In the same work, he is revealed to be the same character as The Necromancer from Tolkien's earlier novel The Hobbit. In Tolkien's The Silmarillion (published posthumously kwa Tolkien's son Christopher Tolkien) he is also revealed to have been the chief lieutenant of the first Dark Lord, Morgoth. Tolkien noted that the "angelic" powers of his constructed myth "were capable of many degrees of error and failing", but kwa far the worst was "the absolute Satanic rebellion and evil of Morgoth and his satellite Sauron."
