How did the One Ring Corrupt Saruman?

Q: How did the One Ring Corrupt Saruman?

ANSWER: Not everyone believes that the One Ring had a direct influence on Saruman but some people feel it is possible. After all, Saruman was chosen to help lead the resistance of Elves and Men against Sauron, so why did he end up desiring the One Ring? Is it possible that the One Ring played a role in Saruman’s fall?

In Letter No. 181 (composed from several drafts probably written in late 1956) Tolkien said:

There is no ’embodiment’ of the Creator anywhere in this story or mythology. Gandalf is a ‘created’ person; though possibly a spirit that existed before in the physical world. His function as a ‘wizard’ is an angelos or messenger from the Valar or Rulers: to assist the rational creatures of Middle-earth to resist Sauron, a power too great for them unaided. But since in the view of this tale & mythology Power — when it dominates or seeks to dominate other wills and minds (except by the assent of their reason) — is evil, these ‘wizards’ were incarnated in the life-forms of Middle-earth, and so suffered the pains both of mind and body. They were also, for the same reason, thus involved in the peril of the incarnate: the possibility of ‘fall’, of sin, if you will. The chief form this would take with them would be impatience, leading to the desire to force others to their own good ends, and so inevitably at last to mere desire to make their own wills effective by any means. To this evil Saruman succumbed. Gandalf did not. But the situation became so much the worse by the fall of Saruman, that the ‘good’ were obliged to greater effort and sacrifice. Thus Gandalf faced and suffered death; and came back or was sent back, as he says, with enhanced power. But though one may be in this reminded of the Gospels, it is not really the same thing at all. The Incarnation of God is an infinitely greater thing than anything I would dare to write. Here I am only concerned with Death as part of the nature, physical and spiritual, of Man, and with Hope without guarantees. That is why I regard the tale of Arwen and Aragorn as the most important of the Appendices; it is pan of the essential story, and is only placed so, because it could not be worked into the main narrative without destroying its structure: which is planned to be ‘hobbito-centric’, that is, primarily a study of the ennoblement (or sanctification) of the humble.

Hence, on this occasion, at least, Tolkien suggests that Saruman fell to a weakness within himself, an impatience that grew into a desire to see his own will take effect through self-justified actions. The passage that seems to lead most people to believe that the Ring may have had an influence on Saruman seems to be this paragraph from “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age” in The Silmarillion:

Thus the Wise were troubled, but none as yet perceived that Curunír had turned to dark thoughts and was already a traitor in heart: for he desired that he and no other should find the Great Ring, so that he might wield it himself and order all the world to his will. Too long he had studied the ways of Sauron in hope to defeat him, and now he envied him as a rival rather than hated his works. And he deemed that the Ring, which was Sauron’s’, would seek for its master as he became manifest once more; but if he were driven out again, then it would lie hid. Therefore he was willing to play with peril and let Sauron be for a time, hoping by his craft to forestall both his friends and the Enemy, when the Ring should appear.

However, Saruman’s “fall” may not have been due entirely to his desire to control others. According to an entry in “The Tale of Years” in Appendix B in The Lord of the Rings:

c. 3000 The shadow of Mordor lengthens. Saruman dares to use the palantír of Orthanc, but becomes ensnared by Sauron, who has the Ithil Stone. He becomes a traitor to the Council. His spies report that the Shire is being closely guarded by the Rangers.

It would seem that Saruman’s lust for the Ring led him to use the palantír and thus Sauron was finally able to overcome Saruman’s remaining loyalty to the Free Peoples. But could the One Ring have influenced Saruman? The closest he ever came to the One Ring was when he settled in Orthanc and Gollum still held the Ring in the Misty Mountains. In “The Shadow of the Past” in The Fellowship of he Rings, Gandalf notes that the Ring acted of its own accord in some ways:

‘There was more than one power at work, Frodo. The Ring was trying to get back to its master. It had slipped from Isildur’s hand and betrayed him; then when a chance came it caught poor Deal, and he was murdered; and after that Gollum, and it had devoured him. It could make no further use of him: he was too small and mean; and as long as it stayed with him he would never leave his deep pool again. So now, when its master was awake once more and sending out his dark thought from Mirkwood, it abandoned Gollum. Only to be picked up by the most unlikely person imaginable: Bilbo from the Shire!

The Ring seems to be only passively receiving a call from Sauron, but there is another passage where it is shown to be able to call evil to itself. In “The Disaster of the Gladden Fields”, published in Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth Tolkien writes:

But he was mistaken. There was not only cunning in the attack, but fierce and relentless hatred. The Orcs of the Mountains were stiffened and commanded by grim servants of Barad-dûr, sent out long before to watch the passes, and though it was unknown to them the Ring, cut from his black hand two years before, was still laden with Sauron’s evil will and called to all his servants for their aid. The Dúnedain had gone scarcely a mile when the Orcs moved again. This time they did not charge, but used all their forces. They came down on a wide front, which bent into a crescent and soon closed into an unbroken ring about the Dúnedain. They were silent now, and kept at a distance out of the range of the dreaded steelbows of Númenor, though the light was fast failing, and Isildur had all too few archers for his need. He halted.

Of course, it has been noted that the One Ring at the end of the Third Age may have been less capable of calling Sauron’s servants to itself, much less of corrupting anyone over great distances. And yet, Saruman’s own innate power may have led to the growth of his desire; a lesser being might not have become so easily drawn to the Ring. Certainly many Elves and Men who know about the Ring did not fall in the same way Saruman did.

In the final analysis, you have to decide for yourself whether Saruman was corrupted by the Ring. It’s perfectly plausible to accept that Saruman’s fall was due to his own internal flaws; but Tolkien seems to have allowed some room for doubt. Perhaps there is a note somewhere, as yet unpublished, that sheds more light on this topic.

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