“We will have peace, when you and all your works have perished–and the works of your dark master to whom you would deliver us. You are a liar, Saruman, and a corrupter of Men’s hearts. You hold out your hand to me, and I perceive only a finger of the claw of Mordor. Cruel and cold!” 

First appearing in The Lord of the Rings (1954) and perfectly portrayed by the late actor Christopher Lee in Peter Jackson’s motion picture trilogy of the same name, Saruman the White is one of the most infamous villains from J.R.R. Tolkien’s works.

Starting out as the “chief and greatest of the Istari” and the leader of the White Council that opposed the steady re-emergence of evil, Saruman long researched the lore of Middle-earth, especially the works of the “One Enemy” such as the Rings of Power, at first in the hope of finding therein the means to defeat Sauron. Saruman also began to resent fellow Istar Gandalf for the praise and reverence the latter enjoyed among Free Folk and “this rivalry turned at last to a hatred”. In the end, the White Wizard “fell from his high errand”: having grown enamored of Sauron’s arts, Saruman fancied that, if he could perhaps wield the power of the One Ring, he could become Sauron’s successor. Now seeking, by terrible means, to become the equal of the Dark Lord himself, the White Wizard was soon ensnared:

“Though (warned by Gandalf) the Council may have begun to doubt Saruman’s designs as regarded the Ring, not even Gandalf knew that he had become an ally or servant of Sauron.”

Having betrayed Free Folk and become one of the chief servants of Sauron, Saruman drew his allies and minions from “all who hated Gondor and Rohan”(from wicked Men to Orcs and other foul creatures) and built an army in Isengard. During the War of the Ring, the corrupted Wizard served his “dark master” by helping to both weaken Rohan and “to form a second pincer with which to crush Gondor”. Yet Saruman betrayed Sauron as well by trying to seize the Ring first and claim it for himself. All the same, his efforts ended up in naught: Saruman’s army was vanquished, his desperate gamble for the Ring failed and neither did he hand over Rohan to his master in Mordor on a silver plate:

“Your servants are destroyed and scattered; your neighbours you have made your enemies; and you have cheated your new master, or tried to do so.”

The Lord of Isengard

In The Lord of the Rings we see the Tower of Orthanc as the “stronghold of the Wizard Saruman”, but it was not always so. Isengard was built as a fortress of Gondor and as a means to guard the northern province of Calenardhon, while Orthanc was the bastion at the center of Isengard and the place where one of the Palantíri, the seven seeing-stones, was stored. But “the people of Calenardhon dwindled” after the Great Plague, leaving behind only a small garrison at Isengard led “by an hereditary Gondorian chieftain”. While Calenardhon was eventually granted to the Horse-lords and became Rohan, nominal control of Isengard rested with the Stewards of Gondor and the keys of Orthanc were kept at Minas Tirith.

But the line of Gondorian chieftains ultimately failed, and the deserted ring of Isengard was occupied by the “Wild Men of the Hill Tribes” (Dunlendings) – the most bitter foes of the Men of Rohan. The Dunlendings used Isengard as a staging ground for incursions into the lands of Rohan and ultimately for the War of the Rohirrim. The conflict ended with the defeat of Dunland, after which the Dunlendings still camped in Isengard, already “reduced by the great famine” of the Long Winter, “capitulated to Fréaláf”, nephew of the late King Helm Hammerhand of Rohan. 

“It was at the crowning of Fréaláf that Saruman appeared, bringing gifts, and speaking great praise of the valour of the Rohirrim. All thought him a welcome guest. Soon after he took up his abode in Isengard. For this, Beren, Steward of Gondor, gave him leave, for Gondor still claimed Isengard as a fortress of its realm, and not part of Rohan. Beren also gave into Saruman’s keeping the keys of Orthanc.” 

For a long time, the Wizard Saruman continued to be reckoned as a friend and ally of the kingdoms of Gondor and Rohan. But as Saruman’s pride and greed grew over time, he ignored the fact that his duty was that of mere “warden of the tower” and he instead started to “behave as a lord of Men”. He also found the Palantír of Orthanc within and, unbeknownst to the White Council, began to make use of it, until he “fell under the domination of Sauron and desired his victory”. 

