Saruman

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Saruman the White
Character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium


Saruman as depicted by John Howe
Other names
See Names and titles below
Titles Istari (Wizard)
Race Ainur
Culture Maiar of Aulë
Date of birth Immortal
Date of death November 3, T.A. 3019[1]
Book(s) The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
The Silmarillion
Unfinished Tales

Saruman the White is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, in which he is a key figure, despite appearing in only a few chapters. He casts himself as a rival of Sauron, the main villain of the novel, but is later revealed to have been serving him through his actions. Much of the action in the second volume of the book, The Two Towers, is driven by his schemes. In the appendices to the book, he is described as the leader of the Istari, angelic beings sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron. The meaning of names was important to Tolkien: Saruman means 'the one of cunning devices'.

In the book, Saruman is one of several ambiguous characters illustrating the corruption of power; his desire for knowledge and order has led to his fall and he does not accept the chance of redemption when it is offered. He serves as an example of technology and modernity being overthrown by the forces of nature. The character appears in almost all adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, having a particularly large part in the first two films of Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003) in which he was played by Christopher Lee.

Contents

[edit] Concept and creation

Saruman first appears in 1954's The Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of the fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. Unlike some of the other characters in the novel, Saruman had not appeared in Tolkien's 1937 children's book, The Hobbit, or in his then-unpublished Quenta Silmarillion and related mythology, which date back to 1917.[2] The Lord of the Rings describes a quest to destroy the One Ring, a powerful and evil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 Middle-earth (Tolkien's term for the world in which his story takes place). Early in the book, the wizard Gandalf breaks an arrangement to meet the hobbit Frodo Baggins, who bears the Ring lost by Sauron thousands of years earlier.

When he started writing The Lord of the Rings in late 1937, Tolkien had very little idea of the story ahead and Saruman's character did not emerge until several years later. Tolkien later wrote of this early phase: "Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as concerned as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear".[3] Tolkien tended to write in waves, proceeding so far before returning to rewrite, sometimes significantly, from the start. He had in this fashion produced a fairly complete version of the first half of The Fellowship of the Ring before Saruman appeared. A rough narrative outline dated August 1940, intended to account for Gandalf's absence, 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.[4]

[edit] Appearances

[edit] The Lord of the Rings

"we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means."
Saruman proposes treachery to Gandalf: Shippey writes that he "talks like a politician".[5]
—The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II Chapter I pp. 338–339

Early in the The Fellowship of the Ring, the wizard Gandalf notes Saruman's great knowledge of the magic rings created by Sauron and by the Elven-smiths and describes him as "the chief of my order".[6] After 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, who proposed that they ally themselves with Sauron, whose victory Saruman believed inevitable. When Gandalf refused, Saruman imprisoned him in the tower of Orthanc at Isengard, hoping to learn from him the location of the Ring. Gandalf observed that Saruman was creating his own army of orcs and wolves, "in rivalry of Sauron, and not in his service yet". [7]

At the start of The Two Towers orcs from Saruman's army attack Frodo and his companions, searching for the Ring.[8] Having betrayed Sauron by attempting unsuccessfully to seize the Ring for himself, Saruman's ruin is completed when his army is defeated by the Rohirrim and Isengard destroyed by the Ents.[9] Saruman himself is not directly involved, and only appears again in chapter X, The Voice of Saruman, trapped in Orthanc. He fails in his attempt to make peace with the Rohirrim and with Gandalf, and rejects Gandalf's conditional offer to let him go free. Gandalf casts him from the White Council and the order of the wizards, and breaks Saruman's staff. [10]

Saruman's final appearance is at the end of The Return of the King, after Sauron's defeat. He persuades the Ents to release him from Orthanc, and travels on foot as a beggar to the Shire, the Hobbits' homeland, which his agents are already forcing through a destructive process of modernization. The Hobbits, under the leadership of Frodo and his companions, rebel and defeat the intruders. Saruman is set free, even after attempting to kill Frodo, but is murdered by his own much-abused servant Gríma Wormtongue.[11]

[edit] Other books

Consistent general accounts of Saruman's earlier history (written in the mid-1950s) appear in Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings (1955) and in the posthumously published The Silmarillion (1977) and Unfinished Tales (1980). Saruman, like Gandalf, was one of five 'wizards', known as the Istari, who arrived in Middle-earth 2000 years before the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. They are Maiar, envoys of the godlike Valar who are sent to challenge Sauron by inspiring the people of Middle-earth rather than by direct conflict. Tolkien regarded them as being somewhat like angels.[12] Saruman initially travelled in the east; he was later appointed head of the White Council and eventually settled at Gondor's stronghold of Isengard. His researches led him to believe that Sauron's One Ring might be found in the river Anduin. About 50 years before the start of The Lord of the Rings he helped the White Council drive Sauron from Dol Guldur to facilitate his own search for the Ring.[13]

