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{{Short description|Fictional character created by J. R. R. Tolkien}}
'''Saruman''' is a fictional character from [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s universe, [[Middle-earth]].
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{{Infobox character
'''Saruman the White''' ('''''Curunír Lán''''' in [[Sindarin]]) was the first of his order of [[Wizards (Middle-earth)|Wizards]] (or [[Istari]]) who came into Middle-earth as Emissaries of the [[Valar]] in the [[Third Age]]. He was the leader of the [[White Council]]. His name meant ''Man of skill''.
|name = Saruman the White

|series = [[J. R. R. Tolkien|Tolkien]]
{|align=right
|image = Escudo Isengard.svg
|-
|first = ''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]'' (1954)
|{{Infobox LOTR |
|last = ''[[Unfinished Tales]]'' (1980)
image_character = Saroman.jpg |
|caption = [[Heraldry of Middle-earth#Maiar|The White Hand of Saruman]]
image_caption = [[Christopher Lee]] portrays '''Saruman the White''' in ''[[The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy|The Lord of the Rings]]'' films. |
|aliases = Curunír<br/>Curumo<br/>Sharkey<br/>Man of Skill<br/>White Messenger<br/>Head of the White Council<br/>Lord of [[Isengard]]
character_name = Saruman |
|race = [[Maia (Middle-earth)|Maia]]
character_alias = Of Many Colours, Ring-maker, The White, The Wise, The Ruler |
character_title = [[Istari]] (Wizard) |
character_race = [[Ainur]] |
character_culture = [[Maiar]] of [[Aulë]] |
character_gender = male |
character_realm = Eriador |
character_sub_realm = ([[Nan Curunír]]), (Tower of [[Isengard]]) |
character_lifespan = Immortal. 1000 [[Third Age|T.A.]] - [[November]] 3, 3019 T.A. |
character_weapon = staff |
character_actor = Christopher Lee |
character_voice = Christopher Lee |
}}
}}
'''Saruman''', also called '''Saruman the White''', later '''Saruman of Many Colours''', is a fictional character in [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s fantasy novel ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. He is leader of the [[Wizard (Middle-earth)|Istari]], wizards sent to [[Middle-earth]] in human form by the godlike [[Vala (Middle-earth)|Valar]] to challenge [[Sauron]], the main antagonist of the novel, but eventually he desires Sauron's power for himself and tries to take over Middle-earth by force from his base at [[Isengard]]. His schemes feature prominently in the second volume, ''[[The Two Towers]]''; he appears briefly at the end of the third volume, ''[[The Return of the King]]''. His earlier history is summarised in the posthumously published ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' and ''[[Unfinished Tales]]''.
|}


== Characteristics ==

In appearance, Saruman was as an old man with [[black]] hair. At the end of the Third Age, his hair and beard had turned mostly white -- he had only black hairs about his lips and ears. He was tall, his face was long, and his eyes were deep and dark. He would appear in a white [[cloak]], a habit he later changed into a cloak that changed colours as he moved.

He was not actually a [[Men (Middle-earth)|Man]], or even an [[Elves (Middle-earth)|Elf]] (as Men often suspected), but a [[Maiar|Maia]] clothed in flesh (see ''Origins'' below)&mdash;an [[Istari|Istar]]. As such, he was [[immortal]] and extremely powerful, yet had limits on how and how far these powers could be used. His two most salient powers were his knowledge and his voice.

Knowledge of the "deep arts" (or [[magic]], such as it is in Middle-earth) was of most interest to him, particularly when related to power&mdash;such as the [[Rings of Power]] and the far seeing ''[[palantír]]i''. He was also deeply learned in ancient lore regarding powerful kingdoms such as [[Númenor]], [[Gondor]] and [[Moria (Middle-earth)|Moria]].

His voice and speech were extremely convincing, more powerful than mere [[rhetoric]]. When he focused this power on a person or a group of people, he could sway their hearts, plant fears and sow lies as he pleased. According to the stature of the listener, this spell could last as long as the speech did, or it could take root in them and last forever.

Other powers include knowledge of [[machinery]] and [[chemistry]], probably separable from explicit magic (for instance, the "blasting fire" employed by his [[Uruk-hai]] army in the battle of [[Helm's Deep]], was probably some kind of explosive). Machinery and [[engine]]s characterized both his fortified [[Isengard]] and his altered [[the Shire|Shire]]. In this, he probably sought to emulate [[Sauron]].

His science also extended to [[biology|biological]] areas. He [[crossbreeding|crossbred]] Men and Orcs, creating a new race of Orcs unafraid of daylight, the [[Uruk-hai]]. His human spies in [[Bree (Middle-earth)|Bree]] were said to have Orc blood. He also employed [[bird]]s in his service, although this might also be attributed to [[Radagast (Middle-earth)|Radagast]] the Brown, ordering them to report to [[Orthanc]], Saruman's stronghold.

Being regarded as more powerful than [[Gandalf]] (at least before Gandalf's "rebirth"), it's fair to assume he would also wield explicit magic similar to Gandalf, such as artificial light, locking spells, creating fire, etc..

Saruman resembled Gandalf not only in appearance, but originally also somewhat in character, but unlike Gandalf, Saruman was proud. He saw himself as the most powerful of the Istari, expressing clear contempt for [[Radagast]] the Brown. Saruman was no fool: he realized Gandalf's power, and eventually came to see him as an equal, and later as a superior, much to his distress. He began to become jealous of Gandalf, eventually convincing himself Gandalf must be scheming against him, to justify his own scheming against Gandalf and the rest of the White Council.

Saruman likely was true to his mission in the beginning, and actually believed in working to stop Sauron, but his pride and later arrogance turned him into a traitor to the cause he had once served. Saruman's betrayal was not sudden, but slowly grew over time, until at last he had convinced himself that he could not have taken any other path, and that it was too late now to repent. This false belief kept him from taking his last chance at redemption, and because he must have realized this he only became more bitter, blaming Gandalf more than anyone else for his own downfall. In fact he only had himself to blame, but he refused to believe this.

The name given to him by Men, ''Saruman'', is in the [[Westron]] language. In Tolkien's works, this language is (almost) never shown directly, but translated into [[English language|English]] and [[Old English language|Anglo-Saxon]] forms. In this case, Tolkien used the Anglo-Saxon root word ''searu'' which means "skill" or "cunning". As a [[scholar]], Tolkien would also have been well aware of the name of a similarly-named historic 'head of his order', [[Jaruman]]. The real Westron version of his name remains unknown.

His name among the Elves is ''Curunír'', which is in [[Sindarin]], a language Tolkien did not translate. It means "man of skill", and was often followed by ''Lán'', which means "white". In Valinor, his name was ''Curumo'', which is the [[Quenya]] version of the same name.

== Origins ==

In [[Valinor]], the land of the god-like [[Valar]] in the West, a council was called by [[Manwë]]. This was likely shortly after the defeat of Sauron by the [[Last Alliance]]. It was decided to send five [[Wizards (Middle-earth)|emissaries]] to Middle Earth. These should be "mighty, peers of Sauron, yet forgo might, and clothe themselves in flesh"&mdash;Istari, or Wizards.

One of those who went was Curumo (later in Sindarin Curunír, or in Westron Saruman), a powerful Maia of [[Aulë]] (just as Sauron was). Maiar were angelic creatures of the same people as the Valar, only of lower order. Together, they were the [[Ainur]], and existed before the [[Arda]], the world, was created.

Saruman was one of those who volunteered, whereas the last one, Olórin (later Gandalf) was commanded by Manwë to go. Saruman's jealousy of Gandalf began even here, when [[Varda]] said of Gandalf, who went as the third Istar that he was "not the third". Saruman was charged to take Radagast with him, which he did not wish to do and which led to contempt for the latter Wizard.

== History ==

Saruman arrived alone in a ship at [[Mithlond]] (the Grey Havens) in the west of [[Eriador]] around the year 1000 of the [[Third Age]], and only [[Círdan]] knew his identity and his origin.

He went into the East of Middle-earth, as did the two [[Blue Wizards]] (Ithryn Luin). After one and a half millennia he returned to the West, just as Sauron's power was growing again in [[Dol Guldur]].

When the [[White Council]] was formed around the year 2463 of the Third Age, Saruman was appointed its leader. Even then, he had begun to sense the resurgence of Sauron and to envy and desire his power, and especially his [[One Ring]]. Coincidentally, in that same year the One Ring was found by the creature [[Gollum]], drawing the [[Dark Lord]] closer to the conflict that would eventually prove Saruman's undoing.

In 2759 TA, Saruman settled in [[Isengard]], abandoned by [[Gondor]], with the permission of Gondor's ruling Steward. There he became important in the defence of the free lands of the west. In Isengard, he also found, to his peril, one of the remaining palantíri, which he probably initially used benevolently.

In 2850 TA Gandalf entered Dol Guldur and confirmed that the evil presence there was indeed Sauron returned. By Saruman's advice, the White Council decided against attacking Dol Guldur. At this council-meeting Gandalf (for the first time) revealed that he suspected that Saruman desired to possess the One Ring.

Saruman's real strategy behind forestalling the Council's attempt at Dol Guldur focused on permitting Sauron to continue building up his strength, so that the One Ring would reveal itself. At that point Saruman hoped to have sufficient strength to seize it first himself. He soon found that Sauron had more knowledge of the possible location of the One Ring than he expected, and in 2941 TA he joined with the White Council to drive Sauron out of Dol Guldur.

Either at this time or shortly before Saruman's studies of ring-lore paid off, and he seems to have emulated part of the skill of the [[Ñoldor]] of [[Eregion]] and created his own Ring. He probably used this to enhance his skills, and became an even greater enchanter with the power of his voice. It however seems unlikely that his Ring was as powerful as one of the Three Rings of the Elves, let alone the One Ring.

Sauron abandoned Dol Guldur, arose again, and took up his reign in [[Mordor]], declaring himself openly. In Mordor, he established contact with Saruman through the palantir captured from [[Minas Ithil]], now [[Minas Morgul]]. Saruman slowly succumbed to Sauron's will: he now became in secret a subject of Mordor, although a reluctant one, and it remains to be seen if Saruman saw himself as in servitude to Sauron.

