The Lord Of The Rings Saruman
Mazie Wingeier
SarumanBiographical informationOther namesCurunir, Curumo, Saruman the White, Saruman of Many Colours, Saruman the Wise, The White Wizard, Sharkey, Sauron's puppet (film)TitlesLord of Isengard, Head of the White Council, The White Wizard, "The Boss" (by the ruffians)Death3 November, 3019 (book); March 3 3019 (film)WeaponWizard Staff, Dagger, Dark Sorcery, Powers of Sauron (film)RealmsIsengard, ShirePhysical descriptionRaceAinurGenderMaleHairWhiteEyesBlackCultureWizardsPeter Jackson's films or other mediaActorSir Christopher Lee
Saruman (Quenya; IPA: ['saruman] - "Man Of Skill"), also known as Saruman the White and later as Saruman of Many Colors or "Sharkey" was an Istar (wizard), who lived in Middle-earth during the Third Age. Originally, he was the head of the wizards and of the White Council that opposed Sauron. However, he disullisioned with the Valar and sought to increase his own power. Consumed by his desires and enslaved by the will of Sauron, Saruman swore fealty to evil, wanting to rule over Middle-earth together with his lord.
Saruman was originally a Maia of Aul the Smith - just as Sauron had once been - named Curumo, meaning "skillful one", or Curunr by the elves in Sindarin. In Valinor, the land of the Valar, a council was called by Manw, leader of the Valar, shortly after Sauron's defeat by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Though Sauron was overthrown, it would later turn out that he had not been effectively vanquished and his shadow began to fall upon Middle-earth a second time. 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," as they were intended to help Men and Elves unite against Sauron, but the wizards were forbidden from matching the Dark Lord in power and fear.
The five wizards arrived at the Grey Havens in the west of Eriador around the year 1000. Only the keeper of the havens, Crdan the Shipwright, knew Saruman's identity and origin. Saruman would later discover that Crdan had given Narya, the Red Ring, to Gandalf upon their first landing in Middle-earth. Even though Saruman was immediately considered the head of the order while Gandalf was not, Crdan had divined Gandalf as the wisest and greatest of the wizards. Saruman's jealousy of Gandalf grew from these events, perhaps because he feared that he would eventually supplant him as chief of wizards.
When the White Council was formed at approximately year 2463 of the Third Age in order to counter Sauron, Saruman was appointed its leader, though Galadriel wanted Gandalf in this position. Saruman refused to step down due to his pride, while Gandalf had declined. At this point Saruman had begun to sense the resurgence of Sauron and to envy and desire his power, and especially the One Ring. This was also the same year that the One Ring was taken by the Halfling Smagol (later called Gollum), who disappeared with it into the Misty Mountains for hundreds of years. It was during the meetings of the Council that Saruman first noted Gandalf's interest in Hobbits and The Shire, and believing that all his deeds related to some as yet undisclosed plan of his for self-enhancement, Saruman himself began keeping a greater watch on Gandalf and paid brigands to act as spies in the Shire. At first, he himself visited it secretly but stopped when he realized that its inhabitants had noticed him. Amongst the purposes of his visits was to procure some of the halflings' Pipe-weed, since in secret imitation of Gandalf he had begun to smoke.
In the year TA 2759, Saruman settled in Isengard with the permission of the Steward of Gondor, Beren, although he settled only as Warden of the Tower and representative of the Steward (the stronghold had by then been 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 Palantri.
Gandalf noted at that meeting that Saruman may have an interest in either joining with Sauron or gaining the One Ring for himself, for he seemed hesitant to attack the Enemy while he was recovering his strength. Following Gandalf's capture, Saruman agreed to launch an attack against Dol Guldur, resulting in the Dark Lord being driven out by Galadriel's devices. Ten years after Sauron abandoned Dol Guldur, he returned to Mordor and declared himself openly. Learning of this from Crebain spies he had tamed through teachings from Radagast the Brown, Saruman used the Palantr to establish contact with the Dark Lord, swearing fealty. Enslaved by the will of Sauron and by his own lust for power, the White Wizard became a servant of the Enemy.