Unfinished Tales also gives various drafts not included in The Lord of the Rings describing Saruman's attempts to frustrate Sauron's 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 became involved with the Shire and of how his jealousy of Gandalf grew.[14] Another brief account describes how the five Istari were originally chosen by the Valar for their mission.[15]

[edit] Characteristics

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 Voice of Saruman': Evans calls the characterization of Saruman in this chapter a "tour de force"
—The Two Towers Book III Chapter X p.222

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." His hair is elsewhere described as having been black when he first arrived in Middle-earth. He is said to have originally worn white robes, and is referred to as 'Saruman the White', but on his first entry in The Lord of the Rings 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'.[16][17]

The power of Saruman's voice is noted throughout the book. Jonathan Evans has called the characterization of Saruman in the chapter The Voice of Saruman a "tour de force",[18] although Roger Sale says that in it "Tolkien valiantly tried to do something worth doing which he simply cannot bring off."[19] Tom Shippey has said 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'?"[5] Shippey contrasts this modern speech pattern with the archaic stoicism and directness that Tolkien employs for other characters such as the Dwarven King Dain, which Shippey believes represent Tolkien's view of heroism in the mould of Beowulf.[5]

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 choose to turn from it.[20] Evans has compared the character of Saruman to that of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost in his use of rhetoric and in this final refusal of redemption, "conquered by pride and hatred."[18]

[edit] Involvement in themes

Several critics have noted that Saruman's actions, although evil in intent, in fact lead to his own downfall and that of Sauron: his orcs helped split the Fellowship at Parth Galen, and in carrying off two of the hobbits, Merry and Pippin, set off a chain of incidents involving Saruman, his orcs and his spy Gríma Wormtongue that lead to his defeat. 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. Paul Kocher and Randell Helms see this as part of a pattern of providential events and of the reversed effects of evil intentions throughout the book,[21] while Shippey believes it demonstrates the value of persistence in the face of despair, even if a way out cannot be seen.[22]

Tolkien said that his writing on Middle-earth was mainly concerned with "Fall, Mortality and the Machine".[23] Saruman exemplifies two of those themes.

Evil in The Lord of the Rings tends to be associated with machinery, whereas good is 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. This opposition has been called simplistic by Edmund Wilson, although Patricia Meyer Spacks says that it is "redeemed by the philosophic complexity of its context".[24] Patrick Curry has identified Tolkien as "hostile to industrialism", linking this to 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 imperialism.[25] Shippey notes Saruman's distinctively modern association with Communism in the way the Shire is run under his control: goods are taken "for fair distribution" and since they are mainly never seen again, this is an unusually modern piece of hypocrisy in the way evil presents itself in Middle-earth.[26]

"…about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a cold sigh dissolved into nothing […] long years of death were suddenly revealed in [the body], and it shrank, and the shrivelled face became rags of skin upon a hideous skull."
Saruman's death: Shippey suggests that Saruman represents a character 'eaten up inside' by his desires[27]
—The Return of the King, Book VI Chapter VIII p.363

A frequent criticism of The Lord of the Rings is that all of its characters are either good or bad, with no shades of grey, a point to which Tolkien responded by proposing Saruman, along with Denethor and Boromir, as examples of characters with more nuanced loyalties. Colin Manlove concedes this point in a footnote to his generally critical essay on the book, although he adds that these are all secondary characters, and all are killed before the story ends.[28] 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.[29] According to Jonathan Evans and Spacks, Saruman succumbs to the lust for power,[18][20] while Shippey identifies Saruman's devotion to goals of knowledge, organization and control as his weakness.[27] Tolkien wrote that the Istari's chief temptation (and that to which Saruman fell) was impatience, leading to a desire to force others to do good, and then to a simple desire for power.[30] Marjorie Burns notes a pattern of "doubles" in The Lord of the Rings. Saruman is a lesser double of his master or rival Sauron, but he also doubles for Gandalf, who at one point says that he has become "Saruman as he should have been". Gandalf, however, resisted the temptation of the Ring.[31]

