Saruman
Curunír; Saruman the White; the head of the White Council who fell
Origin and Office
Saruman — in Sindarin Curunír, “the Skilful Man” — was the head (or chief) of the Istari, the first of the five who came to Middle-earth, and for long the wisest and most powerful. Of the intention of the senders, he was the one most in accord with the letter of the charge; but he studied the arts of the Enemy from the first “in his desire to understand them”, and the study corrupted him.
The White Council
- Saruman the White dwelt at Isengard, in the tower of Orthanc, and led the White Council against the growing shadow of Dol Guldur — for a time truly. It was he who (against Gandalf’s counsel that Sauron’s fortress should be taken) argued to leave Dol Guldur unassailed; the fear of the One Ring, of which he had made himself a lore-master, clouded his judgement, and in his heart he desired the Ring for himself.
The Fall
- The corrupted keeper: He mastered the rules of ring-lore, forged his own Ring (unlike Sauron’s) and, when the Great Ring surfaced in Middle-earth, sought to seize it through his creatures and through the treacherous words of Gríma Wormtongue.
- The many-coloured: Renouncing the Grey and White, he mocked the Grey and the White and declared himself “Saruman of Many Colors”, the master of the new arts of war, breeding the Uruk-hai and strengthening Isengard.
- The might of his voice: His most dangerous gift — the subtle, reasonable voice — deceived Theoden’s court, the council of Isengard, and even the prisoner Gandalf; its power is one of the great set-pieces of the tale.
The End
At the War’s end Saruman escaped Isengard with Wormtongue, worked mischief in the Shire (the ruffians, the felling of trees, the “Boss” of Bagshot Row), and was at last slain by his own servant Gríma at Bag End — “the mean spirit, the corrupted canker that would at last be wasted and a power of the West”. His spirit is said to have been refused admittance to the West.
Significance
Saruman is the counter-type of Gandalf — the Istari who used the order’s power for command, studied the Enemy until he became like him, and gave the mythology its clearest case of “the user becomes the used”: the wise turned tyrant by his own craft. His name (Curunír), his tower, and his fall stand as the warning for all the lore-masters of the ages.