Saruman

Saruman (1000 T.A.–3019 T.A in Middle-earth) is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's universe, Middle-earth.

Saruman the White (Curunír Lán in Sindarin) was the first of his order of Wizards (or Istari) who came to 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.

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 hooded, wearing a white cloak, a habit he later changed into a cloak that changed colours as he moved.

He was not actually a Man, or even an Elf (as Men often suspected), but a Maia clothed in flesh (see Origins below)—an Istar. As such, he was immortal and extremely powerful, yet had limits on 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 particular interest to him, especially when relating to power—such as the Rings of Power and the far seeing palantíri. He was also deeply learned in ancient lore regarding powerful kingdoms such as Númenor, Gondor and 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. Depending on the willpower 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 inseparable from explicit magic. An instance of this includes the "blasting fire" employed by his Uruk-hai army in the Battle of the Hornburg, which was probably some kind of explosive. Machinery and engines characterized both his fortified Isengard and his altered Shire. In this, he probably sought to emulate Sauron.

His science also extended to biological areas. He crossbred Men and Orcs, creating both 'Men' with orc-like vileness and treachery and 'Orcs' with human size and cunning. His Uruk-hai, Orcs unafraid of daylight, are often speculated to have been examples of the latter. Likewise, his human spies in Bree were said to have Orc blood. He also employed birds in his service, although this might be attributed to Radagast the Brown, ordering them to report to Orthanc, Saruman's stronghold.

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 realised 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. Being regarded as more powerful than Gandalf before Gandalf's "rebirth", it is a common assumption he would also wield explicit magic similar to Gandalf, including using artificial light, locking spells, or creating fire.

Saruman likely was true to his mission in the beginning, and actually believed in working to stop Sauron, but his pride and later arrogance (as well as his jealousy towards Gandalf) 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 realised this he only became more bitter, blaming Gandalf more than anyone else for his own downfall.

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 and Anglo-Saxon forms. In this case, Tolkien used the Anglo-Saxon root word searu which means "skill" or "cunning". 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.

Biography

Origins

In Valinor, the land of the angelic Valar a council was called by Manwë, leader of the Valar, shortly after the defeat of Sauron by the Last Alliance. It was decided to send five emissaries to Middle-earth. These should be "mighty, peers of Sauron, yet forgo might, and clothe themselves in flesh." One of those who went was Curumo (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.

Before the War of the Ring

Saruman was one of the Istari who volunteered to go to Middle-earth, whereas the last one, Olórin (Gandalf) was commanded by Manwë to go. Varda said of Gandalf, who went as the third Istar that he was "not the third". Saruman's jealousy of Gandalf likely began here.

Saruman was also commanded to take Radagast with him, against his will. This may have contributed to his contempt for him. They travelled to Middle-earth with two other Istari, Alatar and Pallando, known as the Blue Wizards.

The five wizards arrived at the Grey Havens in the west of Eriador around the year 1000 of the Third Age. Only the keeper of the havens, Círdan, knew Saruman's identity and origin. Saruman and the two Blue Wizards went into the East of Middle-earth. 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 at approximately year 2463 of the Third Age, Saruman was appointed its leader. Here, Galadriel wanted Gandalf in this position. At this point Saruman had begun to sense the resurgence of Sauron and to envy and desire his power, and especially his One Ring. This was also the same year that the One Ring was found by the halfling Sméagol, who would later be called Gollum.

In the 2759 TA Saruman settled in Isengard with the permission of the Steward of Gondor, Beren. The stronghold was by then then abandoned by Gondor. There he became important in the informal alliance defending the west of Middle-earth. In the tower of Isengard, Orthanc, he also found one of the remaining palantíri, which he probably used benevolently to begin with.

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. Gandalf would later remark that it was at this council-meeting that he first began to suspect that Saruman desired to possess the One Ring. Saruman's real intention was to permit Sauron to building up his strength, so that the One Ring would reveal itself. He later found that Sauron had more knowledge of the possible location of the One Ring than he expected, and in 2941 TA he finally agreed to attack Dol Guldur.

Around this time Saruman also created his own Ring. It was of lesser power, and its purpose wasn't known.

When Sauron abandoned Dol Guldur he took up his reign in Mordor he declared himself openly. He established contact with Saruman through the palantír captured from Minas Ithil, now Minas Morgul. Saruman succumbed to Sauron's will and became in secret a reluctant subject of Mordor.

War of the Ring

When Gandalf presented Saruman with the discovery and the location of the One Ring, Saruman revealed his desire for it, and his alliance with Sauron. When Gandalf refused to join with him, he held him captive in Isengard. Gandalf later escaped and made Saruman's treachery known to the rest of the White Council.

Saruman also betrayed Sauron by lying to the Nazgûl, who were now searching for Baggins from the Shire, who had found the One Ring years before. 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 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.

His plans failed and he suffered a series of setbacks. Saruman's Shire network didn't capture Frodo Baggins, Gandalf rallied Rohan to victory, Eomer stopped his only partially successful raiding party and control of Isengard was lost to the Ents. Confined to Orthanc and utterly defeated, Saruman made one final attempt to turn Théoden and Gandalf which not only failed but cost him his staff and his palantír.

Left out of the final stages of the War of the Ring, he eventually managed to convince the Ents who kept him captive into letting him leave Isengard. He then went to the Shire, which his agents lead by Lotho Sackville-Baggins 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 Gríma Wormtongue on November 3, T.A. 3019, after the Battle of Bywater.

Saruman, being a Maia, did not truly die. His spirit separated from his body much like Sauron's after the Downfall of Númenor. As a discorporated spirit, he should have been called to Mandos, but the tale implies that he was barred from returning. Tolkien indicated that his spirit was left naked, powerless and wandering in Middle-earth.

Portrayal in adaptations

In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film of The Lord of the Rings, Fraser Kerr provided the voice of Saruman. At one point in that film's development, film executives thought that the names "Saruman" and "Sauron" were too similar, and would confuse the audience, and decided that Saruman should be renamed "Aruman". This decision was eventually reversed, but some references to "Aruman" remained in the finished film. The dialogue of Bakshi's film retained Saruman's adoption of the title "Saruman of Many Colours", and the character was dressed in red.

Peter Howell played Saruman in BBC Radio's 1981 serialization of The Lord of the Rings. In Peter Jackson's film trilogy, Saruman was played by Christopher Lee. In the films, Saruman is portrayed as acting as Sauron's servant, downplaying the idea that Saruman was independently seeking the Ring. Jackson's films do not include the title "Saruman of Many Colours", referring to him only as "Saruman the White". The film trilogy also did not include the Scouring of the Shire, but the extended DVD version does depict Saruman being killed by Gríma Wormtongue in Isengard, after his encounter with Gandalf and Théoden. In the film, Gríma stabs Saruman in the back, causing him to fall on a spiked wheel below the tower of Orthanc. In the original version the fate of Saruman is never shown after Isengard is destroyed. All that was revealed was that he was locked in Orthanc by Treebeard and that his powers have disappeared, leaving confusion by movie goers as to what happens to him. Jackson's reasoning was that it would be anti-climatic to show Saruman's fate in the second movie (after the Battle of Helm's Deep) and too retrospective for it to be in the third one.^*

External links

Christopher Lee Talks Lord of the Rings
Saruman at the Encyclopedia of Arda.
Saruman at The One Ring.net.
Saruman at The Thain's Book.

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