Saruman's death

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Findegil

After his return Gandalf confirmes, that he was outside space and time. This can in the context of Middle-Earth only mean that he was with Eru.

What he actually says is

Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell.

The wording is somewhat ambiguous - out of thought and time could (I'm not saying does) mean something as simple as being unconscious and unaware of time passing, and roads that I will not tell could also refer to the West - he wouldn't say explicitly he'd been with the Valar as that would reveal his Maiarin nature.
Nevertheless, your argument that, being incarnated in a mortal body, he died and went to Eru like a mortal is convincing for me, and the Prof himself confirms it in Letter 156:

Gandalf really 'died', and was changed[...] He was sent by a mere prudent plan of the angelic Valar or governors; but Authority had taken up the plan and enlarged it, at the moment of its failure.

No need to assume Saruman's death was different, although Authority's verdict on him certainly was.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

The similarity I see is that both were given a judgement, it seems, by someone, in the form of the wind that takes them.

I think the wind obviously points to Manwe. If we accept that Saruman died a mortal's death, Manwe probably didn't pass judgement on Saruman himself, but we could say he refused Saruman's appeal and referred him to Eru's Supreme Court.

(x-ed with Legate, who makes some valid points which I still have to digest.)