32 Facts About Saruman

Saruman, called Saruman the White, is a fictional character of JR R Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings.

Saruman is leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the novel, but eventually he desires Sauron's power for himself and tries to take over Middle-earth by force from his base at Isengard.

Saruman is one of several characters in the book illustrating the corruption of power; his desire for knowledge and order leads to his fall, and he rejects the chance of redemption when it is offered.

The name Saruman means "man of skill or cunning" in the Mercian dialect of Anglo-Saxon; he serves as an example of technology and modernity being overthrown by forces more in tune with nature.

Saruman initially had proposed that the wizards ally themselves with the rising power of Sauron in order to eventually control him for their own ends.

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Saruman went on to suggest that they could take the Ring for themselves and challenge Sauron.

When Gandalf refused both options, Saruman imprisoned him in the tower of Orthanc at Isengard, hoping to learn from him the location of the Ring.

Meanwhile, Saruman prepares to invade the kingdom of Rohan, which has lain exposed ever since he had his servant Grima Wormtongue render Theoden, Rohan's king, weak and defenceless with "subtle poisons".

Saruman is ruined when the Riders of Rohan defeat his army and Merry and Pippin prompt the Ents to destroy Isengard.

Saruman himself is not directly involved, and only appears again in chapter 10, "The Voice of Saruman", by which time he is trapped in Orthanc.

Saruman fails in his attempt to negotiate with the Rohirrim and with Gandalf, and rejects Gandalf's conditional offer to let him go free.

Saruman makes his final appearance at the end of the last volume, The Return of the King, after Sauron's defeat.

Saruman is accompanied by Wormtongue, whom he beats and curses.

Saruman governs the Shire in secret under the name of Sharkey until the events of chapter 18 in which Frodo and his companions return and lead a rebellion, defeating the intruders and exposing Saruman's role.

When Saruman blames Wormtongue for the damage done to the Shire and curses him, Wormtongue finally snaps and slits his throat.

Tolkien had been writing The Lord of the Rings for several years when Saruman came into existence as the solution to a long-unresolved plot development, and his role and characteristics continued to emerge in the course of writing.

Unlike some of the other characters in the book, Saruman had not appeared in Tolkien's 1937 novel, The Hobbit, or in his then-unpublished Quenta Silmarillion and related mythology, which date back to 1917.

Saruman first appeared during a fourth phase of writing in a rough narrative outline dated August 1940.

Saruman has been identified by critics as demonstrating the fall of an originally good character, and has distinctively modern connections with technology.

Saruman "was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare raise our hands against" but decays as the book goes on.

Saruman identifies Saruman as one of the key examples given in the book of the evil effects of industrialization, and by extension of imperialism.

Saruman writes of Saruman's distinctively modern association with Communism in the way the Shire is run under his control in "The Scouring of the Shire": goods are taken "for fair distribution" which, since they are mainly never seen again, Shippey terms an unusually modern piece of hypocrisy in the way evil presents itself in Middle-earth.

Saruman identifies Saruman as the best example in the book of "wraithing", a distinctive 20th-century view of evil that he attributes to Tolkien in which individuals are "'eaten up inside' by devotion to some abstraction".

Saruman has appeared in film, radio, stage and video game adaptations of The Lord of the Rings.

BBC Radio produced the first adaptation in 1955, in which Saruman was played by Robert Farquharson, and which has not survived.

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Saruman has only one major scene—his attempt to persuade Gandalf to join him.

Saruman appears again briefly before the battle of Helm's Deep, speaking to his army.

Saruman is played by Matti Pellonpaa in the 1993 television miniseries Hobitit produced and aired by Finnish broadcaster Yle.

In Peter Jackson's film trilogy, Saruman is significantly more active in the first two films than in the corresponding books, and he appears in several scenes that are not depicted in Tolkien's work.

Smith and Matthews suggest that Saruman's role is built up as a substitute for Sauron—the story's main antagonist—who never appears directly in the book, which Jackson confirms in the commentary to the DVD.

The cut scenes end with Saruman falling to his death from the top of Orthanc after being stabbed by Wormtongue and include material transposed from the chapter The Scouring of the Shire.

Saruman appears as a minor villain in Lego Dimensions, in which he allies himself with main antagonist Lord Vortech.