Quote:
Originally Posted by Morthoron
Yes, I suppose it was a chicken or the egg type situation: did Saruman begin acting alone due to plots against him in the White Council, or did the Wise actually act wise in this instance and withheld information that became crucial to saving Middle-earth? As I said, this is an intriguing plot point. What were the misgivings that drove Galadriel and even Gandalf to hide certain important information from Saruman? After all, he was the leader of the Istari, and obviously thought highly of by the Valar. And that's another thing -- once again, the Valar make a misjudgment! The Silmarillion is littered with Valaric mismanagement and misjudgments!
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Well, not all of the Valar thought so highly of him. In the chapter about the Istari in UT, it is mentioned that at the council in which the first of the Istari were chosen, after Curumo/Saruman and Alatar jumped up and volunteered, and Manwe volunteered Olorin/Gandalf, Manwe said that Olorin would go "as the third," and Varda said, "not as the third," which Curumo remembered. I can only imagine that Tolkien mentioned that he remembered this because it was the first indication that things would not go well between the two. Alas, the book is up the stairs which I just fell down, and I'm not going back up until the ice packs on my knee and elbow have numbed things a bit more. sigh