Saruman's Ring

[Kate Neville]

I have been wondering about what sort of ring Saruman might make for himself.

The Elven Rings are said to have been made to enhance their powers of "understanding, making, and healing, to preserve all things unstained." But the rings that went to Men and to Dwarves were not specifically meant for them, which to me means that they were designed to enhance whatever power the holder most wanted. (The One Ring, of course, was designed to enhance Sauron's natural ability to dominate the will of others.)

The first rings that were made, the "lesser rings," were not as potent, but still "dangerous for mortals." It is unlikely that Saruman was able to make a ring as powerful as one of the Three (no Celebrimbor, he), but the ring he did make -- and wear -- must have had some level of power.

I suspect that it was meant to enhance his power of vocal seduction, a natural gift that had already served him well on the White Council. It may be that his success with Radagast satisfied him that his ring was indeed enhancing his powers (although I suspect that Radagast's simple, trusting nature had more to do with it).

Did Saruman believe that his ring would help him to persuade Gandalf, or to intimidate him? Did Saruman think of it as a test of his ability to handle Sauron? In any case, he would have considered the encounter a win/win: either Gandalf joins the obviously winning team, or Saruman has a valuable token to dangle in front of Sauron on his next Palantir call.

 

[Jim Deutch]

Did Saruman believe that his ring would help him to persuade Gandalf, or to intimidate him?

I think he must have thought so. But evidently Gandalf didn't think much of Saruman's Ring-making: if it had any effect at all on him, it was nowhere near enough.

I really wonder what Sauron thought of Saruman's little ring? Laughing up his sleeve, I expect.

 

[Flammifer]

Hi Kate,

I like your suggestion on what powers Saruman tried to build into his ring. I think it is a very likely possibility.

Let me suggest another possibility, however. Perhaps Saruman built his ring to try to enhance 'anti-domination' powers? Saruman has already been contending with Sauron via palantir, so anything which would help him resist domination by Sauron would be useful. Saruman is also hoping that Gandalf will soon be coming. Gandalf might have (Saruman suspects) the One Ring. He might be wielding it! If so, anti-domination powers might also be useful against Gandalf.

Now, one way in which Saruman might resist domination is to enhance the persuasive powers of his speech, but he might have tried to incorporate other anti-domination powers into his ring as well.

Saruman manages to resist domination by Sauron pretty well. He remains his own power, really in opposition to Sauron (though also in opposition to other forces opposed to Sauron, such as Rohan). His continued opposition to Sauron's will is illustrated by the actions of his Uruk-hai, at his command, carrying the captured hobbits towards Isengard, despite the contrary commands of Sauron's orcs.

Whatever powers Saruman's ring has, they do not seem to have any effect on Gandalf. Perhaps this is because Gandalf never tries to dominate Saruman? Gandalf does not even really try to persuade Saruman, or argue with Saruman, let alone contend with Saruman (Peter Jackson au contraire).

All Gandalf does is state his own reasons for rejecting Saruman's plans. A ring which was designed to resist domination, or even to help with judo flips, reversing domination on a would-be dominator, might well have no effect where no domination was attempted?

 

[amysrevenge]

Here's my ret-con theory of Saruman's ring. The ret-con part is that I don't know if Tolkien had yet decided that Gandalf was carrying one of the Three during this confrontation, at the time that he wrote it.

It goes like this.

Saruman has made a Ring that extends his persuasiveness. The cost is that without it, his persuasiveness is less than it was before. Just imagining numbers because I'm a numbers guy, let's say his former Persuasion score was P85. He crafted a +40 Persuasion ring, at the cost of a permanent -15 Persuasion deduction to his natural score. So when wearing his new Ring, his Persuasion score is now P110. But without his Ring, it's only P70.

Saruman also knows that one who bears a Great Ring will see through his own lesser-but-still-small-'g'-great Ring's influence.

Through the grapevine, Saruman hears that Gandalf might just have gotten his hands on the One. How? There's no way of knowing. But it needs to be confirmed. It will not be possible to take the One by force, but that fool might still be talked out of it. He's obviously too weak to use it on his own, else he already would have.

So Saruman Ringmaker lays out this laughably obvious scheme to Gandalf, knowing that if Gandalf holds no Ring, his P110 will be more than sufficient to bamboozle him, and on the off chance that Gandalf actually holds the One, the P70 scheme will backfire and he'll know to move on to Plan B. The spanner in this works is that unbeknownst to Saruman, Gandalf is holding a different Great Ring! So now he thinks that he has the One on his roof, held by one too weak to use it, and time to wheedle it out of him.