Kocher suggests that nothingness is a theme used consistently throughout The Lord of the Rings for the fate of evil.[32] Like Kocher, Shippey notes that when Saruman dies his spirit "dissolved into nothing". Shippey identifies Saruman as the best example in the book of 'wraithing', a distinctive twentieth-century view of evil that he attributes to Tolkien in which individuals are "'eaten up inside' by devotion to some abstraction".[27]

[edit] Names

Shippey has noted that Saruman, 'man of skill', is in the Mercian dialect of Anglo-Saxon used by Tolkien to represent the Language of Rohan in the novel.[33] The Anglo-Saxon root word searu means "clever", "skillful" or "ingenious" and has associations with both technology and treachery that are fitting for Tolkien's portrayal of Saruman. Saruman's elvish name is Curunír, which has the same meaning. Another name, Sharkey, is used by Saruman's henchmen for their diminished leader towards the end of The Return of the King and is said to be derived from an orkish term meaning "old man".[18] The name is used in the early drafts, but did not initially refer to Saruman.[34]

[edit] Adaptations

Saruman of Many Colours in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings
Christopher Lee as Saruman in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy

Saruman has appeared in film, audio and stage adaptations of The Lord of the Rings. BBC Radio produced the first adaptation in 1956, which has not survived. Tolkien was apparently disappointed by it.[35]

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 called 'Saruman' and 'Aruman' at different points. Smith and Matthews suggest that the use of 'Aruman' was intended to avoid confusion with 'Sauron'.[36] The character wears red robes, rather than the white or many-coloured ones Tolkien describes. 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.[37]

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."[38]

In Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), Saruman is significantly more active in the first two films than in their equivalent books, and he appears in several scenes that are not depicted in the novel. Unlike the novel, Saruman is depicted 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 primary antagonist—who never appears directly in the book. Jackson confirms this view in the commentary to the DVD.[39] 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.[40] 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 it to be in the third one.[41] The cut scenes, which are based on parts of the chapters The Voice of Saruman and The Scouring of the Shire, end with Saruman falling to his death from the top of Orthanc after being stabbed by Wormtongue and are included at the start of the Extended Edition DVD release of the film.

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[edit] Notes

  1. ^ In Tolkien's legendarium, the physical death of the body of a Maia does not necessarily end that spirit's existence (cf. Sauron and Gandalf). However, Tolkien wrote no accounts of Saruman's existence after his death, described at the end of the The Lord of the Rings.
  2. ^ The volume published as The Silmarillion in 1977 contains four books 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.
  3. ^ Letters no.163 p.217
  4. ^ The Treason of Isengard Chapter IV pp.70–71 The outline suggests that Saruman is assisted by the 'giant' Treebeard, an early and evil iteration of the Ent Treebeard from the finished book.
  5. ^ a b c The Road to Middle-earth Chapter IV 'The Council of Elrond' pp.135–138 Shippey refers to "Tolkien's Northern 'theory of courage'", which appears in Tolkien's 1936 British Academy lecture.
  6. ^ The Fellowship of the Ring Book I Chapter II p.63
  7. ^ The Fellowship of the Ring Book II Chapter II pp.338-347
  8. ^ The Two Towers Book III Chapter I pp.6-9
  9. ^ The Two Towers Book III Chapters VII and IX pp.173-175 & 204-210
  10. ^ The Two Towers Book III Chapter X pp.222-230.
  11. ^ The Return of the King, Book VI, Chapters VI, VII, and VIII, pp. 311-312, 315-317 and 360-363.
  12. ^ Letters, No.156, p.202: "[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."
  13. ^ The Silmarillion 'Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age' pp.361–365
  14. ^ Unfinished Tales Chapter IV 'The Hunt for the Ring' pp.436–459
  15. ^ Unfinished Tales Part 4 Chapter II 'The Istari' pp.508–509
  16. ^ The Fellowship of the Ring Book II Chapter II pp.338–339
  17. ^ The Two Towers Book III Chapter X p.222
  18. ^ a b c d J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia pp.589—590 Saruman by Jonathan Evans.
  19. ^ Tolkien and the critics 15 'Tolkien and Frodo Baggins' by Roger Sale p.270
  20. ^ a b Tolkien and the critics 6 'Power and meaning in The Lord of the Rings' p.85
  21. ^ Master of Middle-earth Chapter III Cosmic Order pp.44–46 and Tolkien's World Chapter V 'The structure and aesthetic of The Lord of the Rings pp.92–97
  22. ^ The Road to Middle-earth Chapter 5 'Interlacements and the Ring' pp.186–188
  23. ^ The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia (2007) The Lord of the Rings - Themes pp.388–389
  24. ^ Tolkien and the critics 6 'Power and meaning in The Lord of the Rings' p.85
  25. ^ The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia (2007) Industrialization by Patrick Curry p.294
  26. ^ The Road to Middle-Earth Chapter 5 'Interlacements and the Ring' p.195
  27. ^ a b c Author of the Century Chapter IV 'Saruman and Denethor: technologist and reactionary' pp.121–128
  28. ^ Manlove (Modern Fantasy p.195) and Roberts (Essays in Criticism 1956: Adventure in English p.455) are among those to make the criticism; Manlove's concession is in footnote 47 to his essay. Tolkien's response is in Letters no.154 p.197.
  29. ^ Master of Middle-Earth Chapter III Cosmic Order p.51 & Chapter IV Sauron and the nature of evil p.68
  30. ^ Letters no.181 p.237
  31. ^ J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia pp.127—128 Doubles by Marjorie Burns.
  32. ^ Master of Middle-Earth Chapter IV Sauron and the nature of evil p.79
  33. ^ The Road to Middle-earth Chapter 4 'The horses of the Mark' pp.139–140
  34. ^ Sauron Defeated Chapter IX 'The Scouring of the Shire' p.93 Saruman did not appear in the first draft of the chapter 'The Scouring of the Shire'. 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, among other things,] he did not perceive that it was Saruman who was the real Boss, Sharkey, at Bag End [...]"
  35. ^ The films, the books, the radio series 'Of the beginning of days' pp.15-16
  36. ^ The films, the books, the radio series 'JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings' p.54
  37. ^ The films, the books, the radio series 'JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings' pp.63–70
  38. ^ The films, the books, the radio series 'An Unexpected Party' p.83
  39. ^ Jackson, Peter.. The Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring (Director and Writers' commentary). [DVD]. New Line Cinema. 
  40. ^ The films, the books, the radio series 'The Return of the King' (2003) p. 177
  41. ^ Hey, what happened to Saruman? CNN Retrieved 23 January 2008

