Saruman

"Once he was as great as his fame made him. His knowledge was deep, his thought was subtle, and his hands marvelously skilled; and he had a power over the minds of others. The wise he could persuade, and the smaller folk he could daunt. That power he certainly still keeps. There are not many in Middle-earth that I should say were safe, if they were left alone to talk with him, even now when he has suffered a defeat. Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, perhaps, now his wickedness has been laid bare, but very few others."

- Aragorn talking to Legolas and Gimli as they enter Orthanc with Gandalf, King Theoden and Eomer to speak with Saruman

Saruman the White was an Istari, or wizard, who lived in Middle-earth and was a key figure in the events of the War of the Ring. He was the chief of the wizards in his time, and dwelt in the fortress of Isengard. The Istari were five wizards who were sent to Middle-earth to combat the growing power of Sauron, the Dark Lord, and thus Saruman studied in depth the arts of Sauron. However, he soon became enamoured of Sauron's devices - especially The One Ring - and turned traitor to his mission and sought power for himself by attempting to find the One Ring. He initially advocated an alliance with Sauron, but he soon betrayed Sauron as well, and it was revealed that his ultimate goal is to supplant Sauron and rule Middle-earth. His designs went astray however, and following the Battle of Helm's Deep and the Battle of Isengard, his power was overthrown.

Saruman - before his decline and fall - was the chief of both the wizards and of the White Council (a council consisting of all those opposed to Sauron). His knowledge and skill, especially of Sauron's devices, was said to be great (in fact, the name "Saruman" means "man of skill"). However, his corruption came about due to his deep study of the dark arts, and his growing ambition and desire for power led to his downfall. He is one of the few characters in Middle-earth who is rather "grey", serving neither the forces of good nor the forces of evil - he betrays both sides and ultimately works for his own ends.

Biography
Saruman was a Maia, a servant of the Valar, the Powers of the world, and of Ilúvatar. In Valinor, the land of the Valar, a council was called by Manwë, 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.

One of those who went was Curunir (Saruman), a powerful Maia of Aulë, just as Sauron once was. Maia were angelic beings "of the same order as the Valar but of less degree", as stated by The Silmarillion. Both the Maia and the Valar were Ainur, the first created beings, and they existed before Arda (the world) was made. The other four who were chosen were Aiwendil (Radagast), Alatar and Pallando (the Blue Wizards), and Olórin (Gandalf)

Arrival in Middle-earth
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 the Shipwright, knew Saruman's identity and origin. Saruman would later discover that Círdan 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, Círdan 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.

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.

The White Council
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 Sméagol (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 sent spies to 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 halfling's leaf, since in secret imitation of Gandalf he had begun to smoke.

Isengard
In the year TA 2759, Saruman settled in Isengard with the permission of the Steward of Gondor, Beren. The stronghold was by then abandoned by Gondor, although he settled only as Warden of the Tower and representative of the Steward. 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.

In TA 2850, Gandalf entered Dol Guldur and confirmed that the evil presence was indeed Sauron. 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 build 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 TA 2941, he finally agreed to attack Dol Guldur.

Ten years after Sauron abandoned Dol Guldur; he returned to Mordor and declared himself openly. He established contact with Saruman through the Palantír captured from Minas Ithil, now Minas Morgul. In this year, Saruman also took Isengard for his own and began to fortify it.

When Gandalf presented Saruman with the discovery and the location of the One Ring, Saruman revealed his desire for it and his secret alliance with Sauron. He also shed the title of Saruman the White, and donned a robe of many colors. Gandalf said, "I liked white better", and Saruman replied "White! It serves as a beginning. The white page can be overwritten. The white cloth can be dyed, and the white light may be broken." Saruman no longer had any loyalty to the White Council, or the Ring Bearer. He tried unsuccessfully to gain Gandalf's allegiance. When Gandalf refused to join with him, Saruman held him captive in Isengard. Gandalf later escaped with help from Gwaihir the Windlord, one of Middle-earth's large eagles, and made Saruman's treachery known to the rest of the White Council.