At about this time, in an attempt to control Rohan, Saruman bought the allegiance of King [[Theoden]]'s chief advisor, [[Wormtongue|Grima Wormtongue]], who then counselled the ailing king to do nothing about the steady resurgence of Sauron's armies. Saruman and Wormtongue's treachery would have crippled Rohan's military might, had not Gandalf interfered a year later and revealed to Theoden his right-hand man's true designs, healing the old king and revitalizing his political and military rule.

Saruman did not reveal his true intentions until Gandalf presented him with the discovery and location of the One Ring. He then stood forth as '''Saruman of Many Colours''', and when Gandalf refused to join with him, he held him captive in Isengard. Gandalf later escaped, and so Saruman's treachery became known to the rest of the White Council when Gandalf reported on it during the Council of [[Elrond]], where Gandalf also reported on Saruman's ring.

At this point Saruman also betrayed his new master Sauron by lying to the [[Nazgûl]], who were now searching for [[Bilbo Baggins|Baggins]], who had found the One Ring years before, and [[the Shire]], his home. He pretended to know nothing, but the Nazgûl later captured one of his Shire spies (the Orc-like man in the [[Inn of the Prancing Pony]]). Believing that he would find no pity from either quarter (a false assumption, as he was later offered pardon by Gandalf), Saruman now put all efforts into obtaining the One Ring for himself.

Not all of these efforts ever became clear, but they included sending spies to waylay [[Frodo Baggins]] on his flight from the Shire, attacking [[Rohan]] outright (he had been satisfied by weakening it through infiltration up until then) and dispatching raiding parties on likely routes a company of the Ring might take to Gondor (one of these parties captured [[Peregrin Took]] and [[Meriadoc Brandybuck]]). Gandalf also suspected Saruman had found (and destroyed) the remains of [[Isildur]], who had worn the Ring before it had been lost.

Saruman's Shire network failed to capture Frodo Baggins, Gandalf rallied Rohan to victory, [[Éomer]] stopped his only partially successful raiding party, and control of Isengard was lost to the [[Ent]]s. Aware he was utterly defeated, Saruman briefly considered repenting for his deeds, but at the last moment could not go through with it. He must have still had some hope he could somehow escape, and even that infinitely small chance was better than his certain humiliation at the hands of those he had tried to destroy. Saruman still made a final attempt to woo Théoden and Gandalf to his cause but failed: his staff was broken and he was dismissed from the order of the Istari.

It must have been during Gandalf's captivity in Orthanc that Saruman began to build his army of Orcs, [[Dunlendings]], and [[Uruk-hai]], since Gandalf came to an as yet undestroyed Isengard. One can speculate that if matters had developed a little more slowly, his puppet Wormtongue would have gained full control over Rohan, and the [[Rohirrim]] would have been enslaved or destroyed.

Saruman's plans likely failed because he, like Sauron, was forced to reveal his hand early by Gandalf's subsequent escape, and therefore he had little time to perfect his plans. As Saruman considered himself "unfallen", he honestly believed he had a chance of converting Gandalf to his side, and felt honestly betrayed by Gandalf when he was refused. The failure to capture the Ring at Emyn Arnen further ruined Saruman's plans, as he was revealed as a traitor to Mordor now as well.

Left out of the final stages of the War of the Ring, he eventually managed to convince his captors, the Ents, into letting him leave Isengard, proving that the magic of his voice still remained. He then went to the Shire, which his agent [[Lotho Sackville-Baggins]] (undisturbed by events elsewhere) had brought under control. Spending his final days as a small-time thug lord in [[Hobbiton]] known as '''''Sharkey''''', he was eventually betrayed and killed by his own servant Wormtongue on [[November 3]], [[Third Age|T.A.]] 3019, when even this operation fell apart after Frodo and [[Samwise Gamgee]] returned.

Saruman, as a Maia, did not truly die, but his spirit lost its shape (much like Sauron's after the [[Akallabêth|Downfall of Númenor]] and after his defeat by the [[Last Alliance]]). As a discorporated spirit, he should have been called to [[Mandos]], but the tale implies that he was barred from returning. We may speculate that his spirit was left naked, powerless and wandering in Middle-earth (perhaps like Sauron's after the One Ring was destroyed), ever diminishing over time until naught of him was left.

== Politics ==


Saruman is one of several characters in the book illustrating the [[Addiction to power in The Lord of the Rings|corruption of power]]; his desire for knowledge and order leads to his fall, and he rejects the [[Christianity in the Lord of the Rings|chance of redemption]] when it is offered. The name ''Saruman'' ({{IPA-ang|ˈsɑrumɑn|pron}}) means "man of skill or cunning" in the [[Mercian (Anglo-Saxon)|Mercian dialect]] of [[Old English language|Anglo-Saxon]];<ref name="Clark Hall 2002">{{cite book |last=Clark Hall |first=J. R. |author-link=John Richard Clark Hall |title=A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary |date=2002 |orig-year=1894 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |edition=4th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ufdQAQAAMAAJ |page=300}}</ref> he serves as an example of technology and modernity being [[Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings|overthrown by forces more in tune with nature]].
=== Men ===


Saruman was portrayed by [[Christopher Lee]] in [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'']] and [[The Hobbit (film series)|''The Hobbit'']] film trilogies.
Tolkien writes of Saruman that "he went mostly among men". He always sought power, and in the [[Third Age]] the greatest power lay in the hands of the kingdoms of Men.


==Appearances==
No records speak of his earliest journeys into the east of Middle-earth, but when he returned, he actually became for a while a servant of Gondor, receiving the keys to [[Orthanc]] from [[Beren]] ([[Steward of Gondor]]), as its warden.


===''The Lord of the Rings''===
Saruman later claimed Orthanc for his own, without any formal declaration (or real objection from a weakened Gondor). Still, he nominally remained an ally of Gondor and of Rohan. Throughout this time he also made long studies of scrolls and books in [[Minas Tirith]].


The ''Lord of the Rings'' describes a quest to destroy the [[One Ring]], a powerful and evil talisman created by the Dark Lord [[Sauron]] to control the nine rings of men, the remaining rings of the dwarves (originally seven) and the three of the elves, the most powerful, thus furthering Sauron's dominion over [[Middle-earth]]. Sauron lost the Ring in battle thousands of years before the beginning of the story, and it is now held in secret in [[the Shire]] by the [[hobbit]] [[Bilbo Baggins]], who passes it on to [[Frodo Baggins]], one of the story's protagonists. Early in the first volume, ''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]'', the wizard [[Gandalf]] describes Saruman as "the chief of my order"<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} Book 1 Chapter 2 "[[The Shadow of the Past]]".</ref> and head of the [[White Council]] that forced Sauron from [[Mirkwood]] at the end of Tolkien's earlier book ''[[The Hobbit]]''.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1937|loc=Chapter 19 "The Last Stage"}}</ref> He notes Saruman's great knowledge of the [[Rings of Power]] created by Sauron and by the [[Elf (Middle-earth)|Elven]]-smiths. Shortly afterwards, Gandalf breaks an arrangement to meet Frodo and guide him out of the Shire to [[Rivendell]] to keep the Ring safe from Sauron's agents.
When he turned to treachery, Saruman still employed men in his schemes, mainly from [[Dunland]], but also selected agents from other lands (such as Wormtongue.) Saruman was a master of deceit, and could easily turn old grudges into fuel for new hatred.


Frodo and Gandalf are reunited at Rivendell midway through ''The Fellowship of the Ring''. The wizard explains why he failed to join Frodo: he had been summoned to consult with Saruman but had been held captive. Saruman initially had proposed that the wizards ally themselves with the rising power of Sauron in order to eventually control him for their own ends, revealing himself as a traitor. Saruman went on to suggest that they could take the Ring for themselves and challenge Sauron. When Gandalf refused both options, the traitorous Saruman imprisoned him in the tower of Orthanc at [[Isengard]], hoping to learn from him the location of the Ring. Whilst on the summit of [[Orthanc]], Gandalf observed that Saruman had industrialized the formerly green valley of Isengard and was creating his own army of Half-[[Orc (Middle-earth)|Orc]]/Half-[[Men (Middle-earth)|Man]] fighters and [[Warg (Middle-earth)|Warg]]s to rival Sauron.<ref name="Council" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954a}} Book 2 Chapter 2 "[[The Council of Elrond]]"</ref> Gandalf's escape from the top of the tower on the back of a [[Eagle (Middle-earth)|Great Eagle]] left Saruman in a desperate position, as he knew he would now be known as traitor to his former allies, but was unable to procure the Ring directly for himself and therefore could not hope to truly rival Sauron.
The Dunlendings found employment in his armies, and it also seems probable that he used some of these men in his crossbreeding programme to create Half-Orcs. The Dunlendings were enticed with the old stories that they had once lived in the plains of Rohan before the ''Strawheads'' had come from the north, and that their leader [[Freca]], a man with claims to the throne of Rohan, had been killed by [[Helm Hammerhand]].


In ''[[The Two Towers]]'', the second volume of the story, Orcs from Saruman's army attack Frodo and his companions, and carry off two of Frodo's closest friends, [[Meriadoc Brandybuck|Merry]] and [[Peregrin Took|Pippin]]. The two escape into [[Fangorn Forest]], where they meet the [[Ent]]s, protectors of the trees, who are outraged at the widespread felling of trees by Saruman's Orcs.<ref name="Treebeard" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954}} Book 3 Chapter 4 "Treebeard"</ref> Meanwhile, Saruman prepares to invade the kingdom of [[Rohan (Middle-earth)|Rohan]], which has lain exposed ever since he had his servant [[Gríma Wormtongue]] render [[Théoden]], Rohan's king, weak and defenceless with "subtle poisons". Gandalf frees Théoden from Wormtongue's control just as Saruman's army is about to invade.
Gríma Wormtongue played a vital role in Saruman's plans: a counsellor of the ageing king Théoden, he secretly desired the king's niece, [[Éowyn]], but she was repulsed by him and scorned his advances. It is not clear if Wormtongue approached Saruman or vice versa, but it is certain that with Saruman's council Gríma began to weaken the king, estranging him from his other councillors and even his own kin, until Gríma had in effect almost become the leader of Rohan.