Eventually, he renounced guardianship of Isengard on behalf of Gondor and claimed the stronghold as his own “impenetrable seat of power”, from where he secretly acted on behalf of both “Mordor and his private schemes”. Saruman’s Orcs despoiled Isengard, turning the tree gardens within the ringed walls of the fortress to timber to fuel the forges, furnaces and smithies hidden in the caverns beneath Orthanc.

“Isengard. Once allied to Gondor, this land now serves a new master: the Dark Lord Sauron.”

“When last I visited you, you were the Jailor of Mordor, and there I was to be sent.”

The character’s presence in The Lord of the Rings dates back to 1939-1940, when J.R.R. Tolkien was rewriting the story of Gandalf’s delay. At this point Saruman went by Saramond or Saramund, while Treebeard was envisioned as an evil giant “in league with the Enemy” rather than the benevolent Ent from the published version:

“Saramund betrays him – having fallen and gone over to Sauron: (either) he tells Gandalf false news of the Black Riders, and they pursue him to the top of a mountain; there he is left standing along with a guard (wolves, Orcs, etc. all about) while they ride off with mocking laugh; (or else) he is handed over to a giant Fangorn (Treebeard) who imprisons him?”

As he began writing “The Council of Elrond” chapter, however, Tolkien decided to expand Saruman’s role and assigned the part of “Jailor of Mordor” to the corrupted Wizard himself. Orthanc began to take shape as the place of Gandalf’s imprisonment as well as Saruman’s stronghold and war camp:

“‘And the vale that was once fair was filled with wolves and Orcs, for Saruman was there mustering a great force for the service of his new master.'”

It was only when he began writing “The Departure of Boromir” that Tolkien actually began to sketch Saruman as a faithless servant of Sauron and hint at his secret plot to obtain the Ring and usurp Sauron’s place. Following the skirmish at Amon Hen, Aragorn questions Saruman’s involvement in the hunt for the Ring-bearer:

“Whether he is merely working under the command of Mordor, or playing some hand of his own, I cannot guess.”

It is worth mentioning that the earliest outline of Saruman, that is an evil sorcerer that has been swayed to Sauron’s side, split into two different characters: the Wizard Saruman the White and the Witch-king of Angmar. Just like Saruman, the Morgul Lord (at this stage known as the “Wizard King”) was similarly sketched in the beginning as a turncoat from the Order of Istari in a draft for “The Siege of Gondor” chapter:

“Denethor and Faramir marvel at Gandalf’s power over Nazgûl. Gandalf says things are still not so bad—because the W[izard] King has not yet appeared. He reveals that he is a renegade of his own order […]”

And also in the early drafts (which envisioned the Siege of Gondor as the sole large-scale engagement of the War of the Ring; the Battle of Helm’s Deep being noticeably absent), “seeing the war-beacons afar off blazing in Mordor, came the traitor Saruman” as captain of the armies of Mordor – a role that was subsequently assumed by the Morgul Lord in the published version of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

An all too familiar speech

One of the things that makes J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium, specifically The Lord of the Rings, so good is that, in spite of the fantasy setting, most of the characters are as veridical as possible. They embody archetypes that have much applicability in the real-world – not only in the age of the two World Wars, but also now. And according to Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey:

“Saruman is the most contemporary figure in Middle-earth, both politically and linguistically.”

This line of thought had been clear in Tolkien’s mind since the early drafts of “The Council of Elrond” chapter from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, where “Saruman reveals himself as a servant of Sauron” and where his speech to Gandalf first took shape :

“A new Power has arisen. Against it, there is no hope. With it, there is such hope as we never had before. None can now doubt its victory, which is near at hand. We fought it in vain – and foolishly. We knew much but not enough. We looked always at it from the outside and through a mist of old falsehood and hate; and we did not consider its high and ultimate purpose. We saw not the reasons, but only the things done, and some of those seemed evil; but they were done under necessity. There has been a conspiracy to hinder and frustrate knowledge, wisdom and government. The Elder Days are gone. The Middle Days are passing. The Younger Days are beginning. The day of the Elves is over. But Our Days are begun! The Power grows, and I shall grow as it grows, until all things are ours.” 

