"The Voice of Saruman" - Ben's Thoughts

Saruman is such a fascinating character. Sauron is a straightforward, evil-for-evil's-sake, mustache-twirling villain, as we'll see in the next chapter, when he tortures Pippin for no reason other than gloating over his pain and doesn't have the foresight to question the hobbit before severing their contact, so sure is he of his point-of-view. (More on that in the next chapter; this "fixed gaze" theme is something Tolkien continually revisits with Sauron.) But Saruman? We see such glimpses in this chapter of Saruman's nature; his drives and passions; the man he once was and the man he almost started to become again -- and, of course, his ultimate and final rejection of that path.

Gandalf is absolutely correct in saying that Saruman's control is slipping. I'm sure the old Saruman would never have let Eomer's clumsy attempts to brush off Saruman's spell-weaving anger him as much as it does here. But he recovers quickly, with an interesting appeal to Rohan's own history: "the House of Eorl is stained with murder; for they have fought many wars, and assailed many who defied them. Yet with some they have afterwards made peace, none the worse for being politic. I say, Théoden King: shall we have peace and friendship, you and I? It is ours to command." He compares the Rohirrim to himself, without even tacitly admitting he is at fault, and thereby paints them with the same brush as himself. It's a masterful line of rhetoric.

I love that Saruman addresses each and every person that come to face him in turn, molding his description of each to fit his strategy. Gimli is summarily dismissed, his opinions irrelevant, when he objects to Saruman's words: "Far away is your home and small concern of yours are the troubles of this land." Theoden is the "mightiest king of western lands," one he seeks to save from the "unwise and evil counsels" of Gandalf, until Theoden rejects him; then he is referred to as a "dotard" and his house "a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor among the dogs". Harsh, Saruman. The hobbits, for all his fascination in them, are called "small rag-tag." It's probably telling that the hobbits got a mention at all; Legolas and Aragorn he ignores entirely.

I find it fascinating that Saruman uses the peril of Mordor to his advantage. He insinuates that Gandalf is going to throw the Rohirrim against the might of Sauron: "Still I would save you, and deliver you from the ruin that drwas nigh inevitably, if you ride upon this road which you have taken." And he is not wrong: Gandalf does indeed intend to use every tool at his disposal to distract Sauron from the true peril creeping closer to his borders. The Rohirrim are just another quiver in his arrow to stave off the armies of Mordor until Frodo is able to finish his task. But Saruman's path for the Rohirrim wouldn't be any better; no doubt Saruman would ask them to fight for him in his own struggles with Sauron.

But of course it is Gandalf's conversation with Saruman that is the most compelling. Gandalf waits patiently for Saruman to betray himself in the eyes of the gathered watchers, confident in Theoden's ability to cast off the spell of the wizard's voice. He then laughs off Saruman's invitation to join him in Orthanc, with the amusing line that "the guest who has escaped from the roof, will think twice before he comes back in by the door." And finally, he offers his brother wizard a final chance to redeem himself: "Would it not be well to leave [Isengard] for a while? To turn to new things, perhaps? Think well, Saruman! Will you not come down?"

Tolkien then gives us a rare glimpse into the mind of the wizard: "they saw through the mask the anguish of a mind in doubt, loathing to stay and dreading to leave its refuge. For a second he hesitated, and no one breathed." What would have happened if Saruman had agreed to come down, to counsel with them and work with them in stopping Mordor? A more complex book than LOTR perhaps would have Saruman making that choice, and then enduring on among the forces of the good guys as a Gollum-like character, but Tolkien has set up Saruman to not be able to make that choice. "Pride and hate were conquering him," Tolkien writes. Saruman is too far gone to be able to humble himself to that degree. He is defiant to the end, despite that brief moment of hesitation.

The story of Saruman is of course a story of pride. He was jealous of Gandalf, jealous of the power of Mordor, and eager to lord over Men based on a belief of innate superiority. This Saruman could never throw himself at the mercy of Gandalf. To do so would admit that he had been right all along, and that Saruman had been wrong. Defiant to the last. "Pitiable" indeed, as Gandalf calls him. I think in Saruman there is a lesson and an example for all of us.