Saruman is ruined when the Riders of Rohan defeat his army and Merry and Pippin prompt the Ents to destroy Isengard. Saruman himself is not directly involved, and only appears again in chapter 10, "The Voice of Saruman", by which time he is trapped in Orthanc. He fails in his attempt to negotiate with the Rohirrim and with Gandalf, and rejects Gandalf's conditional offer to let him go free. Gandalf casts him out of the White Council and the order of the wizards, and breaks Saruman's [[Magic (Middle-earth)#Magic items|staff]].<ref name="Voice" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954}} Book 3 Chapter 10 "The Voice of Saruman"</ref>
=== Elves ===


Saruman makes his final appearance at the end of the last volume, ''[[The Return of the King]]'' (1955), after Sauron's defeat. After persuading the Ents to release him from Orthanc, he travels north on foot, apparently reduced to begging. He is accompanied by Wormtongue, whom he beats and curses.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}} Book 6, Chapter 6 "Many Partings"</ref> When they reach the Shire, Saruman's agents—both Hobbits and [[Man (Middle-earth)|Men]]—have already taken it over and started a destructive process of industrialization. Saruman governs the Shire in secret under the name of Sharkey until the events of chapter 18 ("[[The Scouring of the Shire]]") in which Frodo and his companions return and lead a rebellion, defeating the intruders and exposing Saruman's role. Even after Saruman attempts to stab Frodo, Frodo lets him go; but Wormtongue, whom Saruman continues to taunt, finally murders him.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}} Book 6 Chapter 7 "Homeward Bound"</ref><ref name="Scouring" group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}} Book 6 Chapter 8 "[[The Scouring of the Shire]]"</ref>
Saruman was once on good terms with the [[Elves (Middle-earth)|Elves]], and was voted in as the leader of the [[White Council]], a group of Elves and Istari united against Sauron.


===Other books===
However, Saruman knew that Gandalf had been given the third Elvish ring [[Narya]] by [[Círdan]] the Shipwright. This nurtured his jealousy of Gandalf and his resentment towards the Elves.


Consistent accounts of Saruman's earlier history appear in Appendix B to ''The Lord of the Rings'', first published in ''The Return of the King'', and in the posthumously published ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' and ''[[Unfinished Tales]]''. All were written in the mid-1950s. Saruman, like Gandalf and [[Radagast the Brown]], is one of five 'wizards', known as the [[Istari]], who begin to arrive in Middle-earth some two thousand years before the beginning of ''The Lord of the Rings''. They are [[Maia (Middle-earth)|Maiar]], envoys of the godlike [[Vala (Middle-earth)|Valar]] sent to challenge Sauron by inspiring the people of Middle-earth rather than by direct conflict.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1955}} Appendix B, "The Third Age".</ref> Tolkien regarded them as being somewhat like incarnate [[angel]]s.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2006}} ''Letters'', #156 to R. Murray, SJ, November 1954: "[of Gandalf] I would venture to say that he was an ''incarnate'' 'angel'-strictly an [angelos]: that is, with the other ''Istari'', wizards, 'those who know', an emissary from the [[Valar in Middle-earth|Lords of the West]], sent to Middle-earth, as the great crisis of Sauron loomed on the horizon."</ref> Saruman initially travels in the east; he is later appointed head of the White Council and eventually settles at [[Gondor]]'s outpost of Isengard. Fifty years before ''The Lord of the Rings'', after his studies reveal that the One Ring might be found in the river [[Anduin]] near Sauron's stronghold at [[Dol Guldur]], he helps the White Council drive out Sauron in order to facilitate his search.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1977}} "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"</ref>
The Elves also declined during the period of Saruman's activity in the west of Middle-earth. Their lands were few and secretive, and although they wielded in some senses marvellous power, they were not in the habit of projecting it in the manner Saruman found useful or interesting. Also, they succumbed less easily than other races to manipulation.


''Unfinished Tales'' contains drafts, not included in ''The Lord of the Rings'', that describe Saruman's attempts to frustrate Sauron's chief servants, the [[Nazgûl]], in their search for the Ring during the early part of ''The Fellowship of the Ring''; in one version he considers throwing himself on Gandalf's mercy. There is also a description of how Saruman becomes involved with the Shire and of how he gradually becomes jealous of Gandalf.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1980}} Part 3 Chapter 4 "The Hunt for the Ring"</ref> Another brief account describes how the five Istari were chosen by the Valar for their mission.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1980}} Part 4 Chapter 2 "The Istari"</ref>
Even though his stronghold of Isengard lay very close to the Elven kingdom of [[Lothlórien]], Saruman had very little or no contact with it. Indeed, after his treachery and ruin, Saruman stated clearly that he had never trusted [[Galadriel]] and that he suspected her of scheming for [[Gandalf]] at his expense.


==Creation and development==
In summary, Saruman had little use for, or interest in, the Elves.
Tolkien had been writing ''The Lord of the Rings'' for several years when Saruman came into existence as the solution to a long-unresolved plot development, and his role and characteristics continued to emerge in the course of writing. Tolkien started work on the book in late 1937 but was initially unsure of how the story would develop.<ref>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2002}} Part 5 Chapter II p. 247.</ref> Unlike some of the other characters in the book, Saruman had not appeared in Tolkien's 1937 novel, ''[[The Hobbit (novel)|The Hobbit]]'', or in his then-unpublished ''[[Quenta Silmarillion]]'' and related mythology, which date back to 1917.{{efn|The volume published as ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' in 1977 contains four sections in addition to the ''Quenta Silmarillion''. The last of these—''[[Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age]]''—covers Saruman's earlier history, but was written after ''The Lord of the Rings''.}} When he wrote of Gandalf's failure to meet Frodo, Tolkien did not know what had caused it and later said: "Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as concerned as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear."<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2006}} ''Letters'' #163 to [[W. H. Auden]], June 1955.</ref> Tolkien's son, [[Christopher Tolkien|Christopher]], has said that the early stages of the creation of ''The Lord of the Rings'' proceeded in a series of waves, and that having produced the first half of ''The Fellowship of the Ring'', Tolkien rewrote the tale from the start three times.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1988}} "Foreword"</ref> Saruman first appeared during a fourth phase of writing in a rough narrative outline dated August 1940. Intended to account for Gandalf's absence, it describes how a wizard titled "Saramond the White" or "Saramund the Grey", who has fallen under the influence of Sauron, lures Gandalf to his stronghold and traps him.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1989}} Chapter 4. The outline suggests that Saruman is assisted by the "giant" Treebeard, an early and evil iteration of the [[Ent]] [[Treebeard]] from the finished book.</ref> The full story of Saruman's betrayal was later added to the existing chapters.<ref name="Council" group=T/>


Several of Saruman's other appearances in the book emerged in the process of writing. Christopher Tolkien believes that the old man seen by [[Aragorn]], [[Legolas]] and [[Gimli (Middle-earth)|Gimli]] at the edge of [[Fangorn]] forest near the beginning of ''The Two Towers'' is in the original drafts intended to be Gandalf. In the finished version he is Saruman.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1989|at=chapters 14 and 20}} Gandalf says of the incident, "You certainly didn't see me, so you must have seen Saruman."</ref> Similarly, in the first drafts of the chapter ''[[The Scouring of the Shire]]'', Sharkey is successively a ruffian met by the hobbits, and then that man's unseen boss. It is only in the second draft of the chapter that, as [[Christopher Tolkien]] puts it, his father "perceive[d]" that Sharkey was in fact Saruman.<ref name=Sharkey group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1992|at=chapter 9 "[[The Scouring of the Shire]]"}} Saruman did not appear in the first draft of the chapter; Christopher Tolkien writes: "It is striking that here, virtually at the end of the ''Lord of the Rings'' and in an element that my father had long meditated [that] he did not perceive that it was Saruman who was the real Boss, Sharkey, at [[Bag End]]".</ref> The name used by Saruman's henchmen for their diminished leader is said in a footnote to the final text to be derived from an Orkish term meaning "old man".<ref name="Evans" /> Saruman's death scene, in which his body shrivels away to skin and bones revealing "long years of death" and "a pale shrouded figure" rises over the corpse,<ref name="Scouring" group=T/> was not added until Tolkien reviewed the [[page proofs]] of the completed book.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1992}} Chapter 9 "The Scouring of the Shire"</ref> [[John D. Rateliff]] and [[Jared Lobdell]] are among those to write that the scene shows similarities to the death of the 2000-year-old sorceress Ayesha in [[H. Rider Haggard]]'s 1887 novel ''[[She: A History of Adventure]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hammond |first1=Wayne G. |author1-link=Wayne G. Hammond |last2=Scull |first2=Christina |author2-link=Christina Scull |title=[[The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion]] |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-618-64267-0 |page=264}}</ref>
=== Istari/[[Wizard]]s ===


== Characterisation ==
Saruman grudgingly brought with him Radagast as a companion from Valinor, at the request of [[Yavanna]], yet still managed to arrive alone, and first. Shortly after, he went into the East with the two [[Blue Wizards]] ([[Alatar]] and [[Pallando]]), and later returned alone. These two wizards supposedly failed in their mission, and became corrupted. Their fate may possibly relate in some way to Saruman's treachery (as a contributing factor, or as a result).


{{quote box|quote="[His voice was] low and melodious, its very sound an enchantment [...] it was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed wise and reasonable, and desire woke in them by swift agreement to seem wise themselves ... for those whom it conquered the spell endured while they were far away and ever they heard that soft voice whispering and urging them."|source=''The Two Towers'' Book 3, Chapter 10|width=31%|align=right}}
The Blue Wizards were originally [[Maiar]] of [[Oromë]], so they and Saruman likely had different motivations for travelling far inland.


Tolkien described Saruman at the time of ''The Lord of the Rings'' as having a long face and a high forehead, "...he had deep darkling eyes ... His hair and beard were white, but strands of black still showed around his lips and ears."<ref name="Voice" group=T/> His hair is elsewhere described as having been black when he first arrived in Middle-earth. He is referred to as 'Saruman the White' and is said to have originally worn white robes, but on his first entry in ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' they instead appear to be "woven from all colours [, they] shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered" and he names himself 'Saruman of Many Colours'.<ref name="Council" group=T/>
Radagast, even though Saruman scorned him (when he tried to convert Gandalf to his cause), served Saruman very usefully. Not only in the sense explained to Gandalf, "he had just the wit to play the part I set him"&mdash;that of persuading Gandalf to come to Isengard. But also because Radagast provided Saruman with invaluable intelligence from animal spies.


