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Originally Posted by davem
Actually, it doesn't say he 'produced' Orcs at all, merely that he indulged in a bit of genetic engineering.
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Yes, that was rather my point. The image of Saruman spawning Orcs from the earth is one that comes solely from the films. And, as narfforc points out, the quote you gave doesn't even require the notion of genetic engineering. Gandalf's reference to Saruman's "foul craft" might simply be to a straightforward, albeit repellent, cross-breeding programme.
One issue on which Rhod might have a point, however, is the swiftness with which Saruman appears to have been able to build up such a large force of Orcs. There was a thread on this a while back. I cannot remember the exact dates, but I do recall the suggestion that there simply wasn't enough time (between the date upon which Saruman is said to have begun amassing his army and the year of the War of the Ring) for him to breed such a huge army. Perhaps some magic was involved in the process, although there is no suggestion that this was the purpose of his Ring.
I rather agree that, if the Ring had any power, it was directed towards enhancing the user's natural abilities - in Saruman's case, his voice in particular.
I wonder if it allowed the user to become invisible? Doubtful, I suppose, because otherwise Saruman would have used it to this end at some point, for example to avoid the Black Riders or escape Treebeard.
Do we know if he still had it when he staged the Shire coup? Surely Gandalf would have relieved him of it when he was cornered at Isengard.