Alatar wrote:
It also follows on directly after another "supernatural" attack.
Quote:
"I wonder if this is a contrivance of the Enemy," said Boromir. "They say in my land that he can govern the storms in the Mountains of Shadow that stand upon the borders of Mordor. He has strange powers and many allies."
"His arm has grown long indeed," said Gimli, "if he can draw snow down from the North to trouble us here three hundred leagues away."
"His arm has grown long," said Gandalf.
I sometimes wonder if Tolkien realised he was making Sauron too Omnipotent and came up with the whole "he doesn't know where we are now" thing to cover it and make Sauron more of a commander and less of a God.
I also sometimes wonder if this stuff had been in the films and not in the books, how many purists would be screaming about how these scenes JUST DON'T FIT!!!!!!

But, at that moment, Sauron
does know where the party is. By trying the Redhorn Gate, the party has given away their position, and Gandalf implies as much at the end of the previous chapter and the beginning of this one. The attack of the wargs is the immediate result, and illustrates it is critical that the party must get out of sight and cover their trail quickly. I believe that Jackson's portrayal of Saruman as being responsible for "throwing" the storm at the Redhorn rather weakens the story at this point and comes across as sort of silly (and seems to have been inspired by the equally weak portrayal of Saruman "hurling fire" at Helm's Deep from a distance in Bakshi's animated version.)
As to the wargs themselves... I love the scene. Tolkien does indeed try to re-visit many of the episodes of
The Hobbit in a much more sinister light, and here we see him doing it again. The fact that the wargs bodies disappear illustrates that they are indeed werewolves and not ordinary wolves; Gandalf's invocation against them terms them thus in Sindarin ("
ngaurhoth"). It bears remembering (although it wouldn't have been known to readers until publication of
The Silmarillion) that Sauron has a special affinity with werewolves. He was "Captain of the Werewolves" at Tol-in-Gaurhoth, and it was in werewolf form that he fought and was defeated by the hound Huan in the company of Beren and Lúthien. Similarly, in fleeing his defeat, he abandoned his corporeal form and fled as a vampire to the shadowed forest of Taur-nu-Fuin. It is also worth mentioning (as noted by John Rateliff in
The History of The Hobbit) that it was that event which was likely in Tolkien's mind when he came to mention the Necromacer in Mirkwood in
The Hobbit, and the association of events was probably still in his forethought as he wrote this chapter.
As to being omnipotent... well, Sauron
is a god of sorts, and of a higher order than either Gandalf or Saruman. Yes, he can influence the weather and, seemingly, a good portion of the natural (and un-natural) world against the party. But such contrivances do ultimately fail, and no, he can't bring his most effective troops (the Nazgûl and orcs) across hundreds of miles to instantly lay hands on them. Not yet.