The power of Saruman's voice is noted throughout the book. Jonathan Evans calls the characterisation of Saruman in the chapter ''The Voice of Saruman'' a "tour de force".<ref name="Evans">''[[J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]]'' 'Saruman' by Jonathan Evans pp. 589–590.</ref> The early critic [[Roger Sale]] wrote of the same chapter in 1968 that "Tolkien valiantly tried to do something worth doing which he simply cannot bring off."<ref>{{cite book |last=Sale |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Sale |chapter=15 Tolkien and Frodo Baggins |editor-last=Isaacs |editor-first=Neil |title=Tolkien and the Critics; Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings |publisher=[[University of Notre Dame]] |year=1968 |isbn=0-268-00279-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/tolkiencriticses0000unse |page=270}}</ref> [[Tom Shippey]] writes that "Saruman talks like a politician ... No other character in Middle-earth has Saruman's trick of balancing phrases against each other so that incompatibles are resolved, and none comes out with words as empty as 'deploring', 'ultimate', worst of all, 'real'. What is 'real change'?"<ref name="elcoun">{{harvnb|Shippey|2005}} pp. 135–138 Shippey refers to "Tolkien's Northern 'theory of courage'", which appears in [[The Monsters and the Critics|Tolkien's 1936 British Academy lecture]].</ref> Shippey contrasts this modern speech pattern with the archaic stoicism and directness, the [[Northern courage in Middle-earth|Northern courage]], that Tolkien employs for other characters such as the [[Dwarf (Middle-earth)|Dwarven]] King [[Dáin II Ironfoot|Dáin]], which Shippey believes represent Tolkien's view of heroism [[Beowulf in Middle-earth|in the mould of ''Beowulf'']].<ref name="elcoun"/>
Saruman had always been jealous of Gandalf, and suspected him of keeping secrets from him&mdash;not unfounded suspicions, since Gandalf did indeed keep his knowledge (or early on, suspicion) about [[One Ring|Bilbo's Ring]] hidden. Gandalf also kept his own ring (the third of the Elvish rings) Narya secret.


After the defeat of his armies, having been caught in the betrayal of Sauron, Saruman is offered refuge by Gandalf, in return for his aid, but having chosen his path, is unable to turn from it.<ref name=Spacks2/> Evans has compared the character of Saruman to that of [[Satan]] in [[John Milton]]'s ''[[Paradise Lost]]'' in his use of rhetoric and in this final refusal of redemption, "conquered by pride and hatred".<ref name="Evans"/>
Gandalf also suspected Saruman of plotting to gain the One Ring for himself, and hinted at this in a powerful scene at a meeting of the White Council. Gandalf blew nine small smoke rings and one great one, and made as if to grasp them, whereupon they vanished.


== Literary themes ==
In general, Saruman must have viewed Gandalf as his only peer, and as such to be feared and treated with (although not necessarily shown) respect. He always kept a watchful eye open for Gandalf's doings, and actually picked up the habit of smoking pipe-weed by sending out spies tailing Gandalf to the Shire.


Saruman has been identified by critics as demonstrating the fall of an originally good character and has distinctively modern connections with technology.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lwidpxMe-AIC&q=saruman+technology&pg=PA197 |title=Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien |first1=Matthew T. |last1=Dickerson |author-link=Matthew T. Dickerson |first2=Jonathan Duane |last2=Evans |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |pages=192 et seq |isbn=978-0-8131-2418-6 |year=2006}}</ref> John R. Holmes writes that there is a philological link between "a perverted will to power with the love of machines we see in Isengard". The etymologies of English "magic", Latinized Greek ''magia'', "the power of causing physical change in the real world", and English "machine", Greek ''mekhane'' or ''makhana'' "device", are both from Old Persian ''maghush'' "sorcerer", from Proto-Indo-European ''*magh'', "to have power". Thus, Holmes writes, Tolkien was following an ancient cultural connection in making Saruman think in this way, using [[Magic (Middle-earth)|magic]].<ref name="Holmes">{{cite book |last=Holmes |first=John R. |chapter=The Lord of the Rings |editor-last=Lee |editor-first=Stuart D. |editor-link=Stuart D. Lee |title=A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien |title-link=A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien |date=2020 |orig-year=2014 |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |isbn=978-1119656029 |page=143}}</ref>
When matters came to a head, Saruman sought to make Gandalf an ally in his plans. This was probably not just out of practical politics, but also of respect and a sense of companionship and shared destiny. And possibly out of hope, being daunted by the proposition of becoming Sauron's servant alone.


Tolkien writes that ''The Lord of the Rings'' was often criticized for portraying all characters as either good or bad, with no shades of grey, a point to which he responds by proposing Saruman, along with [[Denethor]] and [[Boromir]], as examples of characters with more nuanced loyalties.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2006}} ''Letters'' #154 to [[Naomi Mitchison]], September 1954.</ref> [[Marjorie Burns]] writes that while Saruman is an "imitative and lesser" double of Sauron, reinforcing the Dark Lord's character type, he is also [[Character pairing in The Lord of the Rings|a contrasting double]] of Gandalf, who becomes Saruman as he "should have been", after Saruman fails in his original purpose.<ref name=Burns>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Burns |first=Marjorie |author-link=Marjorie Burns |chapter=Doubles |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael |editor-link=Michael Drout |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=New York |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-415-96942-0 |pages=127–128}}</ref>
Nevertheless, Saruman exercised more power than Gandalf, even with the ring Narya, as became clear when he placed Gandalf under arrest at the pinnacle of Orthanc. The text does not make it clear whether Saruman lost power or whether Gandalf gained power, but when Gandalf returned as "Gandalf the White", he could summon Saruman at his will, forcibly keep him in his presence, and finally break Saruman's staff (with whatever implications that might have had for Saruman's powers).


Saruman "was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare raise our hands against" but decays as the book goes on.<ref>{{harvnb|Kocher|1973}} Chapter 4 p. 79, Kocher quoting Frodo's speech of ''[[The Return of the King]]'' Book 6 Chapter 8</ref> [[Patricia Meyer Spacks]] calls him "one of the main case histories [in the book] of the gradual destructive effect of willing submission to evil wills".<ref name=Spacks2>{{cite book |last=Spacks |first=Patricia Meyer |author-link=Patricia Meyer Spacks |chapter=6 Power and meaning in The Lord of the Rings |editor-last=Isaacs |editor-first=Neil |title=Tolkien and the Critics; Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings |publisher=[[University of Notre Dame]] |year=1968 |isbn=0-268-00279-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/tolkiencriticses0000unse |pages=84–85}}</ref> [[Paul H. Kocher|Paul Kocher]] identifies Saruman's use of a ''[[palantír]]'', a seeing-stone, as the immediate cause of his downfall, but also suggests that through his study of "the arts of the enemy", Saruman was drawn into imitation of Sauron.<ref>{{harvnb|Kocher|1973}} Chapter 3 "Cosmic Order", p. 51, and Chapter 4 "Sauron and the nature of evil", p. 68.</ref> According to Jonathan Evans and Spacks, Saruman [[Addiction to power in The Lord of the Rings|succumbs to the lust for power]],<ref name="Evans" /><ref name=Spacks2 /> while Shippey identifies Saruman's devotion to goals of knowledge, organization and control as his weakness.<ref name="Wraith" /> Tolkien writes that the Istari's chief temptation (and that to which Saruman fell) is impatience, leading to a desire to force others to do good, and then to a simple desire for power.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2006}} ''Letters'' #181 to M. Straight, January 1956.</ref>
Saruman several times came very close to setting aside his pride and to asking Gandalf for pity and help. The closest call came when the [[Ringwraith]]s (on their way to [[Shire (Middle-earth)|The Shire]]) arrived at Isengard while Gandalf still remained in captivity there. Saruman, realizing his predicament, actually went to seek Gandalf's pardon, only to find his erstwhile captive missing from the top of Orthanc.


[[Treebeard]] describes Saruman as having "a mind of metal and wheels".<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Tolkien|1954}} Book 3 Chapter 4 "Treebeard" The quote is used as an illustration by Shippey, Spacks and Kocher among many others.</ref> Evil in ''The Lord of the Rings'' tends to be associated with machinery, whereas good is usually associated with nature. Both Saruman's stronghold of Isengard and his altered Shire demonstrate the negative effects of industrialization and Isengard is overthrown when the forests, in the shape of the Ents, literally rise against it.<ref name=Spacks2 /> [[Patrick Curry (author)|Patrick Curry]] says Tolkien is [[Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings|hostile to industrialism]], linking this to the widespread [[urban development]] that took place in the [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]] where Tolkien grew up in the first decades of the 20th century. He identifies Saruman as one of the key examples given in the book of the evil effects of industrialization, and by extension of [[imperialism]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Curry |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Curry (author) |chapter=Industrialization |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael |editor-link=Michael Drout |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=New York |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-415-96942-0 |page=294}}</ref> Shippey notes that Saruman's name repeats this view of technology: in the [[Mercian (Anglo-Saxon)|Mercian dialect]] of [[Old English language|Old English]] used by Tolkien to represent the [[Rohirric|Language of Rohan]] in the book, the word ''saru''{{efn|The ordinary Old English form is ''searu''.<ref name="Clark Hall 2002"/>}} means "clever", "skilful" or "ingenious". This has associations with both technology and treachery that are fitting for Tolkien's portrayal of Saruman, the "cunning man".<ref>{{harvnb|Shippey|2005}} Chapter 4 'The horses of the Mark' pp. 139–140.</ref> He also writes of Saruman's distinctively modern association with [[Communism]] in the way the Shire is run under his control in "[[The Scouring of the Shire]]": goods are taken "for fair distribution" which, since they are mainly never seen again, Shippey terms an unusually modern piece of hypocrisy in the way evil presents itself in Middle-earth.<ref>{{harvnb|Shippey|2005}} Chapter 5 "Interlacements and the Ring" p. 195.</ref>
The microcosm of the Istari society reflects how Saruman treated people in general&mdash;by manipulation and deceit, with fear and suspicion, and by ignoring those he had no use for.


