Saruman's ring

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Ardent

If I've understood Lanwende's post #13 (and the links in it) correctly, then the rings acted as if to bridge the gap between the sub-conscious and conscious, or between the creative and logical sides of the brain. So if you're in fact a Maiar or Elf, who has a supernatural essence wrapped in a body, then a ring unlocks that nature.

In Elves, the fea is bound to the world. When they die, the hroa obviously withers, but their fea is supposed to go to the Halls of Mandos (not always, as there are 'houseless fea' which linger in Middle-earth - some by choice, some not, in fact that was Saruman's fate). In Men, when the hroa dies, then the fea also leaves the world - the two are much more enmeshed.

Both Elves and Men have an innate ability to communicate with the mind. In Elves, according to the Osanwe-Kenta, this is easier owing to the nature of hroa/fea, in Men, it is more difficult. However, sanwe is less about sending your thoughts to others, more about being open to the thoughts of others. The difference in how well sanwe works in Elves and Men is down to the hroa - in Men it is much more protective.

Tolkien may have put this information into an obscure essay, but it creeps in throughout the published texts. We know that the Elves 'perceive' what Sauron has done when he puts on the One and conceal their own Rings (I take this as the three bearers closing their minds to him, and of course closing the greater perception that might be available due to the Rings they wear). We see it during dream sequences. And of course we see it in how those who wear the One feel observed. There are other intriguing references to hroa/fea such as when Eowyn is threatened by the Witch-king with: "flesh shall be devoured, and your shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye". Which hint at how the Nine rings work on Men to create Ringwraiths.

I think the Rings of Power work in one way to facilitate greater opening of the mind in sanwe (the Three especially), in some cases perhaps even to facilitate control (the Nine, in particular), and they work in another way to break the link between hroa/fea, especially in the case of Men. The One completely and instantly breaks the link between hroa/fea of course in Men/Hobbits, we don't know how it would work with an Elf though (would it destroy or empower him or her?). Wearing it means that Men no longer have the protection that the hroa gives them. It's also possible that one failing it has is that it cannot destroy the hroa, only wither it (a matter of opinion maybe).

So, Saruman may have known very well that a Ring of Power had benefits linked to sanwe. He may also have known that it would work on the link between hroa/fea. The only character we know who was a Maiar apart from Sauron to wear one of these Rings was Gandalf, and we can see that he has a tremendous power - no doubt part of what drove Saruman was to gain some of this, presuming he knew about it.

Saruman makes a Ring that's different and new, crafted based on his own learning. He also forges a new way based on broken Light - another recurring theme throughout Tolkien's work is Light and how various characters seek to possess, devour and destroy it. Saruman seeks to see what it is made from and make something new. I don't have any doubts that if it was crafted correctly then he could have quickly wielded great power - Saruman already had an incredibly powerful command over language and used his voice to persuade to devastating effect and with a Ring that enhanced this...

Whether he was ever going to succeed is an interesting point because it's hard to know just how much he was influenced by Sauron, and how independent he was.

One thing I really wish Tolkien had done at the end of Lord of the Rings was have someone pick up Saruman's Ring and pocket it - like the moment in Doctor Who when we see a hand creep in and take The Master's ring from his pyre...

[Ardent]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

...One thing I really wish Tolkien had done at the end of Lord of the Rings was have someone pick up Saruman's Ring and pocket it - like the moment in Doctor Who when we see a hand creep in and take The Master's ring from his pyre...

I'd forgotten that ring, but remember thinking how the pocket watches of the Doctor and the Master, along with the horcruxes in Harry Potter, do much the same as the Rings in preserving the personality.

With rgards to the idea that Saruman was exploring the properties of light, I wonder if he learned something of the art of Radagast, who Gandalf describes as "a master of shapes and changes of hue". Certainly he regarded Radagast as a "fool", and we know he plied Treebeard for information. As Treebeard says:

"I told him many things that he would never have found out by himself; but he never repaid me in like kind."