The corrupted Wizard begins by insisting that the ascension of the Dark Lord as “the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth” is inevitable, and that resistance against the growing Power of Mordor is utterly futile. Saruman genuinely believes that Sauron’s dominion draws near: in Tolkien’s novels he refers to his new master as “the Lord” and as “the Ruler”, and in Peter Jackson’s film series he once addresses him as “Lord of the Earth” (which is how Sauron “named himself” at the height of his power during the Black Years of the Second Age). After this, Saruman’s speech takes on a hypocritical and almost tearful tone: he condemns opposition to Sauron and dismisses it as ‘a conspiracy’ against the lawful order that he claims Sauron is striving for. Saruman goes as far as to suggest that Sauron’s goals are precisely the same as those of the Five Istari. In defending the atrocities committed by Sauron, Saruman reinforces the machiavellian belief that “the end justifies the means”, which in turn justifies his “defection to the service of the Dark Lord” as some sort of an ideological epiphany. At the end, however, Saruman blurts out his actual reasons, which are much less noble and far more base in nature: “he offers himself to Sauron as a willing vassal, hoping to share in his power”. And in the published version, Tolkien further emphasized Saruman’s delusions of grandeur, with Saruman believing that as the right-hand of Sauron he can play the part of “éminence grise” (Anglicized: “grey eminence”) behind the Dark Throne of his master: Saruman thinks that Sauron’s stewards (himself included) shall be the ones to actually govern Middle-earth:

“As the Power grows, its servants proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it.”

With regards to the folly in Saruman’s speech Tom Shippey stated:

“The idea of anyone, however wise, persuading Sauron, would sound simply silly if it were said in so many words. No sillier, though, than the repeated conviction of many British intellectuals before and after this time that they could somehow get along with Stalin, or with Hitler. Saruman, indeed, talks like too many politicians.”

There is no shortage of people from Great Britain before and after the outbreak of World War II that could have influenced the creation of Saruman: from prominent politicians like Neville Chamberlain to some of Tolkien’s own colleagues at Oxford. They all advocated the same argument as the fallen White Wizard: that Great Britain should position itself on the winning side by appeasing or even allying itself with Nazi Germany and/or the Soviet Union. Saruman’s attempt to “claim lordship over” Rohan as a vassal of Sauron is also comparable to a “Quisling” from Vichy France, or to the Soviet puppets put in power in Eastern Europe after World War II.

Yet the spirit and context in which Saruman’s speech is delivered is unfortunately still very much alive today: there are still many modern politicians in the world, especially of late, that are in league with autocratic powers (the legacy of the Nazis and Soviets). These figures, traitors and opportunists one and all, propound submission to their masters as the rightful course – or rather submission to themselves (since all these lackeys aspire to one day become the masters, or delude themselves that they will, at least hold a prominent seat at the table of the great world powers).

Saruman’s speech also proves that the servants of Sauron are little more than mouthpieces for the Dark Lord, reiterating the words and thoughts that have been ingrained in their petty minds by their master. The repetitive nature of such speeches is made evident by Gandalf’s unimpressed comment:

“Saruman, I said, I have heard speeches of this kind before, but only in the mouths of emissaries sent from Mordor to deceive the ignorant.” 

Through Gandalf’s final answer, Tolkien expressed that he was wholeheartedly rejecting submission to a tyrant, regardless if that tyrant was Sauron or his servant Saruman:

“Well, the choices are, it seems, to submit to Sauron, or to yourself. I will take neither.”

It is the example of Tolkien and the character of Gandalf that we must always follow in such hard times: to cling to our freedom, our beliefs, our ideals, moral values and virtues in the face of despotism.