Saruman is in part the architect of his own downfall. Kocher, [[Randel Helms]] and Shippey write that Saruman's actions in the first half of ''The Two Towers'', although intended to further his own interests, in fact lead to his defeat and that of Sauron: his orcs help split the Fellowship at [[Parth Galen]], and in carrying off two of the hobbits initiate a series of incidents that lead to his ruin. In turn this frees the Rohirrim to intervene at the [[Battle of the Pelennor Fields]] and then together with the men of [[Gondor]] to assault Sauron's stronghold of [[Mordor]] and distract him from Frodo's final effort to destroy the Ring. Shippey says that this demonstrates the value of persistence in the face of despair, even if a way out cannot be seen;<ref>{{harvnb|Shippey|2005}} Chapter 5 'Interlacements and the Ring' pp. 186–188.</ref> Kocher and Helms write that it is part of a pattern of [[divine providence|providential]] events and of the reversed effects of evil intentions throughout the book.<ref>{{harvnb|Kocher|1973}} Chapter 3 "Cosmic Order", pp. 44–46.</ref><ref name="Helms 1974">{{cite book |last=Helms |first=Randel |author-link=Randel Helms |title=Tolkien's World |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] |location=Boston |year=1974 |isbn=0-395-18490-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/tolkiensworld00helm |at=Chapter 5 'The structure and aesthetic of ''The Lord of the Rings'' pp. 92–97}}</ref>
=== Orcs ===


In the end, the diminished Saruman is murdered, his throat cut, and Shippey notes that when he dies his spirit "dissolved into nothing". He identifies Saruman as the best example in the book of "wraithing", a distinctive 20th-century view of evil that he attributes to Tolkien in which individuals are "'eaten up inside' by devotion to some abstraction".<ref name="Wraith">{{harvnb|Shippey|2001}} Chapter 4 "Saruman and Denethor: technologist and reactionary" pp. 121–128.</ref> Referring to Saruman's demise, Kocher says that he is one example of the consistent theme of nothingness as the fate of evil throughout ''The Lord of the Rings''.<ref>{{harvnb|Kocher|1973}} Chapter 4 "Sauron and the nature of evil", p. 79.</ref>
Saruman probably drew his original strength of [[Orc (Middle-earth)|Orc]]s from tribes in the [[Misty Mountains]], and perhaps from Moria Orcs. He made use of [[Warg]]-mounted Orcs of the same kind that Bilbo and the dwarves fled from after they had been captured at the [[High Pass]] near [[Rivendell]].


== Adaptations ==
He also bred Orcs in Isengard, eventually creating crossbreeds of Orcs and Men (probably [[Dunland|Dunlendings]]), the [[Uruk-hai]]. This programme apparently also involved feeding these Orcs Man-flesh.


Saruman has appeared in film, radio, stage and video game adaptations of ''The Lord of the Rings''. [[BBC Radio]] produced the [[The Lord of the Rings (1955 radio series)|first adaptation in 1955]], in which Saruman was played by [[Robin de la Condamine|Robert Farquharson]], and which has not survived. Tolkien was disappointed by it.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|Matthews|2004}} 'Of the beginning of days' pp. 15–16.</ref>
His Uruk-hai army displayed great discipline and fierce loyalty, in addition to the other improvements such as height, strength, endurance and resistance to sunlight. There also appears to have been middle stages between Men and the Uruk-hai, Men with varying degrees of Orkish appearance. These were reported by Pippin and Merry to have been part of Saruman's regular army, but were not Uruk-hai, since the hobbits would have recognized these from their earlier capture.


In [[Ralph Bakshi]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings (1978 film)|1978 animated adaptation of ''The Lord of the Rings'']], which corresponds to ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' and part of ''The Two Towers'', Saruman is voiced by [[Fraser Kerr (actor)|Fraser Kerr]]. He has only one major scene—his attempt to persuade Gandalf to join him. He appears again briefly before the [[Battle of Helm's Deep]], speaking to his army. The character is dressed in red and is called 'Saruman' and 'Aruman' at different points. Smith and Matthews suggest that the use of 'Aruman' was intended to avoid confusion with 'Sauron'.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|Matthews|2004}} "JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" p. 54.</ref> The 1980 [[Rankin/Bass]] TV [[The Return of the King (1980 film)|animated version of ''The Return of the King'']] begins roughly where Bakshi's film ends but does not include Saruman's character.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|Matthews|2004}} "JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" pp. 63–70.</ref>
Saruman's servants called him "Sharkey" both in Isengard and later in The Shire. This was probably an adaptation of the [[Black Speech]] word ''sharku'' which meant "old man". Saruman was not aware of this meaning (which is remarkable, since Gandalf knew this language). Perhaps he took it as a distortion of his own name by the Orcs. This indicates that the Orcs took their leader less seriously than they might have given him the impression of (similar to how the Mordor Orcs overheard by Sam and Frodo tended to disrespect their authorities).


BBC Radio's [[The Lord of the Rings (1981 radio series)|second adaptation of ''The Lord of the Rings'']], from 1981, presents Saruman much as in the books. Smith and Matthews report [[Peter Howell (actor)|Peter Howell]]'s performance as Saruman as "brilliantly ambiguous ..., drifting from mellifluous to almost bestially savage from moment to moment without either mood seeming to contradict the other".<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|Matthews|2004}} "An Unexpected Party", p. 83.</ref>
=== Ents/Trees ===


Saruman is played by [[Matti Pellonpää]] in the 1993 television [[miniseries]] ''[[Hobitit]]'' produced and aired by Finnish broadcaster [[Yle]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Hobitit |url=https://www.videodetective.com/show/hobitit-60466 |website=Video Detective |date=29 March 1993 |access-date=27 September 2020}}</ref>
Saruman made contact with the [[Ents]] in [[Fangorn forest]] shortly after he settled in [[Isengard]]. The oldest of the Ents, [[Treebeard]] received him and gave him free access to the forest.


[[File:Christopher Lee as Saruman LOTR.jpg|thumb|[[Christopher Lee]] played Saruman in [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|''The Lord of the Rings'']] and [[The Hobbit (film series)|''The Hobbit'']] film trilogies. ]]
Saruman also consulted with Treebeard, learning much old lore that the Ents would have remembered from ancient times. Saruman did not return this favour, but only listened.


In [[Peter Jackson]]'s [[The Lord of the Rings (film series)|film trilogy]] (2001–2003), Saruman is significantly more active in the first two films than in the corresponding books, and he appears in several scenes that are not depicted in Tolkien's work. He was portrayed by [[Christopher Lee]]. In the films, Saruman is depicted presenting himself outright as a servant of Sauron. Smith and Matthews suggest that Saruman's role is built up as a substitute for Sauron—the story's main antagonist—who never appears directly in the book, which Jackson confirms in the commentary to the DVD.<ref>{{cite video |people=[[Peter Jackson|Jackson, Peter]] |title=The Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition (Director and Writers' commentary) |medium=DVD |publisher=[[New Line Cinema]] |date=2004 |time=Disc 1 Chapter 12 00:46:43}}</ref> They also suggest that having secured veteran British horror actor [[Christopher Lee]] to play Saruman, it made sense to make greater use of his star status.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|Matthews|2004}} 'The Return of the King' (2003) p. 177.</ref> Despite this increased role in the first two films, the scenes involving Saruman that were shot for use in the third film, ''The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'', were not used in the cinematic release, a decision which "shocked" Lee. Jackson reasoned that it would be anticlimactic to show Saruman's fate in the second movie (after the [[Battle of the Hornburg|Battle of Helm's Deep]]) and too retrospective for the third one.<ref>{{cite news |title=Hey, what happened to Saruman? |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/17/film.rings.saruman.ap/ |agency=[[Associated Press]] |access-date=23 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041130211122/http://edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/17/film.rings.saruman.ap/ |archive-date=30 November 2004}}</ref> The cut scenes end with Saruman falling to his death from the top of Orthanc after being stabbed by Wormtongue and include material transposed from the chapter "[[The Scouring of the Shire]]". They are included at the start of the Extended Edition DVD release of the film.<ref>{{cite video |people=[[Philippa Boyens|Boyens, Phillipa]]; [[Peter Jackson|Jackson, Peter]]; [[Fran Walsh|Walsh, Fran]] |title=The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King Extended Edition (Director and Writers' commentary) |medium=DVD |publisher=[[New Line Cinema]] |date=2004 |time=Disc 1 Chapter 4 00:17:26}}</ref>
The Ents saw Saruman's treachery early, and became very concerned, primarily with Saruman's Orcs felling trees on the edge of Fangorn for use in the furnaces of Isengard&mdash;or sometimes for no reason at all.
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In Jackson's [[The Hobbit (film series)|film adaptations of ''The Hobbit'']], Lee reprises his role as Saruman the White, even though Saruman does not appear in the book. Saruman, Gandalf, [[Galadriel]], and [[Elrond]] appear at a meeting of the [[White Council]] in Rivendell, loosely based on material from the Appendices to ''The Lord of the Rings''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Vineyard |first=Jennifer |title=Five things changed/expanded from the book for 'The Hobbit' films |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/14/showbiz/movies/hobbit-book-movie-vineyard/index.html |publisher=[[CNN]] |access-date=27 September 2020 |date=17 December 2012}}</ref>
The Ents also appear to have had a sense of order, how things should be, that Saruman encroached upon. The crossbreeding of Men and Orcs particularly alarmed them, out of proportion to other concerns enemies of Saruman might have had. Also alarming was the pure fact of his treachery&mdash;the Istari were supposed to have a special responsibility.