He also goes on to say how Saruman's Orcs can endure the Sun, making them more like wicked men, which suggests another way in which the wizard had mastered light.

[Lalwendë]

With regard to Tom and dragons and so forth being Maiar, as Father Jack says, that would be an ecumenical matter....and probably suited for a new discussion.

Originally Posted by Ardent

I'd forgotten that ring, but remember thinking how the pocket watches of the Doctor and the Master, along with the horcruxes in Harry Potter, do much the same as the Rings in preserving the personality.

I think it's a common theme in literature (and by extension, TV and film) for a character to invest part of themselves into an object - it's something which may even extend into the pre-literary past. The Smiths (as in Wayland, not Morrissey) were seen as magicians with their ability to turn rocks into swords, so it's not difficult to see where the trope comes from. It's one I really like.

With rgards to the idea that Saruman was exploring the properties of light, I wonder if he learned something of the art of Radagast, who Gandalf describes as "a master of shapes and changes of hue". Certainly he regarded Radagast as a "fool", and we know he plied Treebeard for information. As Treebeard says:

"I told him many things that he would never have found out by himself; but he never repaid me in like kind."

He also goes on to say how Saruman's Orcs can endure the Sun, making them more like wicked men, which suggests another way in which the wizard had mastered light.[/QUOTE]

Going to have a look at this one in the book as it's passed my notice...cheers!

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

One thing I really wish Tolkien had done at the end of Lord of the Rings was have someone pick up Saruman's Ring and pocket it - like the moment in Doctor Who when we see a hand creep in and take The Master's ring from his pyre...

If I might make a humorous aside before I begin, I'm afraid that to me the modern version of Doctor Who is a bit like the films of The Lord of the Rings: my love is reserved for the original, in this case the Hartnell-to-Radagast, I mean McCoy, era (McGann too), and I'm extremely skeptical of almost everything in the modern interpretations. My mind is reeling at the thought of Professor Tolkien's work being at all improved by having similarities to the writing of Mr Russell T Davies...

Anyway.

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Saruman makes a Ring that's different and new, crafted based on his own learning. He also forges a new way based on broken Light - another recurring theme throughout Tolkien's work is Light and how various characters seek to possess, devour and destroy it. Saruman seeks to see what it is made from and make something new.

Personally I see Saruman's "of Many Colours" routine as being symptomatic of a descent into darkness: first the light is broken, then it goes out. Consider, if you will, Morgoth in Valaquenta: "He began with the desire of Light, but when he could not possess it for himself alone, he descended through fire and wrath into a great burning, down into darkness." To me this act of refraction on the part of Saruman evokes the decay of motives which emphasises him as a feeble imitation of his diabolic role models, much like his attempts to forge his own Ring: "for all those arts and subtle devices, for which he forsook his former wisdom, and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor". (LR p.542)

Originally Posted by Ardent

He also goes on to say how Saruman's Orcs can endure the Sun, making them more like wicked men, which suggests another way in which the wizard had mastered light.

This is another example, I would argue, of how Saruman was merely an imitator of Sauron; the Dark Lord had achieved the same thing with Trolls, the Olog-hai: "they could endure the Sun, so long as the will of Sauron held sway over them."
I personally don't see anything different or new about Saruman's activities, just inferior replications of the evil of Sauron. That his servants needed protection from the light (if this was not a mere effect of them being bred with Men) to me symbolises his evil. It is not an act of mastery; it is a compensation for one of the shortcomings of rebellion - an anathema for and weakness to something holy and good. I would suggest that, much like Sauron in the Second Age, Saruman still had "the relics of positive purposes" at some point in his plan (although I very much doubt that these were still present by the time of the Scouring of the Shire). "Sauron had, in fact, been very like Saruman, and so still understood him quickly and could guess what he would be likely to think and do." (Morgoth's Ring p.396) In this way I tend to see Saruman's fall, with its ring-making and many colours, as a sort of sped-up, rushed version of Sauron's own, and correspondingly fragmented for its brevity and Saruman's relatively lesser strength.