An everlasting performance from one of the best actors

Of course, no exploration of the character of Saruman would be complete without an acknowledgement of the man who breathed life into the character in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings the motion picture franchise: the late Christopher Lee, one of the best actors to have ever lived, as well as one of the greatest fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendarium – he even had a habit of reading The Lord of the Rings each year and his devotion to the role and to ensuring that Tolkien’s description of the evil wizard was spot on shines through during each viewing.  Christopher Lee was also the only actor cast in Peter Jackson’s film series to have met the author himself:

“I did meet him [Tolkien], very briefly, in the 50s. It was in a pub that he used to go to in Oxford, called the Eagle and Child. I was there having a beer and I was completely overcome when he walked in. I had already started reading the books and thought, ‘This man has created a unique form of literature – one of the great works of all time.’ While I was filming The Lord of the Rings, I thought about what he would have thought all the time, and hope he would have approved. I’m still an enormous fan – I read The Lord of the Rings every year.” 

Christopher Lee’s love for the role of Saruman and The Lord of the Rings the motion picture trilogy was so great that he did not hesitate to rejoin Peter Jackson when the latter was adapting The Hobbit. And after the actor passed away, his wife “gave her blessing to include old recordings” of her late husband to Philippa Boyens for Saruman’s cameo in The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Christopher Lee’s wife said that it is what he would have wanted – and the filmmakers felt that it was a fitting last homage for the great actor and a final acknowledgement of Lee’s irreplaceable performance.

Christopher Lee’s portrayal of Saruman was by far his best performance – he was born to play the part. He may no longer be among us, but his legacy will endure for decades to come among Tolkien and Jackson fans alike. From his towering height, the way he moved and his facial gestures to the way he delivered each of his memorable lines, Christopher Lee absolutely nailed the character. Peter Jackson himself observed that he did not have any need to explain to Lee during filming how he should play Saruman, because Lee understood and knew the character. Lee felt that “the old famous quote ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'” applied to Saruman’s descent into evil and transformation into an agent of the Dark Lord, which he summarized perfectly in several interviews, with which I shall conclude this deep-dive into the character:

“Gandalf says that Saruman was great once. When everybody wants to kill Saruman, Gandalf says ‘No. He was great once’. Gandalf never forgets. But the story is that Saruman becomes Sauron’s servant.”

“He became an obsessed servant of Sauron. But also – which is equally important – I think he suddenly decides ’I want to be the Lord of the Rings.’”

“So it’s a question of a great Wizard, one of superior intellect and brilliance, being tempted until the temptation finally overcomes him. He of course pretends to be a servant of Sauron, but Sauron sees through this.”

Sources

For my original post on Blogger: Of Saruman, the Jailor of Mordor

• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, “The Voice of Saruman”, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, “Saruman”, by Chris Smith
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, “Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit”, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, “The Hunt for the Ring”, J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
• Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, “The Istari”, by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
• Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, “The Palantíri”, by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (the motion picture), “Official Trailer 1”
• The Art of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, “The Wild Men”, by Daniel Falconer
• The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A “The House of Eorl”, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, “The Battles of the Fords of Isen”, by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
• The Lord of the Rings: Weapons and Warfare, “Isengard”, by Chris Smith
• The Lord of the Rings: The Battle of Middle-earth
• The Return of the Shadow, “To Weathertop and Rivendell”, by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
• The Treason of Isengard, “The Council of Elrond (1)”, by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
• The Treason of Isengard, “The Departure of Boromir”, by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
• The War of the Ring, “The Siege of Gondor”, by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
• J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, by Tom Shippey
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (the motion picture)
• The Silmarillion, “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”, by J.R.R. Tolkien (edited by Christopher Tolkien)
• Games Workshop
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, “The Council of Elrond”, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (the motion picture), “The Spoiling of Isengard”
• Ardapedia, “Saruman”
• The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion, “The Council of Elrond”, by Wayne G. Hammond & Christina Scull
• The Independent: Christopher Lee: You Ask The Questions
• Gamespot: Christopher Lee’s Saruman Will Appear In Lord Of The Rings Movie, 10 Years After His Death
• Fox: Quest for the Ring
• TheOneRing: Lord of the Thrills – Caltanet Cinema interviews Christopher Lee
• TheOneRing.net: Christopher Lee Interview on ‘Troldspejlet’