218 – Renegade

Unable to persuade Théoden, Saruman now tries to sway Gandalf, not realizing his former underling has gotten a promotion and executive sponsorship for his project since the last time they touched base. As before, Saruman totters between slick sweet-talking and explosive rage until finally Gandalf — amused/not amused — strips him of his staff and place on the White Council. We read Treebeard dialogue for almost the last time; unpack, hang, and whack the Fëanor piñata; and ponder what good Saruman might still have done for the war effort… if only.

Jay Ruud’s 2009 Mythlore essay “The Voice of Saruman: Wizards and Rhetoric in The Two Towers” can be found online here.

Dennis Wilson Wise’s 2016 Journal of Tolkien Research essay “Harken Not to Wild Beasts: Between Rage and Eloquence in Saruman and Thrasymachus” can be found online here.

For more of Bret Devereaux’s 8-part blog series analyzing the Battle of Helm’s Deep, see A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry here.

For Alan’s 2016 Prancing Pony Pondering “Boromir’s Greatest Victory”, see here.

Recommended Reading:

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Two Towers: Being the Second Part of The Lord of the Rings (Mariner Books, paperback) “The Voice of Saruman”, pp. 567-73

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The Silmarillion (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth (Mariner Books, paperback)

Tolkien, J. R. R. (Christopher Tolkien, ed.) The War of the Ring (The History of Middle-earth, Vol. 8) (Houghton Mifflin, paperback)

Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, paperback)

Hammond, Wayne G. and Christina Scull. The Lord of the Rings: A Reader’s Companion (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hardcover)