In the 2014 video game ''[[Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor]]'', Saruman is voiced by [[Roger L. Jackson]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Saruman the White |url=https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/video-games/Middle-earth-Shadow-of-Mordor/Saruman-the-White/ |website=Behind the Voice Actors |access-date=27 September 2020}}</ref><!-- The protagonist, Talion, finds artefacts that reveal that Saruman's spies are active within the borders of Mordor in the years between ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. Saruman is revealed to be controlling Queen Marwen of the Nurnen to hinder Sauron while bringing about the destruction of the men of Nurn.--> Saruman appears as a minor villain in ''[[Lego Dimensions]]'', in which he allies himself with main antagonist Lord Vortech.<ref>{{cite web |last1=The Escapist Staff |title=Save the Multiverse With Our Full LEGO Dimensions Story Levels Guide |url=https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/walkthroughs/15208-LEGO-Dimensions-Story-Mode-Walkthrough.5 |website=The Escapist |access-date=27 September 2020 |date=13 August 2017}}</ref>
Saruman used the Ents and the Fangorn forest without concern for the consequences. He clearly misjudged the Ents' abilities and will to act. This might not have been as incautious as it seemed, since major contributing factors to the Ent's actions were advice and requests from Gandalf, and concern about the rising power of [[Sauron]] (and their wish to support the front-line troops of the war, Rohan and Gondor).
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== Notes ==
Saruman clearly had the ability to understand the minds of the Ents when he found it useful. He managed to talk Treebeard into setting him free from Orthanc by pushing just the right buttons&mdash;Ents dislike the concept of caging up any creature.


{{notelist}}
=== Hobbits ===


== References ==
The race of [[Hobbits]] and their lands seemed too insignificant to interest Saruman: until he took notice of [[Gandalf]]'s special concern for them.


=== Primary ===
His secret interest in Gandalf's doings made him focus gradually more and more on the Hobbits and The Shire. For a period he actually travelled there in secret, mapping out the lands. Gandalf was aware of this, but at this point only amused.


{{reflist|group=T|30em}}
He began smoking pipe-weed (a habit of the Hobbits that Gandalf had picked up), also in secret. His demand for tobacco opened up trading between The Shire and Isengard, and the power his money could wield there and the corruption it could cause began to fascinate him. Some of his agents went in secret, and some were known to Gandalf and the [[Rangers (Middle-earth)|Rangers]] (who accepted them, but were suspicious).


=== Secondary===
His anger towards the Hobbits may possibly stem from the attention Gandalf showed them (and not himself, or his projects). It certainly strengthened immensely when he discovered that the Hobbits (to his mind) had conspired with Gandalf to keep the [[One Ring]] from him.


{{reflist|30em}}
This, and the sudden urgency caused by the [[Ringwraith]]s' hunt for the Ring-bearer from The Shire to [[Rivendell]], made him increase his activity in the area, leading to a build-up of power that would by the closing of the [[War of the Ring]] lead to virtual conquest of The Shire.


== Sources ==
He might also later have blamed the ruin of Isengard at the hands (or branches, really) of the [[Ents]] on [[Peregrin Took]] and [[Meriadoc Brandybuck]], who clearly catalysed events.


=== Secondary ===
This all came together after Sauron's fall, when Saruman escaped from the Ents and retired to The Shire and his thug regime in place there. It appears he immediately switched the focus of this operation to wanton destruction: pollution, murder, fire, chopping down trees for no reason. He may have felt this would also allow him to deal a last blow to Gandalf.


* {{cite book |last=Carpenter |first=Humphrey |author-link=Humphrey Carpenter |title=J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography |title-link=J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |location=London |year=2002 |isbn=0-00-713284-0}}
At his final utter defeat by a Hobbit uprising, his life was spared even when he tried to assassinate [[Frodo Baggins]]. At this moment he actually conceded respect to Frodo, but it was (literally) short-lived.
* {{cite book |editor-last=Carpenter |editor-first=Humphrey |author-link=Humphrey Carpenter |title=[[The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien]] |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |orig-year=1981 |year=2006 |isbn=0-261-10265-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Kocher |first=Paul H. |author-link=Paul H. Kocher |title=[[Master of Middle-Earth|Master of Middle-earth]] |publisher=[[Thames and Hudson]] |location=London |year=1973 |isbn=0-500-01095-1}}
* {{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[The Road to Middle-earth]] |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |orig-year=1982 |year=2005 |isbn=0-261-10275-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Shippey |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=[[J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century]] |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2001 |isbn=0-261-10401-2}}
* {{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Jim |last2=Matthews |first2=J. Clive |title=The Lord of the Rings: the Films, the Books, the Radio Series |publisher=[[Virgin Books]] |location=London |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7535-0874-9 |oclc=56460751}}
* {{cite book |last=Zimbardo |first=Rose A. |author1-link=Rose Zimbardo |last2=Isaacs |first2=Neil D. |title=[[Understanding The Lord of the Rings|Understanding the Lord of the Rings]] |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]] |date=2004 |isbn=978-0-618-42253-1 |ref=none}}


=== Valar/Maiar ===
=== History of composition ===
Saruman was supposedly eager to go to Middle-earth, against Manwë's counsel. After his 'death' he was apparently barred from returning to Valinor, and therefore was denied reincarnation and condemned to waft away and disappear like so much smoke. Sauron, in origin a Maia of Aulë like Saruman, amazed and frightened him. During the height of his arrogance Saruman thought to supplant Sauron as the Dark Lord, but in the end he found himself meddling with a spirit of far greater power than himself.


* {{ME-ref|ROTS}}
=== Animals ===
* {{ME-ref|Treason}}
Saruman had control over many birds, probably through Radagast. These spied for him and brought him news. In addition, the Orcs Saruman took in his armies had amongst them Wargs, evil wolves of the stature of a horse.
* {{ME-ref|SD}}


== Saruman's genealogy ==
=== Fiction ===


* {{ME-ref|TH}}
<code>
* {{ME-ref|FOTR}}
[[Ilúvatar]]
* {{ME-ref|TT}}
|
* {{ME-ref|ROTK}}
'''Saruman'''
* {{ME-ref|Silm}}
(Curumo)
* {{ME-ref|UT}}


{{ainur}}
{{Middle-earth}}
{{The Lord of the Rings}}
{{Authority control}}


[[Category:Middle-earth Maiar]] [[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Characters in The Silmarillion]]
[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1954]]
[[Category:The Lord of the Rings characters]]
[[Category:Fictional murdered people]]
[[Category:Male film villains]]
[[Category:Male literary villains]]
[[Category:Middle-earth rulers]]
[[Category:Middle-earth wizards]]


[[de:Figuren aus Mittelerde]]
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Latest revision as of 21:02, 27 April 2024

Saruman the White
Tolkien character
The White Hand of Saruman
First appearanceThe Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
Last appearanceUnfinished Tales (1980)
In-universe information
AliasesCurunír
Curumo
Sharkey
Man of Skill
White Messenger
Head of the White Council
Lord of Isengard
RaceMaia

Saruman, also called Saruman the White, later Saruman of Many Colours, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the novel, but eventually he desires Sauron's power for himself and tries to take over Middle-earth by force from his base at Isengard. His schemes feature prominently in the second volume, The Two Towers; he appears briefly at the end of the third volume, The Return of the King. His earlier history is summarised in the posthumously published The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

Saruman is one of several characters in the book illustrating the corruption of power; his desire for knowledge and order leads to his fall, and he rejects the chance of redemption when it is offered. The name Saruman (pronounced [ˈsɑrumɑn]) means "man of skill or cunning" in the Mercian dialect of Anglo-Saxon;[1] he serves as an example of technology and modernity being overthrown by forces more in tune with nature.

Saruman was portrayed by Christopher Lee in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies.

Appearances[edit]

The Lord of the Rings[edit]

The Lord of the Rings describes a quest to destroy the One Ring, a powerful and evil talisman created by the Dark Lord Sauron to control the nine rings of men, the remaining rings of the dwarves (originally seven) and the three of the elves, the most powerful, thus furthering Sauron's dominion over Middle-earth. Sauron lost the Ring in battle thousands of years before the beginning of the story, and it is now held in secret in the Shire by the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who passes it on to Frodo Baggins, one of the story's protagonists. Early in the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring, the wizard Gandalf describes Saruman as "the chief of my order"[T 1] and head of the White Council that forced Sauron from Mirkwood at the end of Tolkien's earlier book The Hobbit.[T 2] He notes Saruman's great knowledge of the Rings of Power created by Sauron and by the Elven-smiths. Shortly afterwards, Gandalf breaks an arrangement to meet Frodo and guide him out of the Shire to Rivendell to keep the Ring safe from Sauron's agents.

Frodo and Gandalf are reunited at Rivendell midway through The Fellowship of the Ring. The wizard explains why he failed to join Frodo: he had been summoned to consult with Saruman but had been held captive. Saruman initially had proposed that the wizards ally themselves with the rising power of Sauron in order to eventually control him for their own ends, revealing himself as a traitor. Saruman went on to suggest that they could take the Ring for themselves and challenge Sauron. When Gandalf refused both options, the traitorous Saruman imprisoned him in the tower of Orthanc at Isengard, hoping to learn from him the location of the Ring. Whilst on the summit of Orthanc, Gandalf observed that Saruman had industrialized the formerly green valley of Isengard and was creating his own army of Half-Orc/Half-Man fighters and Wargs to rival Sauron.[T 3] Gandalf's escape from the top of the tower on the back of a Great Eagle left Saruman in a desperate position, as he knew he would now be known as traitor to his former allies, but was unable to procure the Ring directly for himself and therefore could not hope to truly rival Sauron.

In The Two Towers, the second volume of the story, Orcs from Saruman's army attack Frodo and his companions, and carry off two of Frodo's closest friends, Merry and Pippin. The two escape into Fangorn Forest, where they meet the Ents, protectors of the trees, who are outraged at the widespread felling of trees by Saruman's Orcs.[T 4] Meanwhile, Saruman prepares to invade the kingdom of Rohan, which has lain exposed ever since he had his servant Gríma Wormtongue render Théoden, Rohan's king, weak and defenceless with "subtle poisons". Gandalf frees Théoden from Wormtongue's control just as Saruman's army is about to invade.