The Beginning of the End
"He has a mind of metal and wheels; and he does not care for growing things, except as far as they serve him for the moment. And now it is clear that he is a black traitor."

- Treebeard to Merry and Pippin as they walk on the southern side of Fangorn Forest.



There are different accounts of this visit. By one account, the Nazgul came two days after Gandalf's escape and Saruman used his Voice to persuade the Lord of the Nazgul that he did not know the Ring's location but that Gandalf did and they should seek him nearby. After the Nazgul heard this they went back on the main road rode along and instead found Grima Wormtoungue (who went to tell Saruman that Gandalf had been to Edoras)who revealed that Saruman was hiding his knowledge of the Shire from them. According to another account, Saruman only discovered that Gandalf had escaped when the Nazgul arrived, but he pretended that Gandalf was still there and had just told him the location of the Shire. The Nazgul later learned from the squint-eyed Southerner that Saruman knew far more than he had revealed.

Along that Road, they met one of his Shire 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 (the Orc-like man in the Inn of the Prancing Pony). 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 clear, 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 Uruk-hai accompanied by Moria Orcs on likely routes the Fellowship of the Ring might take through Rohan to go towards Gondor. One of those parties captured Peregrin Took and Meriadoc Brandybuck after orcs had shot Boromir with twenty arrows (Note: In the book he is shot by no specified orc, just orc archers, in Peter Jackson's movie an orc general Lurtz shoots him but with three arrows.)as he tried to defend Pippin and Merry, which 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.



Power Destroyed
"You have become a fool, Saruman, and yet pitiable. You might still have turned away from folly and evil, and have been of service. But you choose to stay and gnaw the ends of your old plots. Stay then! But I warn you, you will not easily come out again. Not unless the dark hands of the east stretch out to take you!"

- Gandalf the White

His plans failed, and Saruman suffered a series of setbacks. Saruman's Shire network did not capture Frodo Baggins; and Éomer destroyed his only partially successful raiding party. His invasion of Rohan ended in disaster, with the utter defeat of his army at the Battle of the Hornburg. Leaving Isengard undefended resulted in its destruction at the hands of the Ents (Saruman had underestimated the Ents' anger and strength).

Confined to the Orthanc and with his servants scattered or killed, Saruman made one final unsuccessful attempt to turn Théoden and Gandalf over to the darkside. The latter then offered Saruman a chance for redemption, which involved surrendering his staff and the keys to Orthanc as 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 Istari, expelled Saruman from the order and broke his staff. Saruman also lost the palantír of Orthanc when Gríma Wormtongue threw it off a balcony of Orthanc, undecided about which he hated more, Saruman or Gandalf, and hitting neither.

Final Fall
Left out of the final stages of the War of the Ring, Curunir 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. Spending his final days as a small-time criminal master in Hobbiton known as Sharkey, where he enslaved the Hobbits, he was eventually betrayed and killed by his own servant Gríma Wormtongue on November 3, 3019, after the Battle of Bywater, where the Hobbits had Saruman's thugs surrounded with many Took bowmen led by Frodo Baggins. Frodo offered one last chance to Saruman and Wormtongue to surrender. When Wormtongue decided to accept it, Saruman beat him to the ground. Wormtongue unexpectedly brought a knife up and stabbed him. In a cruel twist of fate, the great traitor of Middle-Earth was betrayed himself by a pathetic mortal man, ending the life of Curunir the White.

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Legacy
After his departure from Orthanc, King Elessar entered the tower with the intent of re-ordering that realm. Inside, Elessar's men found many treasures that Saruman had conned off of King Théoden. There was a secret closet that could only be found with the aid of Gimli the dwarf; it contained the original Elendilmir, which had presumed to be lost forever when Isildur perished in the Gladden Fields, as well as a golden chain which was presumed to have once borne the One Ring.

