Who, in The Lord of the Rings, was the most effective liar?

[Boromir88]

I say Sauron because his lies were so effective it took the intervention of Iluvatar and a changing of the world.~Meriadoc

But by the 3rd Age (and well back into the 2nd) Sauron wasn't fooling anyone anymore. He had been 'figured out." He wasn't able to keep his "Necromancer" identity for long and the only people he managed to get on his side were the ones he bribed or intimidated. He tried to trick the dwarves into helping him, they wouldn't. The Elves, Gondorians, and Rohirrim weren't deceived by him anymore.

Sauron had lost his ability to put on a 'fair hue,' after the sinking of Numenor, so he no longer was deceiving anyone. He ruled (and 'grew' in power) with fear and bribery, not through deception.

Saruman relied solely on his cunning and his 'skillful voice' that corrupted your reasoning abilities. As Raynor pointed out Saruman had not only been fooling the White Council, and all of his allies, but for a time he was also fooling Sauron. I think we can see that in Gandalf's comment, which reminds me of the saying "you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar."

"So Saruman will come to the last pinch of the vice that he has put his hand in. He has no captive to send. He has no Stone to see with, and cannot answer the summons. Sauron will only believe that he is withholding the captive and refusing to use the Stone. It will not help Saruman to tell the truth to the messenger."~The Palantiri

Saruman was able to keep up a charade (I'm not good with years but I trust Raynor is correct when saying 160 years) for a long time. He was lying to the White Council, his allies, Sauron's servants, and even Sauron...and not just lying but able to keep it a secret for a long time. When he gets caught, he comes to the 'last pinch of the vice that he has put his hand in.'

But, I would like to add, and I mentioned this earlier. Even after Saruman is figured out, and his voice began to 'lose its charm' he still has significant 'skill.' As he holds the Men of Rohan in a 'dream-like' state for a while, and he causes a seed of doubt to arise in Theoden's mind (after Theoden just told Saruman he was full of crap).

To me that takes some skill, when everyone knows you're a tricky, in it for yourself, liar and you are still able to weave in doubt, you are still able to corrupt? Once Sauron lost his ability to assume a fair form, he was figured out and wasn't fooling anyone. He had to go to intimidation and bribery. Saruman still kept up his game of lying (lying quite 'effectively' I might add) even after everyone knew he was a traitor.

[Raynor]

I wouldn't want my words to be taken just for granted , regarding the 160+ years:

Originally Posted by Tale of Years, RotK

2851, Third Age

The White Council meets. Gandalf urges an attack on Dol Guldur. Saruman overrules him. [It afterwards became clear that Saruman had then begun to desire to possess the One Ring himself, and he hoped that it might reveal itself, seeking its master, if Sauron were let be for a time.] Saruman begins to search near the Gladden Fields.
...


July, 4, 3018

Gandalf imprisoned in Orthanc.

Originally Posted by Boromir88

Saruman still kept up his game of lying (lying quite 'effectively' I might add) even after everyone knew he was a traitor.

He also managed to successfully hide his intentions in his meeting with Gandalf, Galadriel, the hobbits et al, on August 28 - only to take over the Shire a month later. He still got the "skillz" .

[CSteefel]

Some very interesting posts.

Echoing some of the posts above, Sauron does seem a likely candidate in the 2nd Age, given that he deceived the men of Numenor so successfully, even if the fall of Numenor cannot be attributed to him alone. And perhaps more importantly, he did deceive the Elves of Eregion (with the exception of Galadriel). In the 3rd Age, I don't see much evidence that he deceived anybody.

Saruman was able to deceive the entire White Council, with the exception of Gandalf and Galadriel to some extent (it is stated that Galadriel preferred Gandalf as the choice for the head of the Council and that Gandalf did not share all he knew himself about the Ring that Bilbo had found, implying some level of mistrust). But even in the case of Galadriel, the suspicion was not strong enough that she was willing to derail Saruman's appointment. This is in contrast to Sauron, who was never capable of deceiving either Galadriel or Gil-galad, even in the 2nd Age. One might argue that Saruman initially was not evil, but the falsity of his intentions was clear from the time when he started to search the Gladden Fields secretly, as far back as 2851 as Raynor points out above. Add to that the deceit of the men of Rohan and you have a pretty good record.