This Dark Lord of the Rings Theory Quietly Changes Everything About Saruman and Wormtongue

Loyalty was normally seen as a constructive trait in The Lord of the Rings, however loyalty might be misplaced, as was the case for Gríma Wormtongue. Although he pretended to serve King Théoden, he was truly Saruman’s spy. Saruman incessantly mistreated Wormtongue, abusing him each bodily and verbally, but he remained by the villainous Wizard’s facet. In Peter Jackson’s trilogy of movie variations, the heroes gave Wormtongue a number of probabilities to redeem himself. They confirmed him mercy after Gandalf introduced Théoden to his senses, and they tried to persuade him to come back down from the high of Orthanc when coping with Saruman after the Final March of the Ents.

J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novel included a pair extra examples. In the chapter “Many Partings” from The Return of the King, Gandalf encountered Saruman and Wormtongue on the highway. Wormtongue was muttering, “Poor previous Gríma! Poor previous Gríma! At all times overwhelmed and cursed. How I hate him! I want I may depart him!” When Gandalf requested why he didn’t abandon his grasp, Wormtongue “solely shot a look of his bleared eyes full of terror” in the direction of the Wizard and continued on his method. Lastly, throughout the Scouring of the Shire, Frodo Baggins provided to assist Wormtongue if he stopped serving Saruman. In each variations of the story, Wormtongue rejected these gives time and time once more. He did finally activate Saruman and homicide him, however at that time, it was too late for him, and he met his finish mere moments later. Wormtongue’s refusal to repent might be attributed to many components, starting from his concern of Saruman to his hatred of most of the Rohirrim, however a fan idea supplies a darker cause for his continued loyalty to Saruman, and it stems from a small but vital element in the novel.

Saruman Was Obsessed With Rings of Energy in The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien described Saruman as a grasp of “Ring-lore,” the examine of magical rings. None of the Elves who helped create the Rings of Energy in the Second Age remained in Center-earth by the time of The Lord of the Rings, so Saruman was second solely to the Dark Lord Sauron in his information of Ring-lore. It was as a result of of this experience that he was chosen to guide the Order of the Istari, the 5 Wizards despatched to Center-earth to handle the risk of Sauron’s return. Nonetheless, the extra that Saruman studied the Rings of Energy, the extra he desired them, and he longed for the One Ring most of all. In truth, a significant factor contributing to Saruman’s fall to evil was a Ring of Energy; an Elf named Círdan the Shipwright selected to provide Narya, the Ring of Hearth, to Gandalf quite than Saruman, stoking the latter’s intense jealousy. Regardless of his greatest efforts, Saruman by no means received his palms on the One Ring or another Ring of Energy, however he tried to make one of his personal.

In the chapter “The Council of Elrond” from The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf recounted his assembly with Saruman in Isengard. It was just like Jackson’s depiction, however there have been some features that the movie not noted, together with the element that Saruman “wore a hoop on his finger” and known as himself “Saruman Ring-maker.” He had created his personal magical ring in imitation of the Rings of Energy, though his was considerably weaker. Gandalf didn’t appear notably involved about it, and he didn’t confiscate it after Saruman’s defeat. In the foreword to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien talked about that if Saruman had been capable of enter Sauron’s tower of Barad-dûr, he might need been capable of finding “the lacking hyperlinks in his personal researches into Ring-lore,” which indicated that there have been gaps in his information. Regardless of this, Saruman presumably wouldn’t have worn his ring if it had been ineffective. Maybe it simply amplified his pure Wizard powers, however possibly, like the One Ring, it gave him some management over those that wore different rings of his creation. Some followers imagine that Saruman gave a lesser magical ring to Wormtongue and then used his personal ring to control him, like Sauron did to the 9 Males who would change into the Nazgûl.

