Saruman

## Biographical information

### Other names

Curunir, Curumo, Saruman the White, Saruman of Many Colours, Saruman the Wise, The White Wizard, Sharkey, Sauron's puppet (film)

### Titles

Lord of Isengard, Head of the White Council, The White Wizard, "The Boss" (by the ruffians)

### Death

3 November, 3019 (book); March 3 3019 (film)

### Weapon

Wizard Staff, Dagger, Dark Sorcery, Powers of Sauron (film)

## Peter Jackson's films or other media

### Actor

Sir Christopher Lee

> "*You did not seriously think that a hobbit can contend with the the will of Sauron? There are none who can.*"
> ― Saruman to Gandalf - *The Fellowship of the Ring* film
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**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.

## History

### Years of the Lamps

Saruman was originally a Maia of Aulë the Smith - just as Sauron had once been - named **Curumo**, meaning "skillful one", or **Curunír** by the elves in Sindarin. 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.

The other four who were chosen were Olórin (Gandalf), Aiwendil (Radagast), and Alatarand Pallando (the Blue Wizards). Curumo was appointed overall leader of the group.

### Third Age

#### Arrival in Middle-earth

> "*What enemy? Gandalf, the Enemy is defeated. Sauron is vanquished. He can never regain his full strength.*"
> ― Saruman to Gandalf - *The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey*
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The five wizards arrived at the Grey Havens in the west of Eriador around the year 1000. 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 as chief of wizards.

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

> "*That's absurd. No such power exists in this world. This "Necromancer" is nothing more than a mortal man, a conjurer dabbling in black magic.*"
> ― Saruman on the Necromancer - *The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey*
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   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 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.

#### Joining with Sauron

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 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 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 Palantír 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.

#### War of the Ring

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.

#### Power shattered

Following the Ents' destruction of Isengard, Saruman found himself confined to Orthanc and his servants scattered or killed. After the arrival of Théoden, Gandalf, Aragorn, and the remaining members of the Fellowship, Saruman made one final unsuccessful attempt to turn Théoden 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 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.

#### Saruman's end

> "*Yes, you have grown very much. You are wise, and cruel. you have robbed my revenge of sweetness, and now I must go hence in bitterness, in debt to your mercy. I hate it and you! Well, I go and I will trouble you no more. But do not expect me to wish you health and long life. You will have neither. But that is not my doing. I merely foretell.*"
> ― Saruman to Frodo Baggins -*The Return of the King*, "Scouring of the Shire"
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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 *sharkû,* 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, Gríma 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.

## Unfinished Tales

By one account, the Nazgûl came two days after Gandalf's escape and Saruman used his Voice to persuade the Lord of the Nazgûl that he did not know the Ring's location but that Gandalf did and they should seek him nearby. After the Nazgûl heard this they went back on the main road rode along and instead found Gríma 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 Nazgûl 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 Nazgûl later learned that Saruman knew far more than he had revealed. On their way to the Shire, the Nazgûl 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.

## Portrayal in adaptations

### Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings

> "*Where is the Ring, Gandalf? Why do the Black Riders search for it in the Shire? Have you hidden it there? Would you rather see the Dark Lord have it.....or Saruman of Many Colours!?!*"
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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.

### The Hobbit Trilogy

> "*Go now! Leave Sauron to me.*"
> ― Saruman to Galadriel and Elrond - *The Battle of the Five Armies* film
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Sir Christopher Lee reprised his role as Saruman in Peter Jackson's live action Hobbit trilogy. He originally expressed interest in voicing Smaug the dragon, but the role ended up going to Benedict Cumberbatch. Christopher Lee also managed to humour Peter Jackson by asking him "Am I still in the movie?" This refers to when Christopher Lee's (Saruman's) death scene was cut from the theatrical version of The Return of the King and he had a falling out with Peter Jackson all those years ago.

Saruman first appears in *The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.* He arrives in Rivendell for a meeting of the White Council. Saruman expresses his disapproval of Gandalf's actions concerning the quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and dismisses Gandalf's reasons as 'looking for trouble where none exists'. He is skeptical of the information Gandalf provides on the Necromancer and he further dismisses the information when he learns it came from Radagast the Brown, who he believes is a fool and an embarrassment to the Istari due to his consumption of mushrooms. When presented with the Morgul blade, Saruman states there is no proof that it belonged to the Witch-king of Angmar. Saruman sums up all of Gandalf's concerns as nothing to worry about but states that he feels he cannot condone the quest of the Dwarves to reclaim Erebor. However, unbeknownst to Saruman, the Dwarves have already left Rivendell.

