📖👀 Chapter 10 (📔Book III): The Voice of 🧙Saruman

[Rivendell_librarian]

Having just had a General Election in the UK and with other important elections happening this year in so many places (India, France and soon the USA) there is definitely some applicability (letter 202 to Faith Tolkien) in this chapter! "White man speak with forked tongue" though I don't know if Tolkien ever watched or read any westerns. It's interesting that it is Gimli who breaks the spell of Saruman's voice. "I am old and fear no peril" Theoden says. Having lost so much because of Saruman he isn't going to miss out on this confrontation even though Gandalf warns that a cornered beast is still dangerous.

Eomer adds his opinion: "have we ridden forth to victory, only to stand at last amazed by an old liar with honey on his forked tongue". Theoden finally masters his anger to say: "we will have peace when you and all your works have perished - and the works of your dark master to whom you would deliver us. You are a liar, Saruman, and a corrupter of men's hearts. You hold out your hand to me, and I perceive only a finger of the claw of Mordor" Theoden wants to hang Saruman from a gibbet from his own window as food for crows but Gandalf again applies the principle of mercy.

Saruman now appears like a hissing snake rather than a reasonable wizard, describing Meduseld as a thatched barn full of drunken brigands. Saruman plays one last throw and tries to win Gandalf round. Gandalf does offer him his freedom if he will give up the Key of Orthanc and his staff. Saruman refuses and we see that Gandalf the White is more powerful than Saruman, able to command Saruman to turn back and to remotely break Saruman's staff. To add to Saruman's woes, Wormtongue throws the precious Palantir at Gandalf: it misses and is rescued by Pippin though Gandalf quickly commandeers it. Treebeard agrees to prevent Saruman escaping. In a parting word to Merry and Pippin Treebeard asks them to keep a look out for the Entwives when they return north. Theoden, the Rohirrim and the six members of the fellowship ride back to the thatched barn (thatched with gold!).

 

[Olorgando]

My last re-reading of LotR was of the older translation from 1969/70. I found myself getting impatient with Saruman's long-winded appeals to various characters. "Yadda, yadda ... get on with it, willya!"
I don't recall such a reaction to the original. I'm not blaming Margaret Carroux' translation, it could be a case of fine points not surviving translation.
What's also possible that I've been exposed to the blatherings of politicians (and other occupations where my ability to suspend disbelief tends to be indistinguishable from zero, basically anything with the slightest whiff of "advertising") in German far more than in English. And Saruman sure sounds like the lowest form of a politician, perhaps that's the reason for my impatience.

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

I may be being unfair to think of politicians of today when thinking of Saruman in his speech. Given the time Tolkien lived through he may have been thinking of far more egregious examples; "I have no further territorial ambitions" as one of them more or less said. It's just that having just had a General Election - mercifully only 6 weeks - and now the news in the UK is so much about the US election which is still 4 months away - well one can get a bit annoyed.

On a lighter (and maybe better) note, I noted that Eomer names Theoden's son Theodred and his doorkeeper, Hama, when condemning Saruman to the silent Theoden. Hama was someone of whom everyone seemed to speak and think well, and I think he was well portrayed by the actor who played his part, though PJ changed his story of course.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

I don't think there's any doubt about Saruman being at least in part, Tolkien's sardonic comment on politicians, with such speeches as 'There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means.'

I don't know if Tolkien ever watched or read any westerns

He must have read some as a boy, since he said in a letter that he never really cared for pirate stories, but "Red Indians were better". The image of the Riders running in an ever-tightening circle about the Three Hunters, while Aragorn stands stoically silent, like one of the great Plains Indian chiefs, always struck me as owing to that boyhood reading.