Saruman's ring

[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.