The staff...
One of the oft repeated questions about the lord of the rings tale is the one about the signifigance of the staffs of the wizards. Many a Freudian psychoanalyst has had a field day with Gandalf breaking Sarumans staff. Yet I believe most analysts have failed to see the deeper significancies in this. Significansies involving all maiar.
There seems to be a set of rules governing the maiar in the middle earth. This set of rules seems to have something to do with the issue of mortal vs immortal lands. I think in the mortal lands the maiar could only truly tap their immortal powers by forming some bond with this land. This seems to be especially true in the time of the istari, so the separation of the valinor from the middle earth had an effect. The ainur power has a source. Be it in valar (rebel or not) or in an assumed bond of different nature. This bond also could make them mortal/vulnerable. They could die and they could succumb to the ”temptations of flesh.”
Only after falling in love with Thingol, was Melian able to create the barriers surrounding Doriath and perhaps also to create the golden age of sindar within it. When Thingol died, Melian withered away going where the eleves go after mortal death. This I think is one of the three great love stories of the epic.
Balrogs had awesome powers but none seem to have been able to give themselves a new body after destruction of their form. Perhaps their violent power was gained by taking this (mortal-demonic) form.
Sauron is killed and takes a now body thrice. First time morgoth is still around to give it to him and unlike balrogs, he is valuable to Morgoth because of his spiritual features (great evil, witchcraft, shapechanging) and not because of the physical strenghts of an assumed permanent bodily form. He is still ainur using vala as a source for ones powers. Thus it is no wonder that the option of forgiveness of valar is open to him unlike to the balrogs. The two latter times he dies he has already bonded his spirit to the one ring. The maiar of Istari (no weaklings) outnumbered Sauron 5 to 1 and were fearful to fight him. Their sources of power were far away and he was part of the mortal world now.
Tom Bombadil has great powers, but only within his lands, to which he is in a way bonded. Radagast had bonded to the
land, but has also succumbed to it forgetting what he came to do. Radagast might well have been the most powerfull of istari, if one would rate theese matters by the terms of birds. Both withered and disappeared as the last enchantment of mortal lands died away sometime at the fourth age. It is interresting to note that the ainur having served Aule seem to be prone to succumbing to evil perhaps by starting to tap things they made to feed their ambition. The ainur who served Yawanna seem to be prone to bond with the nature and forget all obligations.
It would seem to me that Saruman had become part of the mortal lands by bonding to orthanc and to his position as a wizard and head of the white council and also to things he had made. So he had become more able to tap his powers and was able to imprison Gandalf. This explains Gandalfs rueful words at the pass of Caradras: ”his arm has indeed grown long.”
Also thus Saruman had fallen and become vulnerable. Gandalf and his friends destroyed most of those things his power was built on (isengards might, position as the white wizard leading the council). It is not the first thing to come to ones mind, but really between the two encounters of the two, Saruman had changed more then Gandalf. Perhaps Gandalf was invigorated by his death and return having been close to Valinor. But Saruman had lost all he thought was strong, theese were the words of Gandalf in the isengard. Gandalf was then able to take away the rest of Sarumans power. Breaking the staff was a bit more then symbol of taking the power away. By this logic the symbol often is the power.
Gandalf was the only on of the istari to ”succeed.” He remained in heart bonded to immortal lands and to his mission. The istari were not supposed to bond with the mortal lands. It made them stronger only in a limited sense. We can see how Saruman had ceased to be able to relate to Gandalfs thoughts and ceased to think Sauron could be resisted. He had started thinking in totally worldly terms of counting the swords, while Gandalf was always able to see light and hope in mens hearts. And Saruman had indeed become vulnerable. When he imprisoned Gandalf he was way stronger then him and could not even then take away Gandalfs power as Gandalf later did to weakened Saruman. Only Gandalf of the ainur in the mortal lands of the middle earth ever returned to west.
So the staff was important to Saruman and perhaps to other failed istari. Breaking Sarumans staff and gathering the staffs of the five wizards did really matter. It was not important to Gandalf and so taking the staff from Gandalf while he was imprisoned in orhanc would not have mattered.
Lotr is in a way a story of mortality. It is a story of the mortality of men And it is story of the passing of things immortal from the mortal lands, the passing of magic, which is in a way immortal in nature. The immortal times when gods battled on the earth are followed by timelessness of the eleves and lingering enchantment of the land. This is in turn followed by mortality, age of men with only faintest traces of fading magic and greatness.
LOTR is in my opinion to a great degree a story of acceptance of ones destiny. Of the ordeal of the men of Numenor to accept that they must die. Of the ordeal of eleves to accept that their magic and their kingdoms must fade. And to equal degree of the ordeal of many ainur to fade away from the world with the valar, and not to try and become part of the mortal lands... even though they could become gods or at least powerful natural spirits.
Janne Harju
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