Saruman is ruined when the Riders of Rohan defeat his army and Merry and Pippin prompt the Ents to destroy Isengard. Saruman himself is not directly involved, and only appears again in chapter 10, "The Voice of Saruman", by which time he is trapped in Orthanc. He fails in his attempt to negotiate with the Rohirrim and with Gandalf, and rejects Gandalf's conditional offer to let him go free. Gandalf casts him out of the White Council and the order of the wizards, and breaks Saruman's staff.[T 5]

Saruman makes his final appearance at the end of the last volume, The Return of the King (1955), after Sauron's defeat. After persuading the Ents to release him from Orthanc, he travels north on foot, apparently reduced to begging. He is accompanied by Wormtongue, whom he beats and curses.[T 6] When they reach the Shire, Saruman's agents—both Hobbits and Men—have already taken it over and started a destructive process of industrialization. Saruman governs the Shire in secret under the name of Sharkey until the events of chapter 18 ("The Scouring of the Shire") in which Frodo and his companions return and lead a rebellion, defeating the intruders and exposing Saruman's role. Even after Saruman attempts to stab Frodo, Frodo lets him go; but Wormtongue, whom Saruman continues to taunt, finally murders him.[T 7][T 8]

Other books[edit]

Consistent accounts of Saruman's earlier history appear in Appendix B to The Lord of the Rings, first published in The Return of the King, and in the posthumously published The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. All were written in the mid-1950s. Saruman, like Gandalf and Radagast the Brown, is one of five 'wizards', known as the Istari, who begin to arrive in Middle-earth some two thousand years before the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. They are Maiar, envoys of the godlike Valar sent to challenge Sauron by inspiring the people of Middle-earth rather than by direct conflict.[T 9] Tolkien regarded them as being somewhat like incarnate angels.[T 10] Saruman initially travels in the east; he is later appointed head of the White Council and eventually settles at Gondor's outpost of Isengard. Fifty years before The Lord of the Rings, after his studies reveal that the One Ring might be found in the river Anduin near Sauron's stronghold at Dol Guldur, he helps the White Council drive out Sauron in order to facilitate his search.[T 11]

Unfinished Tales contains drafts, not included in The Lord of the Rings, that describe Saruman's attempts to frustrate Sauron's chief servants, the Nazgûl, in their search for the Ring during the early part of The Fellowship of the Ring; in one version he considers throwing himself on Gandalf's mercy. There is also a description of how Saruman becomes involved with the Shire and of how he gradually becomes jealous of Gandalf.[T 12] Another brief account describes how the five Istari were chosen by the Valar for their mission.[T 13]

Creation and development[edit]

Tolkien had been writing The Lord of the Rings for several years when Saruman came into existence as the solution to a long-unresolved plot development, and his role and characteristics continued to emerge in the course of writing. Tolkien started work on the book in late 1937 but was initially unsure of how the story would develop.[2] Unlike some of the other characters in the book, Saruman had not appeared in Tolkien's 1937 novel, The Hobbit, or in his then-unpublished Quenta Silmarillion and related mythology, which date back to 1917.[a] When he wrote of Gandalf's failure to meet Frodo, Tolkien did not know what had caused it and later said: "Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as concerned as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear."[T 14] Tolkien's son, Christopher, has said that the early stages of the creation of The Lord of the Rings proceeded in a series of waves, and that having produced the first half of The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien rewrote the tale from the start three times.[T 15] Saruman first appeared during a fourth phase of writing in a rough narrative outline dated August 1940. Intended to account for Gandalf's absence, it describes how a wizard titled "Saramond the White" or "Saramund the Grey", who has fallen under the influence of Sauron, lures Gandalf to his stronghold and traps him.[T 16] The full story of Saruman's betrayal was later added to the existing chapters.[T 3]

Several of Saruman's other appearances in the book emerged in the process of writing. Christopher Tolkien believes that the old man seen by Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli at the edge of Fangorn forest near the beginning of The Two Towers is in the original drafts intended to be Gandalf. In the finished version he is Saruman.[T 17] Similarly, in the first drafts of the chapter The Scouring of the Shire, Sharkey is successively a ruffian met by the hobbits, and then that man's unseen boss. It is only in the second draft of the chapter that, as Christopher Tolkien puts it, his father "perceive[d]" that Sharkey was in fact Saruman.[T 18] The name used by Saruman's henchmen for their diminished leader is said in a footnote to the final text to be derived from an Orkish term meaning "old man".[3] Saruman's death scene, in which his body shrivels away to skin and bones revealing "long years of death" and "a pale shrouded figure" rises over the corpse,[T 8] was not added until Tolkien reviewed the page proofs of the completed book.[T 19] John D. Rateliff and Jared Lobdell are among those to write that the scene shows similarities to the death of the 2000-year-old sorceress Ayesha in H. Rider Haggard's 1887 novel She: A History of Adventure.[4]

Characterisation[edit]

"[His voice was] low and melodious, its very sound an enchantment [...] it was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed wise and reasonable, and desire woke in them by swift agreement to seem wise themselves ... for those whom it conquered the spell endured while they were far away and ever they heard that soft voice whispering and urging them."

The Two Towers Book 3, Chapter 10

Tolkien described Saruman at the time of The Lord of the Rings as having a long face and a high forehead, "...he had deep darkling eyes ... His hair and beard were white, but strands of black still showed around his lips and ears."[T 5] His hair is elsewhere described as having been black when he first arrived in Middle-earth. He is referred to as 'Saruman the White' and is said to have originally worn white robes, but on his first entry in The Fellowship of the Ring they instead appear to be "woven from all colours [, they] shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered" and he names himself 'Saruman of Many Colours'.[T 3]

The power of Saruman's voice is noted throughout the book. Jonathan Evans calls the characterisation of Saruman in the chapter The Voice of Saruman a "tour de force".[3] The early critic Roger Sale wrote of the same chapter in 1968 that "Tolkien valiantly tried to do something worth doing which he simply cannot bring off."[5] Tom Shippey writes that "Saruman talks like a politician ... No other character in Middle-earth has Saruman's trick of balancing phrases against each other so that incompatibles are resolved, and none comes out with words as empty as 'deploring', 'ultimate', worst of all, 'real'. What is 'real change'?"[6] Shippey contrasts this modern speech pattern with the archaic stoicism and directness, the Northern courage, that Tolkien employs for other characters such as the Dwarven King Dáin, which Shippey believes represent Tolkien's view of heroism in the mould of Beowulf.[6]

After the defeat of his armies, having been caught in the betrayal of Sauron, Saruman is offered refuge by Gandalf, in return for his aid, but having chosen his path, is unable to turn from it.[7] Evans has compared the character of Saruman to that of Satan in John Milton's Paradise Lost in his use of rhetoric and in this final refusal of redemption, "conquered by pride and hatred".[3]

Literary themes[edit]

Saruman has been identified by critics as demonstrating the fall of an originally good character and has distinctively modern connections with technology.[8] John R. Holmes writes that there is a philological link between "a perverted will to power with the love of machines we see in Isengard". The etymologies of English "magic", Latinized Greek magia, "the power of causing physical change in the real world", and English "machine", Greek mekhane or makhana "device", are both from Old Persian maghush "sorcerer", from Proto-Indo-European *magh, "to have power". Thus, Holmes writes, Tolkien was following an ancient cultural connection in making Saruman think in this way, using magic.[9]

Tolkien writes that The Lord of the Rings was often criticized for portraying all characters as either good or bad, with no shades of grey, a point to which he responds by proposing Saruman, along with Denethor and Boromir, as examples of characters with more nuanced loyalties.[T 20] Marjorie Burns writes that while Saruman is an "imitative and lesser" double of Sauron, reinforcing the Dark Lord's character type, he is also a contrasting double of Gandalf, who becomes Saruman as he "should have been", after Saruman fails in his original purpose.[10]

Saruman "was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare raise our hands against" but decays as the book goes on.[11] Patricia Meyer Spacks calls him "one of the main case histories [in the book] of the gradual destructive effect of willing submission to evil wills".[7] Paul Kocher identifies Saruman's use of a palantír, a seeing-stone, as the immediate cause of his downfall, but also suggests that through his study of "the arts of the enemy", Saruman was drawn into imitation of Sauron.[12] According to Jonathan Evans and Spacks, Saruman succumbs to the lust for power,[3][7] while Shippey identifies Saruman's devotion to goals of knowledge, organization and control as his weakness.[13] Tolkien writes that the Istari's chief temptation (and that to which Saruman fell) is impatience, leading to a desire to force others to do good, and then to a simple desire for power.[T 21]

Treebeard describes Saruman as having "a mind of metal and wheels".[T 22] Evil in The Lord of the Rings tends to be associated with machinery, whereas good is usually associated with nature. Both Saruman's stronghold of Isengard and his altered Shire demonstrate the negative effects of industrialization and Isengard is overthrown when the forests, in the shape of the Ents, literally rise against it.[7] Patrick Curry says Tolkien is hostile to industrialism, linking this to the widespread urban development that took place in the West Midlands where Tolkien grew up in the first decades of the 20th century. He identifies Saruman as one of the key examples given in the book of the evil effects of industrialization, and by extension of imperialism.[14] Shippey notes that Saruman's name repeats this view of technology: in the Mercian dialect of Old English used by Tolkien to represent the Language of Rohan in the book, the word saru[b] means "clever", "skilful" or "ingenious". This has associations with both technology and treachery that are fitting for Tolkien's portrayal of Saruman, the "cunning man".[15] He also writes of Saruman's distinctively modern association with Communism in the way the Shire is run under his control in "The Scouring of the Shire": goods are taken "for fair distribution" which, since they are mainly never seen again, Shippey terms an unusually modern piece of hypocrisy in the way evil presents itself in Middle-earth.[16]

Saruman is in part the architect of his own downfall. Kocher, Randel Helms and Shippey write that Saruman's actions in the first half of The Two Towers, although intended to further his own interests, in fact lead to his defeat and that of Sauron: his orcs help split the Fellowship at Parth Galen, and in carrying off two of the hobbits initiate a series of incidents that lead to his ruin. In turn this frees the Rohirrim to intervene at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and then together with the men of Gondor to assault Sauron's stronghold of Mordor and distract him from Frodo's final effort to destroy the Ring. Shippey says that this demonstrates the value of persistence in the face of despair, even if a way out cannot be seen;[17] Kocher and Helms write that it is part of a pattern of providential events and of the reversed effects of evil intentions throughout the book.[18][19]

