevildo, Prince of Cats. You can find much more about this in The Book of Lost Tales. In the tale of Tevildo, Beren is captured, taken to Tevildo's castle and set to work in the kitchens. About a third of the way into that tale, you'll find the first mention of Tevildo, Prince of Cats.

He's an enormous, evil, talking cat who served Morgoth. He wore a magic golden collar, and he had poor Beren working in his kitchen. To be fair, that's exactly how I imagine a cat would probably run things if you gave it real authority.

Tevildo gets beaten by a giant dog called Huan. Calling Huan a giant dog is an understatement, but for anyone new to the story, that's the simplest way to put it. So the earliest version of this tale is cats versus dogs.

Tolkien replaced Tevildo with Thu, the necromancer and lord of werewolves

Tolkien kept rewriting the story. Tevildo was eventually replaced by Thu, a necromancer and lord of werewolves, and Thu went on to become Sauron. The Lays of Beleriand is where that change can be read.

The Lays of Beleriand is the third volume of The History of Middle-earth. Its blurb describes it as giving a privileged insight into the creation of the mythology of Middle-earth through the alliterative verse tales of two of its most crucial stories. The first is The Lay of the Children of Húrin, narrating on a grand scale the tragedy of Túrin Turambar. The second is the Lay of Leithian, the chief source of the tale of Beren and Lúthien, telling of the quest of the Silmaril and the encounter with Morgoth and his subterranean fortress.

The Lays of Beleriand notes show Gorthû is Thu, and Thu became Sauron

The notes in The Lays of Beleriand spell out the change. One passage of the verse has the Gnomes calling him Gorthû and bowing to him as a god in after days. The note then states: "Sauron was first substituted for Thu." It also records that Men is written beside they in line 2066, and that Thu is Gorthû.

So where the verse says the Gnomes called him Gorthû, Gorthû refers to Thu, who we know is now Sauron. The notes track the name through the rest of that canto, citing line 2088 among others. There are plenty of references in those notes showing that Gorthû was Thu. Wherever Gorthû appears, it's in writing that Gorthû is Thu, and that Thu was eventually changed to Sauron.

Christopher Tolkien's notes in Beren and Lúthien say Thu was later named Sauron

Christopher Tolkien's notes in Beren and Lúthien also explain that Thu was eventually changed to Sauron. They describe him as "Thu, the necromancer, greatest of the servants of Morgoth, dwelling in the elvish watchtower on Tol Sirion, later named Sauron."

The book also carries Tevildo's first appearance, where Beren is made a thrall of Tevildo, Prince of Cats. The text describes Tevildo as "a mighty cat, the mightiest of all and possessed of an evil spite, as some say," and says he was in Melko's constant following. That cat had all cats subject to him, and he and his subjects were the chasers and getters of meat for Melko's table and for his frequent feasts.

That, the tale says, is why there is hatred still between the elves and all cats, even now when Melko rules no more and his beasts are of little account. I'd argue Beren and Lúthien is probably the easiest single copy for anybody to buy.

And the cat is only the beginning. Sauron turns into many forms, and not just a cat: he also turns into a werewolf and a vampire too.