Saruman

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Saruman the White
Maia

Saruman, also called Saruman the White, later Saruman of Many Colours, is a fictional character of

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

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

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings describes a quest to destroy 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

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

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,

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

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

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

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.

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

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

"[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".

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

Saruman has been identified by critics as demonstrating the fall of an originally good character and has distinctively modern connections with technology.

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]

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,

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

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

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

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

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

  1. 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

Primary

  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. 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 Gandalf says of the incident, "You certainly didn't see me, so you must have seen Saruman."
  18. ^ Tolkien 1992 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

  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. ^
    J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia
    'Saruman' by Jonathan Evans pp. 589–590.
  4. ISBN 978-0-618-64267-0
    .
  5. ISBN 0-268-00279-7
    .
  6. ^
    Tolkien's 1936 British Academy lecture
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 0-268-00279-7
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-8131-2418-6
    .
  9. ISBN 978-1119656029
    .
  10. 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. 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. 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

Secondary

History of composition

Fiction
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