"Leave Sauron to me."

These are the last words spoken by Saruman the White (Sir Christopher Lee) in The Hobbit: The Boxing of the Five Armies . He and the other members of the White Council have expelled Sauron from his fortress of Dol Guldur in Mirkwood; Saruman's words are a promise to finish off what's left of the Nighttime Lord's spirit. The next time we see him in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Band (which was actually the first time, only y'all know how prequels are), Saruman is in Sauron's service, so far corrupted that he imprisons Gandalf, works for the devastation of Rohan, and breeds a foul army of Uruk-hai to brand war and pursue the Ane Ring. How could the chief of the Istari (wizards) fall so low?

The films never offering an caption, and J.R.R Tolkien never wrote down a definite date or cause for Saruman's corruption. But for the curious, we offer the facts that Tolkien did leave the states.

Christopher-Lee-LOTR
Image Via New Line Picture palace

Saruman, similar all the v wizards of Middle-earth, was a Maia, an angelic spirit of the aforementioned order of Sauron, sent past the Valar (analogous to archangels) to offer inspiration and counsel to the Gratis Peoples who resisted evil in the Third Age. They were to be clothed in the bodies of Men avant-garde in age but possessed of corking physical and mental ability. So embodied, they would lose a great deal of their natural power; they were not meant to practise force nor to coerce anyone to act. They would as well exist field of study to weariness, hunger, injury, and the risk of death. Possessed of free will, they could also exist tempted away from their task.

In Unfinished Tales , a collection of essays and story fragments Tolkien left behind, the start Maia recruited for this chore was Curumo. He was attached in service to the Vala Aulë, the Smith, creator of the Dwarves and the Vala whom Sauron served before his own corruption. Curumo volunteered for the responsibility, merely only reluctantly accepted some of its trappings. For example, he was bidden to bring with him Aiwendil (after Radagast the Dark-brown). And when the Maia Olórin – after Gandalf the Greyness – accustomed appointment every bit the 3rd emissary, it was remarked that he would in some fashion not exist the third, a prophecy Curumo remembered.

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Paradigm via New Line Movie house

He was the first of the Istari to arrive in Middle-earth, clad in white robes with raven hair and beard that faded to white through the centuries. He became known equally Curunír to the Elves and Saruman to Men. For over a g years, he and the Blue Wizards sojourned in the East, simply he returned alone only equally Sauron'due south power in Dol Guldur began to grow. Saruman was, at that time, devoted to his task. In good organized religion he offered to have upward residence in the belfry of Orthanc in Isengard and to shore upwards its defenses, an organisation that pleased the Rex of Rohan and the Steward of Gondor both. Curunír ways "Man of Skill" in the Elven Sindarin tongue, and Saruman became a chief of crafts, of "metal and wheels" as Treebeard would afterwards put it, and of the lore behind the making of Rings of Power. As principal of the Wizards, he was the most powerful amid them, and he was elected the caput of the White Quango formed of wizards and Elves counted among the Wise who opposed Sauron.

Nevertheless even at this stage, when he still served the greater good, Saruman began falling to his vices. His reluctance to bring Aiwendil with him grew into an utter antipathy for Radagast, whom he dismissed every bit a fool. He also came to envy Gandalf. The remarks made of Olórin by the Valar lingered with him, as did the Elf Círdan'due south gift of the Ring of Burn to Gandalf and Galadriel's favoring of Gandalf for the head of the White Quango. This jealousy could manifest in rather comic ways; Unfinished Tales recounts how Saruman scorned Gandalf'south affection for hobbits and publicly disapproved of his smoking piping-weed, but so took up the practice in surreptitious imitation.

Saruman orb
Image via New Line Cinema

Simply Saruman'due south envy led him to consider Gandalf a rival to be feared, someone who must exist scheming against Saruman's designs. And every bit he probed the craft of ring-making, Saruman besides came to envy Sauron himself. Tolkien wrote in his private letters that the greatest temptation facing the Istari was impatience: that despite their orders, their desire to practice expert would pb to a want to force good upon Middle-earth, and from there, to desire that force for its own sake. Such a power was to be institute in the One Ring of Sauron. Saruman's study of Rings of Power included the terminal known location of the One Ring, and he went so far equally to hinder the White Council'due south plans to expel Sauron from Dol Guldur in the hope that the Ring might show itself if its master was free to search for it, giving Saruman an opportunity to claim it for his own.

