Q: Why Was Saruman in Dunland after the War of the Ring?
ANSWER: Six days after bidding farewell to Aragorn (now King of Gondor and Arnor) at the Isen, the large party of Elves returning to Lothlorien and Rivendell (including Gandalf and the Hobbits) come upon Saruman and Grima Wormtongue. Gandalf and Galadriel offer Saruman a chance at redemption, which he scorns. He turns away and wanders off, hinting to the Hobbits “… when you come home … if you find things less good in Southfarthing than you would like”. When Gandalf asked Saruman where he was going Saruman only indicated he was seeking a way out of Aragorn’s realm.
Frankly, there wasn’t much opportunity in the north for Saruman, except in the Shire. Rivendell was certainly not his destination and it seems to me unlikely that he would have intended to travel east across the northern Misty Mountains. Furthermore, the reader finds out later that several hundred ruffians in Saruman’s service have seized control over the Shire.
It appears to me that as soon as Saruman persuaded Treebeard to free him he set out for the Shire with the intention of ruining it as a petty act of revenge. He may have been following the foothills of the Misty Mountains as he passed through Dunland toward Rivendell in order to avoid making the dangerous crossing at Tharbad (Boromir lost his horse there). Saruman would have had to pass near to Rivendell on that route, but he probably knew that Elrond was in Gondor. Treebeard almost certainly told him who had become king and about the wedding of Aragorn and Arwen.
Once they were overtaken by the Elves and Hobbits, though, Saruman and Grima would only have had the option of crossing the river at Tharbad. From there they would follow the Greenway northwest until they reached the fork. Then they would have turned left toward Southfarthing.
Assuming Saruman could have completed his mischief in the Shire and fled before being cast out, where would he have gone then? My guess is he would have to turn east and maybe seek passage through the northern mountains. He would have to travel far across the northern lands — past the lands of the Beornings, the Wood-elves of northern Mirkwood, and the Kingdoms of Dale and Erebor. Not until he got past the Iron Hills would Saruman finally be beyond the reach of Aragorn’s influence.
Of course, Saruman met his end in the Shire and all the above speculation is really unnecessary. But I think that, though Saruman’s power was destroyed with his ring, he would still have been “immortal” and could have set himself up as some petty lord somewhere among primitive men in the east. He might have been able to rebuild his influence in Middle-earth over time. So, to cap off my answer to this question, I would say that Saruman was in Dunland as part of a plan to leave one final mark against his enemies before setting off to carve out a new place for himself. I don’t believe he intended to remain in the Shire or in Eriador, which was controlled by the Elves and people he had betrayed.
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
What ring did Saruman have? Not one of the three.
Gandalf reported to the Council of Elrond that when he captured by Saruman that he was wearing a ring, with the unspoken implication that Saruman had made himself a ring of power using the lost lore of the original rings that he had uncovered.
Saruman also named himself “ring-maker” when he attempted to convert Gandalf to the cause of Sauron. I suppose that might have been Saruman’s attempt to duplicate Sauron’s own ability to sway minds with the One Ring.