After Death
Saruman, being a Maia, did not truly die. His spirit separated from his body much like Sauron's after the Downfall of Númenor. As an incorporeal 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, never to return to Middle-earth:

"Whereas Curunir was cast down, and utterly humbled, and perished at last by the hand of an oppressed slave; and his spirit went whithersoever it was doomed to go, and to Middle-earth, whether naked or embodied, came never back"

Names

 * Curumo is the Quenya name for Saruman. Its tengwar spelling is, and its IPA pronunciation is pronounced.
 * Curunír is the Sindarin name for Saruman the White. It roughly translates to mean "man of skill". Curunir was the original name given to Saruman as the leader of the Istari or Wizard that first came to Middle-earth to combat the evils of Sauron. Late in the Third Age around the time of the War of the Ring, this name was less known and rarely used save among the Elves and even rarely used by them except for their leaders, such as Elrond in Rivendell, Celeborn and Galadriel in Lothlórien, and Círdan at the Grey Havens.
 * Saruman as called by Men in Rohan
 * Sharku is the name given to him by his Uruk-Hai meaning in Black Speech Old Man.

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 serialisation of The Lord of the Rings.

In Peter Jackson's film trilogy, Saruman was played by Sir 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 rather than cutting his throat (allegedly to appease the censors) causing him to fall on a spiked wheel below the tower of Orthanc. Then, the machine begins to turn, sliding the body of Saruman down into the watery depths. While many fans have criticized the one-sided portrayel of Saruman in the films, Christopher Lee's performance has been generally well-received.

Powers and Abilities
Saruman's status as chief of the Istari and head of the White Council (before Gandalf) gave him arsenal to a variety of powers. Though he would eventually be defeated by Gandalf in the end, Saruman's powers and abilities were very mighty indeed at the peak of his power.

In the Books
By far Saruman's greatest power (and the only one he was able to retain after the downfall of Isengard) is speech. He seems to have the ability to bend any but the absolute strongest minds to his will, simply by speaking to them. Even with Isengard broken and Saruman's treachery revealed, Aragorn speculated that very few besides Gandalf, Galadriel, and Elrond (all bearers of rings of power themselves) could resist Saruman's persuasive allure if left alone with him. Gandalf exploited the weakness of this power when he confronted Saruman; in trying to enchant some in the company, he left others out of his designs, and thus could not ensnare everyone at once. However, even in this situation, it is said that only Gandalf himself remained totally unmoved. Saruman later used his persuasive power to escape Orthanc, convincing Treebeard to let him go.

Although the snowstorm on Caradhras, which defeated the Fellowship, is not explicitly stated in the books to be Saruman's work, it is said that a "fell voice" is on the air; Peter Jackson's trilogy goes further and openly shows Saruman influencing the weather. When Gandalf was still the Grey, Saruman was able to capture him through unknown means.

Saruman was extremely learned in ringlore and mechanics, and his knowledge enabled him to create great forges, as well as a blasting weapon strong enough to blow apart the wall at Helm's Deep. Unfortunately, it was Saruman's extensive knowledge of the Rings of Power that led to his downfall, as he became enamored of the power of the rings, and particularly the One Ring.

Post-38086-1224244284.jpgning Bolt
One of Saruman's main powers was a thunderbolt that he called down using his staff. This thunderbolt is capable of high damage and could even affect terrain when correctly used. One example of this was when, in the movies, Saruman used a bolt of lightning to shoot an avalanche off of Caradhras on to the Fellowship of the Ring. In the games, he uses his lightning bolts to strike down enemy soldiers. This is Saruman's most powerful spell in Battle for Middle-earth II.

Fireball
Another of Saruman's main powers was a fireball attack. If he didn't use thunderbolt to attack, Saruman used his fireball to hit a small area and devastate any units there. It is unclear whether Saruman's thunderbolt or fireball was stronger, but both had great power. In the movies, Saruman attempted to kill Gandalf with a fireball, but Gandalf protected himself and cast down Saruman. This is one of Saruman's spells in Battle for Middle-earth II, this is not as strong as the thunderbolt attack which causes more damage.

In Ralph Bakshi's animated film, he sends a swirling stream of magical fire from Isengard to Helm's Deep to blow apart the ramparts and walls of Helms Deep.