This footstep toward evil takes identify well before the events of The Hobbit , a volume Saruman never appears in except for the vague mention of a council of "white wizards" that assembled to expel the Necromancer (Sauron) from Mirkwood; Saruman somewhen relented in his opposition to a strike. The Hobbit films fudge the timeline so that he remains truthful to his chore and the faithful head of the Council. Lee'southward Saruman in the prequel trilogy is pompous at times, nonetheless contemptuous of Radagast and a vocalization of dissent confronting "meddling" in Mirkwood, simply he has no ulterior motives beyond overconfidence. Many of the adjustments made to the Necromancer's story in The Hobbit films don't brand a lot of sense if you terminate and think about them (and merely aren't very good in their own right) just showing audiences Saruman at his all-time is amid the few that works, and one I enjoyed seeing.

Later Sauron'south expulsion from Dol Guldur, Saruman pacified his unsuspecting allies with claims that the One Ring is forever lost at the bottom of the sea, while continuing his ain efforts to find it. He began to covet valuable treasures and goods inside Orthanc and ceased his friendship with the Ents. His descent had been gradual, simply his last downfall came when he presumed in his airs to use the palant ír of Orthanc. The palant íri were the seven "Seeing Stones" of Gondor used to communicate with 1 some other and to gaze afar in space and time. With his great will, Saruman could cast the gaze of the stone wherever he wished and gained much useful knowledge. Only when he turned the stone toward Bard-dûr, master fortress of Sauron, he was ensnared by the Dark Lord – who possessed i of the palantíri himself.

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Image via New Line Cinema

In The Lord of the Rings films, this connectedness is presented as i of obedient servitude on Saruman's part. He is completely resigned to Sauron's victory, desires it, and loyally works to bring it nigh. In the books, however, Saruman was treacherous even to his new master. His offer to Gandalf was that they might overtake Sauron and rule in his identify, and his Men and Uruk-hai were sent out to bring the Ring to Isengard. He created his ain band and restyled himself "Saruman of Many Colors." When his use of the palantír is discovered, Gandalf muses that Saruman was likely more cowed than he knew or would admit, more of his secret thought known to the Enemy than he realized. Gandalf'due south escape forced Saruman'south mitt; had he whatsoever hope of setting himself to a higher place Sauron, he needed to strike first and claim the Ring.

It all came to naught. The Ring passed beyond his reach, and his schemes for Rohan were defeated. Saruman'southward final fate matches across book and movie in the fine detail, merely in radically dissimilar contexts. Lee'south Saruman attempts to barter for his freedom by offer Gandalf information when he is killed by his abused retainer Grima Wormtongue. In the novel, Saruman, reduced to a spiteful beggar nearly bereft of power, nevertheless enchanted his jailers to release him, whereupon he hurried to the Shire to leave it in ruin for the returning hobbit heroes. While he wreaked fell and senseless damage upon their home, he was foiled in this as well, and there meets his end at Grima'south hands. As an immortal spirit, his "decease" was not every bit it would be for hobbits or Men, and had he stayed true to his task, he would have returned to the Westward from whence he came. But for his sins, he was denied this. "And his spirit went wither-soever it was doomed to become," Tolkien wrote in Unfinished Tales, "and to Center-earth, whether naked or embodied, came never dorsum."

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William Fischer (81 Articles Published)

William Fischer is a author, artist, and filmmaker from Nebraska, currently studying animation in Republic of ireland while writing for Collider. His art and short stories have appeared in "Intergalactic Medicine Show," "Bards and Sages Quarterly," and "Another Realm" eastward-zine. Outside the arts, William enjoys cooking, baking, and fencing (Olympic saber and rapier).

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