When Gandalf presented Saruman with the discovery and the location of the One Ring, Saruman revealed himself as a servant of Sauron. He had also shed the title of Saruman the White; Saruman no longer had any loyalty to the White Council, or the Ring-bearer. He tried unsuccessfully to gain gain Gandalf's allegiance, giving the choice of either serving Sauron or aiding him in gaining the One Ring for himself.. When Gandalf refused to join with either of them, Saruman held him captive in Isengard, hoping to break him and learn where the Ring was kept. Gandalf later escaped with help from Gwaihir the Windlord, one of Middle-earth's Great Eagles, and made Saruman's treachery known to the rest of the White Council.
Saruman soon realized his difficult position as a traitor to the Free Peoples of Middle-earth and an unfaithful servant to the Dark Lord Sauron. Believing that he would find no pity from either quarter (a false assumption, since 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 known, but they included sending spies to waylay Frodo Baggins on his flight from the Shire (Bill Ferny in Bree), attacking Rohan outright with Uruk-hai, and dispatching raiding parties of Orcs on likely routes the Fellowship of the Ring might take through Rohan to go towards Gondor. One of those parties, aided by Orcs from Moria and Mordor, captured Pippin and Merry and shot Boromir "with many black-feathered arrows" when he tried to defend the Hobbits. This led Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli on a search which eventually led to the Battle of Helms Deep as well as the Destruction of Isengard by the Ents under Treebeard, leading to the end of Saruman's reign of power in the north.
Following the Ents' destruction of Isengard, Saruman found himself confined to Orthanc and his servants scattered or killed. After the arrival of Thoden, Gandalf, Aragorn, and the remaining members of the Fellowship, Saruman made one final unsuccessful attempt to turn Thoden and Gandalf over to evil. The latter then offered Saruman a chance for redemption, which involved surrendering his staff and the Keys of Orthancas a pledge. Saruman had a moment of doubt but in the end pride, anger, and hate won over and he refused the chance of redemption.
Gandalf, who had returned from death to supplant Saruman, as the White and the head of the Wizard, expelled Saruman from the order and broke his staff. Saruman also lost the Palantr of Orthanc when Grma Wormtongue threw it off a balcony of Orthanc, undecided about which he hated more, Saruman or Gandalf, and hitting neither.
Left out of the final stages of the War of the Ring, Saruman eventually managed to persuade the Ents who kept him captive into letting him leave Isengard after he met the conditions of handing over the Keys of Orthanc. He then went to the Shire, which his agent Lotho Sackville-Baggins had brought under control. He spent his final days as a small-time criminal master in Hobbiton known as Sharkey (from the Orkish shark, meaning "old man"), until he was overthrown in the Battle of Bywater. In the aftermath of that battle Frodo confronted Saruman and exiled him from the Shire, but before he could leave, Grma Wormtongue killed Saruman by slitting his throat with a dagger, on the very doorstep of Bag End, for having ill-treated him and turned him into a slave.
By one account, the Nazgl came two days after Gandalf's escape and Saruman used his Voice to persuade the Lord of the Nazgl that he did not know the Ring's location but that Gandalf did and they should seek him nearby. After the Nazgl heard this they went back on the main road rode along and instead found Grma Wormtongue (who went to tell Saruman that Gandalf had been to Edoras) who revealed that Saruman was hiding his knowledge of the Shire from them.
By another account, Saruman only discovered that Gandalf had escaped when the Nazgl arrived. He had been, according to this account, about to beg Gandalf for forgiveness and help, only to find him gone. He pretended that Gandalf was still there and had just told him the location of the Shire. The Nazgl later learned that Saruman knew far more than he had revealed. On their way to the Shire, the Nazgl met one of the wizard's spies, from whom they got detailed maps of the Shire made by Saruman. They sent the spy back to the Shire after warning him that he was now in the service of Mordor and if he dared to return to Isengard, death would await him.
In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated film of The Lord of the Rings, Fraser Kerrprovided 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. In Ralph Bakshi's animated film, Saruman sends a swirling stream of magical fire from Isengard to Helm's Deep to blow apart the ramparts and walls of Helms Deep.
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