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Timeline Event

White Council expels Sauron from Dol Guldur

Event Type: Military/Strategic

Age: 3rd Age - The Stewards

Date: September 1, 2941

Description:
An event in the aftermath of the third meeting of the White Council; see that entry for more information:

'Some here will remember that many years ago I myself dared to pass the doors of the Necromancer in Dol Guldur ... and found thus that ... he was none other than Sauron.... Some, too, will remember also that Saruman dissuaded us from open deeds against him....

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 2, The Council of Elrond

'... I ... persuaded the Council to attack Dol Guldur first, before he attacked Lórien. We did, and Sauron fled. But he was always ahead of us in his plans. I must confess that I thought he really had retreated again, and that we might have another spell of watchful peace. But it did not last long. Sauron decided to take the next step. He returned at once to Mordor, and in ten years he declared himself.'

Unfinished Tales, Part 3, Ch 3, The Quest of Erebor: Appendix

In the late summer of that same year (2941) Gandalf had at last prevailed upon Saruman and the White Council to attack Dol Guldur....

The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Durin's Folk

To this Curunír now assented, desiring that Sauron should be thrust from Dol Guldur, which was nigh to the River, and should have leisure to search there no longer. Therefore, for the last time, he aided the Council, and they put forth their strength; and they assailed Dol Guldur, and drove Sauron from his hold, and Mirkwood for a brief while was made wholesome again.

The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

Yet at last, as [Sauron's] shadow grew, Saruman yielded, and the Council put forth its strength and drove the evil out of Mirkwood and that was in the very year of the finding of this Ring: a strange chance, if chance it was.

'But we were too late, as Elrond foresaw. Sauron also had watched us, and had long prepared against our stroke, governing Mordor from afar through Minas Morgul, where his Nine servants dwelt, until all was ready. Then he gave way before us, but only feigned to flee, and soon after came to the Dark Tower and openly declared himself.'

The Fellowship of the Ring, LoTR Book 2, Ch 2, The Council of Elrond

... Sauron retreated and went to Mordor, there to be secure, as he thought, from all his enemies.

The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Durin's Folk

[Note: the year is canon, but the date is an estimate based on "late summer".]

Contributors:
Elena Tiriel 26Sep05, 3Oct05

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