Note: For ease of reference, citations of Letters include the number of the letter before the page number. Page numbers are for the editions given below, and will differ from other editions.

[edit] References

Criticism
  • Drout, Michael (ed.) (2007). J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415969420. 
  • Kocher, Paul (1973). Master of Middle-Earth. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0500010951. 
  • Helms, Randel (1974). Tolkien's World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0395184908. 
  • Isaacs, Neil (ed.) (1968). Tolkien and the Critics; Essays on J. R. R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings,. City: Univ of Notre Dame Pr. ISBN 0268002797. 
  • Manlove, Colin (1978). Modern Fantasy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521293863. 
  • Shippey, Prof. Tom (1982, 2005). The Road to Middle-Earth. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-261-10275-3. 
  • Shippey, Prof. Tom (2000). J.R.R. Tolkien : Author of the century. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-261-10401-2. 
  • Smith, Jim; Matthews, J Clive (2004). The Lord of the Rings : the films, the books, the radio series. Virgin books. ISBN 0-7535-0874-5. 
History of composition
  • Tolkien, Christopher (1988). The Return of the Shadow. Unwin Hyman. ISBN 0-04-440669-X. 
  • Tolkien, Christopher (1989, 2002). The Treason of Isengard. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-261-10220-6. 
  • Tolkien, Christopher (1993, 2002). Sauron Defeated. City: Harpercollins Pub Ltd. ISBN 0261103059. 
Biographical
  • Carpenter, Humphrey (ed.) (1981, 2006). The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-261-10265-6. 
Fiction
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. (1937, 1986). The Hobbit. Unwin Paperbacks. ISBN 0-04-823188-6. 
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. (1954, 1999). The Fellowship of the Ring. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-261-10235-4. 
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. (1954, 1999). The Two Towers. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-261-10236-2. 
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. (1955, 1999). The Return of the King. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-261-10237-0. 
  • Tolkien, J.R.R (1977, 1983). The Silmarillion. London: Unwin Paperbacks. ISBN 0048232300. 
  • Tolkien, J.R.R. (1980, 1998). Unfinished Tales. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-261-10362-8. 

[edit] External links

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Ainulindalë (Music of the Ainur) · Valaquenta (Tale of the Valar)
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The Enemy
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