In the end, the diminished Saruman is murdered, his throat cut, and Shippey notes that when he dies his spirit "dissolved into nothing". He identifies Saruman as the best example in the book of "wraithing", a distinctive 20th-century view of evil that he attributes to Tolkien in which individuals are "'eaten up inside' by devotion to some abstraction".[13] Referring to Saruman's demise, Kocher says that he is one example of the consistent theme of nothingness as the fate of evil throughout The Lord of the Rings.[20]

Adaptations[edit]

Saruman has appeared in film, radio, stage and video game adaptations of The Lord of the Rings. BBC Radio produced the first adaptation in 1955, in which Saruman was played by Robert Farquharson, and which has not survived. Tolkien was disappointed by it.[21]

In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which corresponds to The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers, Saruman is voiced by Fraser Kerr. He has only one major scene—his attempt to persuade Gandalf to join him. He appears again briefly before the Battle of Helm's Deep, speaking to his army. The character is dressed in red and is called 'Saruman' and 'Aruman' at different points. Smith and Matthews suggest that the use of 'Aruman' was intended to avoid confusion with 'Sauron'.[22] The 1980 Rankin/Bass TV animated version of The Return of the King begins roughly where Bakshi's film ends but does not include Saruman's character.[23]

BBC Radio's second adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, from 1981, presents Saruman much as in the books. Smith and Matthews report Peter Howell's performance as Saruman as "brilliantly ambiguous ..., drifting from mellifluous to almost bestially savage from moment to moment without either mood seeming to contradict the other".[24]

Saruman is played by Matti Pellonpää in the 1993 television miniseries Hobitit produced and aired by Finnish broadcaster Yle.[25]

Christopher Lee played Saruman in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies.

In Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), Saruman is significantly more active in the first two films than in the corresponding books, and he appears in several scenes that are not depicted in Tolkien's work. He was portrayed by Christopher Lee. In the films, Saruman is depicted presenting himself outright as a servant of Sauron. Smith and Matthews suggest that Saruman's role is built up as a substitute for Sauron—the story's main antagonist—who never appears directly in the book, which Jackson confirms in the commentary to the DVD.[26] They also suggest that having secured veteran British horror actor Christopher Lee to play Saruman, it made sense to make greater use of his star status.[27] Despite this increased role in the first two films, the scenes involving Saruman that were shot for use in the third film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, were not used in the cinematic release, a decision which "shocked" Lee. Jackson reasoned that it would be anticlimactic to show Saruman's fate in the second movie (after the Battle of Helm's Deep) and too retrospective for the third one.[28] The cut scenes end with Saruman falling to his death from the top of Orthanc after being stabbed by Wormtongue and include material transposed from the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire". They are included at the start of the Extended Edition DVD release of the film.[29]

In Jackson's film adaptations of The Hobbit, Lee reprises his role as Saruman the White, even though Saruman does not appear in the book. Saruman, Gandalf, Galadriel, and Elrond appear at a meeting of the White Council in Rivendell, loosely based on material from the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings.[30]

In the 2014 video game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Saruman is voiced by Roger L. Jackson.[31] Saruman appears as a minor villain in Lego Dimensions, in which he allies himself with main antagonist Lord Vortech.[32]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ The volume published as The Silmarillion in 1977 contains four sections in addition to the Quenta Silmarillion. The last of these—Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age—covers Saruman's earlier history, but was written after The Lord of the Rings.
  2. ^ The ordinary Old English form is searu.[1]

References[edit]

Primary[edit]

  1. ^ Tolkien 1954a Book 1 Chapter 2 "The Shadow of the Past".
  2. ^ Tolkien 1937, Chapter 19 "The Last Stage"
  3. ^ a b c Tolkien 1954a Book 2 Chapter 2 "The Council of Elrond"
  4. ^ Tolkien 1954 Book 3 Chapter 4 "Treebeard"
  5. ^ a b Tolkien 1954 Book 3 Chapter 10 "The Voice of Saruman"
  6. ^ Tolkien 1955 Book 6, Chapter 6 "Many Partings"
  7. ^ Tolkien 1955 Book 6 Chapter 7 "Homeward Bound"
  8. ^ a b Tolkien 1955 Book 6 Chapter 8 "The Scouring of the Shire"
  9. ^ Tolkien 1955 Appendix B, "The Third Age".
  10. ^ Carpenter 2006 Letters, #156 to R. Murray, SJ, November 1954: "[of Gandalf] I would venture to say that he was an incarnate 'angel'-strictly an [angelos]: that is, with the other Istari, wizards, 'those who know', an emissary from the Lords of the West, sent to Middle-earth, as the great crisis of Sauron loomed on the horizon."
  11. ^ Tolkien 1977 "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"
  12. ^ Tolkien 1980 Part 3 Chapter 4 "The Hunt for the Ring"
  13. ^ Tolkien 1980 Part 4 Chapter 2 "The Istari"
  14. ^ Carpenter 2006 Letters #163 to W. H. Auden, June 1955.
  15. ^ Tolkien 1988 "Foreword"
  16. ^ Tolkien 1989 Chapter 4. The outline suggests that Saruman is assisted by the "giant" Treebeard, an early and evil iteration of the Ent Treebeard from the finished book.
  17. ^ Tolkien 1989, chapters 14 and 20 Gandalf says of the incident, "You certainly didn't see me, so you must have seen Saruman."
  18. ^ Tolkien 1992, chapter 9 "The Scouring of the Shire" Saruman did not appear in the first draft of the chapter; Christopher Tolkien writes: "It is striking that here, virtually at the end of the Lord of the Rings and in an element that my father had long meditated [that] he did not perceive that it was Saruman who was the real Boss, Sharkey, at Bag End".
  19. ^ Tolkien 1992 Chapter 9 "The Scouring of the Shire"
  20. ^ Carpenter 2006 Letters #154 to Naomi Mitchison, September 1954.
  21. ^ Carpenter 2006 Letters #181 to M. Straight, January 1956.
  22. ^ Tolkien 1954 Book 3 Chapter 4 "Treebeard" The quote is used as an illustration by Shippey, Spacks and Kocher among many others.

Secondary[edit]

  1. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (2002) [1894]. A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (4th ed.). University of Toronto Press. p. 300.
  2. ^ Carpenter 2002 Part 5 Chapter II p. 247.
  3. ^ a b c d J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia 'Saruman' by Jonathan Evans pp. 589–590.
  4. ^ Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2005). The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion. Houghton Mifflin. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-618-64267-0.
  5. ^ Sale, Roger (1968). "15 Tolkien and Frodo Baggins". In Isaacs, Neil (ed.). Tolkien and the Critics; Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings. University of Notre Dame. p. 270. ISBN 0-268-00279-7.
  6. ^ a b Shippey 2005 pp. 135–138 Shippey refers to "Tolkien's Northern 'theory of courage'", which appears in Tolkien's 1936 British Academy lecture.
  7. ^ a b c d Spacks, Patricia Meyer (1968). "6 Power and meaning in The Lord of the Rings". In Isaacs, Neil (ed.). Tolkien and the Critics; Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings. University of Notre Dame. pp. 84–85. ISBN 0-268-00279-7.
  8. ^ Dickerson, Matthew T.; Evans, Jonathan Duane (2006). Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 192 et seq. ISBN 978-0-8131-2418-6.
  9. ^ Holmes, John R. (2020) [2014]. "The Lord of the Rings". In Lee, Stuart D. (ed.). A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien. Wiley. p. 143. ISBN 978-1119656029.
  10. ^ Burns, Marjorie (2007). "Doubles". In Drout, Michael (ed.). J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. pp. 127–128. ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0.
  11. ^ Kocher 1973 Chapter 4 p. 79, Kocher quoting Frodo's speech of The Return of the King Book 6 Chapter 8
  12. ^ Kocher 1973 Chapter 3 "Cosmic Order", p. 51, and Chapter 4 "Sauron and the nature of evil", p. 68.
  13. ^ a b Shippey 2001 Chapter 4 "Saruman and Denethor: technologist and reactionary" pp. 121–128.
  14. ^ Curry, Patrick (2007). "Industrialization". In Drout, Michael (ed.). J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. p. 294. ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0.
  15. ^ Shippey 2005 Chapter 4 'The horses of the Mark' pp. 139–140.
  16. ^ Shippey 2005 Chapter 5 "Interlacements and the Ring" p. 195.
  17. ^ Shippey 2005 Chapter 5 'Interlacements and the Ring' pp. 186–188.
  18. ^ Kocher 1973 Chapter 3 "Cosmic Order", pp. 44–46.
  19. ^ Helms, Randel (1974). Tolkien's World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Chapter 5 'The structure and aesthetic of The Lord of the Rings pp. 92–97. ISBN 0-395-18490-8.
  20. ^ Kocher 1973 Chapter 4 "Sauron and the nature of evil", p. 79.
  21. ^ Smith & Matthews 2004 'Of the beginning of days' pp. 15–16.
  22. ^ Smith & Matthews 2004 "JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" p. 54.
  23. ^ Smith & Matthews 2004 "JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings" pp. 63–70.
  24. ^ Smith & Matthews 2004 "An Unexpected Party", p. 83.
  25. ^ "Hobitit". Video Detective. 29 March 1993. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  26. ^ Jackson, Peter (2004). The Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition (Director and Writers' commentary) (DVD). New Line Cinema. Event occurs at Disc 1 Chapter 12 00:46:43.
  27. ^ Smith & Matthews 2004 'The Return of the King' (2003) p. 177.
  28. ^ "Hey, what happened to Saruman?". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 30 November 2004. Retrieved 23 January 2008.
  29. ^ Boyens, Phillipa; Jackson, Peter; Walsh, Fran (2004). The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King Extended Edition (Director and Writers' commentary) (DVD). New Line Cinema. Event occurs at Disc 1 Chapter 4 00:17:26.
  30. ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (17 December 2012). "Five things changed/expanded from the book for 'The Hobbit' films". CNN. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  31. ^ "Saruman the White". Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  32. ^ The Escapist Staff (13 August 2017). "Save the Multiverse With Our Full LEGO Dimensions Story Levels Guide". The Escapist. Retrieved 27 September 2020.

Sources[edit]

Secondary[edit]

History of composition[edit]

Fiction[edit]

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