Saruman Would possibly Have Magically Influenced Wormtongue

Picture through New Line Cinema

In The Lord of the Rings‘ lore, dominating the minds of different beings was extremely tough, requiring nice magical may, willpower, and malicious intent. Tolkien wrote that Frodo couldn’t have commanded the Nazgûl regardless of possessing the One Ring, as a result of controlling others was not in his nature. Even Sauron himself solely discovered partial success, as he couldn’t bend Dwarves to his will as he did Males. Saruman was weaker than Sauron, particularly when trapped in his bodily physique, however he was nonetheless a Maia like Sauron. In one other similarity to Sauron, he had been skilled in the arts of crafting and forging by Aulë, one of the godlike Valar. Due to this fact, he might need been capable of approximate a lesser model of what Sauron achieved with the One Ring. The relative weak point of Saruman’s ring would clarify why Wormtongue finally betrayed his grasp, in contrast to the Nazgûl, whose minds had been utterly and completely dominated. Maybe it simply subtly influenced him as an alternative of actually controlling him.

A chunk of proof working in opposition to this idea is that Wormtongue was not described as sporting a hoop in the novel, nor was a hoop seen on his hand in Jackson’s variations or in Ralph Bakshi’s animated The Lord of the Rings movie. Nonetheless, Wormtongue sporting a hoop won’t have been crucial. It was implied that Sauron took the Nazgûl’s Rings of Energy again as soon as they had been beneath his management; in the novel, Gandalf and Galadriel each talked about that the 9 Rings had been in Sauron’s possession, and Tolkien didn’t point out that the Nazgûl had been sporting rings. It might be the case that, as soon as Sauron had damaged the Nazgûl’s minds, they continued to serve him even with out their Rings of Energy. If that’s the case, possibly Wormtongue wore a hoop for some time and stopped doing so as soon as he was beneath Saruman’s spell. In spite of everything, Wormtongue had already been manipulating Théoden for no less than 5 years by the time he first appeared in The Lord of the Rings, and he was most likely working for Saruman lengthy earlier than he started to place that plan into movement.

Saruman Did Not Want a Ring of Energy to Management Wormtongue

A closeup of Gríma Wormtongue looking at Éowyn in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

All in all, there’s not a lot to disprove this idea, however there are less complicated explanations for Wormtongue’s loyalty to Saruman in The Lord of the Rings. The Wizard provided him energy, one thing he in any other case lacked. Saruman additionally promised that Éowyn can be his after the conflict was over. This was showcased in Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, when Éomer angrily requested, “How lengthy is it since Saruman purchased you? What was the promised value, Gríma?” Wormtongue remained silent, however he glanced at Éowyn, to which Éomer responded, “Too lengthy have you ever watched my sister! Too lengthy have you ever haunted her steps!” Moreover, Saruman was extremely persuasive and manipulative, even with no Ring of Energy. In the novel, Saruman had a magical voice that made others extra prone to agree with him, an influence bordering on hypnotism. It took a powerful will to withstand Saruman, and a spineless coward like Wormtongue definitely didn’t have a powerful will. When given probabilities to be a greater individual, he as an alternative took the simple route of staying by Saruman’s facet, which brought on him much more struggling in the future.

There may be additionally a thematic cause to imagine that Saruman didn’t use a magical ring to manage Wormtongue. The One Ring was speculated to be the strongest and vital artifact in Center-earth by the time of the Third Age. Saruman managing to craft a hoop with related skills — even weaker variations of them — would take away from the narrative weight of the One Ring and be a detriment to the story total. That doesn’t imply that this isn’t an fascinating idea to think about. Regardless of enjoying an vital function in The Lord of the Rings, little is understood about Wormtongue, particularly from earlier than the occasions of the story. Tolkien barely touched on Wormtongue’s previous and seldom provided glimpses into his thoughts. A lot wanted to be inferred about Wormtongue from textual proof, which made him an ideal topic for followers who wished to craft theories about the lore, and the concept of Saruman controlling his minions identical to Sauron appears completely in character for the maniacal Wizard.