In *The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies*, Saruman arrives at Dol Guldur along with Elrond, after being summoned there by Galadriel, to rescue Gandalf. Saruman appears as Galadriel and Gandalf are surrounded by the Nazgûl and asks if she needs assistance. At this, two of the Nazgûl turn towards him and both he and Elrond begin to battle with the Nine. Saruman duels several of the Ringwraiths, appearing to be able to handle up to two at a time. In the end, both he and Elrond overpower the Nine and they retreat momentarily. After Gandalf is taken away by Radagast, Sauron appears before the remainder of the White Council along with the returning Nazgûl. Saruman readies himself for further battle but appears to be paralyzed with awe of Sauron's power. Galadriel rises in a terrifying ethereal form and begins a battle of wills with Sauron. Saruman barely seems to notice this, still stunned in amazement of Sauron. Galadriel eventually gains the upper hand and banishes Sauron from Dol Guldur. After recovering from his shock, Saruman notes that while Galadriel has banished Sauron, it took nearly all of her power to do it and tells Elrond to take her back to Lothlórien, When Elrond argues that Sauron must be found and permanently destroyed, Saruman replies that without the One Ring, Sauron will never regain his full strength. He then tells them to go and 'leave Sauron to me.' This is most likely the point, where Saruman begins his fall into evil. Although he spoke of Sauron not regaining his full power, Saruman was clearly dumbfounded after witnessing his power first hand and was both scared and awed by Him, foreshadowing his eventual fall.

### The Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy

> "*The Power of Isengard is at your command, Sauron, Lord of the Earth.*"
> ― Saruman to Sauron - *The Fellowship of the Ring*
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In Peter Jackson's film trilogy, Saruman is played by Sir Christopher Lee and is the secondary antagonist in *The Fellowship of the Ring* and the primary antagonist *The Two Towers*. Unlike in the novels, Saruman portrays himself as an outright servant of Sauron and stylizes himself as "Sauron's puppet".

By the beginning of *The Fellowship of the Ring,* Saruman had devoted himself to serving Sauron and was secretly his spy in the White Council. When Gandalf the Grey comes to Isengard, he tries to convince his fellow wizard into joining with the Dark Lord. After a brief duel, he imprisons him in the Tower Orthanc and uses the *palantir* to speak with his master who commands him to "build him an army worthy of Mordor". Saruman has his Orcs cut down the trees and begin the work in the caverns: forging weapons, fueling the fires and breeding Uruk-hai. He tracks the Fellowship using Crebain crows and summons massive snow avalanches and rock-slides to try and kill the heroes at Caradhras. After an audience during which Lurtz swears his allegiance to him, Saruman sends the fighting Uruk-hai to kidnap the hobbits carrying the One Ring (either to gain it for his lord, Sauron, or for himself) and bring them back "alive and unspoiled". The scouts attack the Fellowship at the conclusion of the film, killing Boromir and capturing Merry and Pippin.

In *The Two Towers*, Saruman again speaks with Sauron through the *palantir,* assuring his lord of them eventually ruling Middle-earth. He oversees the work in the caverns and orders an Orc taskmaster to use the trees of Fangorn Forest as fuel for the fires. He recruits the Wild Men of Dunland and sends parties of them aided by his Orcs to burn the Westfold, then amasses an Uruk-hai army of 10,000 to destroy the kingdom of Rohan. He is aided by Gríma Wormtongue, who he had compelled into his service, and is depicted as having outright possessed Théoden. At the climax of the film, Saruman's army is defeated at Helm's Deep and Isengard is overrun by Ents.

Saruman does not appear in the theatrical cut of *The Return of the King*; Treebeard only suggests that the fallen wizard's power is no more and thus he can no longer aid Sauron in the last stages of the war. In the extended edition, Gandalf, Aragorn, Théoden, Gimli, Merry and Pippin confront Saruman in Isengard at the beginning of the film. He attempts to use his voice and persuade King Théoden into making peace, only for the latter to imply that peace will only be achieved when the wizard faces punishment for his crimes against the people of Rohan. Angered, Saruman begins to mock Gandalf for his new status as the "White Wizard", calling him "Gandalf Greyhame" and asking what did he seek to gain. When he realizes that they had sought him out to learn information, Saruman tries to weaken their resolve by merely revealing that Sauron would strike soon and that they would all die. He then talks of Gandalf as a man willing to sacrifice those "close to him" and dismisses Aragorn's claim to the throne of Gondor. Théoden calls Gríma down, seeing that his former counselor had been manipulated by the wizard as he himself was, and urges him to free himself. Saruman denies Wormtongue his claim for freedom, but Gríma stabs him two times in the back at the pinnacle of Orthanc. As the wizard falls to his death, he is impaled on the spikes of a wheel and the *palantir f*alls from his cloak.

## Appearances

* *The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring*
* *The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring* (film)
* *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers*
* *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* (film)
* *The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King*
* *The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King* (film)
* *The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey*
* T*he Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug*