Saruman

Saruman arrived in Middle-earth around the year 1000 of the Third Epoch and traveled for a long time to the east. In 2759 T.E., he occupied Isengard with the permission of the governor of Gondor Beren. In Isengard there was the palmer of Orthank , with the help of which he wanted to find out Sauron’s plans and free himself of Middle-earth from the forces of evil. But Saruman did not imagine that while he was looking at Sauron, Sauron himself was looking at him. So, imperceptibly to himself, Saruman was enslaved by Sauron with the help of a palantir located in Barad-dur . Until recently, Saruman thought he was acting on his own will, and did not understand that he was just a pawn in the game of Sauron. So, unwittingly fulfilling the plan of the latter, Saruman convinced the White Council not to try to go to Dol Guldur .

In 2953, T.E. Saruman declared Isengard his property and began to assemble an army of orcs and dunlanders . With their help, he raided Rohan and cut down the forest of Fangorn . At about the same time, his scouts began to appear in the Highlands and Wider in search of the One Ring . Around 3000, as mentioned above, Saruman was enslaved by Sauron, whom he contacted with the help of a palantir, and has since obeyed his orders. Through his scout Grima, Saruman subjugated King Rohan Theoden to himself and achieved actual non-fulfillment of the Rohirrim alliance with Gondor. Then Saruman opened to Gandalf , hoping to attract him to his side, but he refused, and then fled from Isengard with the help of Gwaihir - one of the Eagles Manwe .

In Isengard, Saruman bred a special breed of orcs, crossing orcs and people. They were dark-skinned and not afraid of the sun. Contrary to popular belief, these half-orcs did not belong to Uruk-hayam. They were few in the army, abandoned for the final conquest of Rohan in 3019 T. E. Mostly they were used as spies.

In the same year, a combined detachment of troops of Saruman and Sauron tracked down the Brotherhood of the Ring and, attacking them, killed Boromir and captured the hobbits of Meriadok Brandybak and Peregrin Tuk . As a result of the clash between the Isengard and Mordor orcs with the mounted warriors of Rohan, the hobbits managed to escape to Fangorn. They managed to convince the Ents to attack Isengard, and the Shepherds of the Trees almost to the ground destroyed it and flooded the territory of the fortress with the waters of the River Isen . Simultaneously with these events, Saruman 's troops suffered a crushing defeat in the battle with the Rohirrim near Helm Paddy .

Transformed Gandalf his power expelled Saruman from the Order of Eastari and broke his staff . However, Saruman survived and was initially detained by Ents in Orthank, and when the War for the Ring ended, he got his freedom and went to Shir with Grima, where he tried to establish sole rule with the help of his faithful settlers from Dunland . Initially, he managed to remove Sakvil-Baggins, the local Leader of Lotto, from power and create a military dictatorship in the Shire that oppressed and robbed the indigenous population. However, with the return of Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry in November 3019, this attempt failed - Saruman was removed from power, sentenced to exile and killed by his own servant Grima.

After the death of Saruman, his spirit rushed to Valinor, but a cold wind blew from the West, the spirit of Saruman dispelled.

Externally, Saruman looked like a black-haired old man. At the end of the Third Age, his hair and beard turned almost completely gray. He was distinguished by tall stature, oblong face, dark eyes. At first wore a white cloak with a hood; the color of his cloak matched his nickname — Saruman Bely. Subsequently, I replaced this raincoat with a “rainbow”, that is, iridescent with all the colors of the rainbow when moving.

He was neither a human nor an elf (as some people thought). It was maya clothed with flesh, one of Istari . In this regard, he possessed immortality and incredible power. His main weapon was knowledge and speech: in addition to outstanding knowledge of the Rings of Power , Saruman was the Most Powerful Magician and skilled in engineering, but most importantly, he had an incredible gift of persuasion that very few could resist. Using the power of his speech, he was able to convince almost anyone of anything, so few could resist his charm. Only those with great willpower could resist the voice of Saruman.

When Tolkien began work on The Lord of the Rings, he did not yet have a clear idea of ​​the plot in the future, as well as the figure of Saruman. In 1940, records of Tolkien appear in the drafts of the wizard Saramond White (Saramund Ser), who trapped Gandalf. Later this character turned into Saruman Bely.

The image of Saruman may have been influenced by the legends of the Pied Piper of Hamelin , whose name has become a common name for a liar who is lured by empty promises, or by Aillen Mac Midia, a character in the cycle of Celtic legends about Finn who every year put the royal court to sleep with their magic tunes, and then burned everyone sleeping

It is also curious that the character of The Story of Ibrahim Mosul and the Devil , one of the Arabian tales of the Thousand and One Nights , Abu Murra (one of the names of the devil ), is very similar to Saruman by his appearance and the effect his voice has on others.

It is unlikely that Tolkien was interested in Arabian tales, but he could know something about them thanks to C. C. Lewis , who used the Nights material to create The Chronicles of Narnia .

• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
• Lord of the rings, Brotherhood of the ring
• The Lord of the Rings: Two Fortresses
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (director's version)

In the trilogy filmed by Peter Jackson, Saruman, unlike the book, is killed by Grima’s hand on the top of Orthank during Gandalf’s visit to Isengard, and the plotline with his exile and attempt to usurp power in the Shire is completely absent. In all the films of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as in the first and third parts of the Hobbit trilogy, the role of Saruman was played by British actor Christopher Lee .

• Alexander Gaginsky, editor of World of Fiction magazine, put Saruman on the 4th place in the list of the 10 most famous traitors in science fiction , expressing the opinion that Saruman’s actions were not treason, but politics, and that the magician betrayed only Eru Iluvatar, as well as colleagues in the Order of Mages ^[1] .

• Isengard
• Orthank
• Gandalf