Saruman is a key character in the "Lord of the Rings". He is the primary antagonist in "Both Towers" and hangs around the edges of the story and before and after that moment, threatening peace and stability through the middle country in the process. From Get-Go, there is no doubt Saruman: He is a wizard bad. And when I say "wizard", I don't mean your average wizard. This is one of Tolkien's five famous - angelic creatures sent to protect the free nations of the world from the threat of Sauron.

Saruman fails to succeed in his mission, breaking badly and goes by power for himself. In the book "Returning the King"He dies differently than in the extended edition of Peter Acksecson on the same story. In the print version, it is still stabbed to death by Wormtongue, but not on the Ortank Tower. The violent event takes place on the door of the bag end in Shire. Shortly before he died, Frodo actually advises his colleagues hobbies (including the intensely protective Gamgee Samwy) not to kill Istria, saying:

"No, Sam! (...) Don't kill him even now. For he didn't hurt me. And in any case I don't want him to be killed in this evil mood. He was great once, of a noble species that we should not dare to raise his hands against. He has fallen, and his medicine is above us;

This recognition of Saruman's original magnificence and eventual falling from Grace raises a question: with the longevity of the wizards of long millennia, when Saruman actually goes from a protagonist to the antagonist? When he turns into evil? I did deep digging in the source material to understand when, exactly, that switch happens - and it turns out that although the answer is there, it is complex and convoluted as every other answer that Tolkien gives us.

The first thing to remember is that Saruman is old. He arrives in the middle of the country previously packaged in his old form for approximately 1,000 years in the third time (and thus 2,000 years before the "Lord of the Rings"). The "King's Return" supplements added, "it was said that (the wizards) came out of the far west." As for Saruman specifically, he has already been alive countless millennia as Maya (angelic spirit) named Kurumo.

This immortal element makes it difficult to measure a certain moment or event in Saruman's life when it may switch from good to bad, but it's not a deadlock. A person may consider going bad for a long time before they support these feelings with actions, and Tolkien gives us a few hints on when Saruman may have crossed that line from an internal struggle to a really wicked way of thinking.

In the first 1,500 years after arriving in the middle country, Saruman travels In the distant eastern regions of Roon and returns. He also becomes the master of Oreubov and is respected as the leading wizard of the West. At this point he made the leader of the White Council, who formed 2,463 years in era. When that happened, Silmarion says that his "pride and desire of mastery were grown great" before declaring:

Kurun turned to dark thoughts and was already a traitor in the heart.

He announces that he already wants the great ring at this point, "in order to use himself and order the whole world of his will." Strong things. So, clearly, by the time we arrive within about 500 years of the story "Lord of the Rings", Saruman is already evil in his intentions, mind and heart.

While Saruman cannot officially be a "traitor in the heart" as long as he is relatively close to the "Lord of the Rings", in reality, Tolkien tells us that he is a mature slide in evil long before that moment. Those roots of evil are also associated with a soft struggle for peer power. The book "Unfinished Stories" gives us a few opportunities for this. One comes in part called "Gandalf, Saruman and Shire", where he describes Saruman's secret antipathy for Gandalf over the years and how he comes to see the gray wizard as a threat. Fans Theonering.net It refers to this as a "early struggle with soft power" for dominance and influence.

A little later in the book, in a section called "Istari", confirms that this is the case of the jump. The chapter explains how the wizards select Valar (the main ghosts of the middle country) and sent to the middle country. Saruman is first chosen (then called "Kurumo"), then one of the blue wizards, named Toolor, and then Gandalf - who doesn't even want to go to the beginning, saying he is too weak and afraid of Sauron. Valar pointed out that his calmness is why he is suitable for the task and when he commands him to go as a third of the group, one of them adds: "not as a third", prophetically hinting at Gandalph's leading role in the future fight against Sauron.

For our purposes here, that line ends with the frightening words, "and Kurumo remembered it." The implication, of course, is that even before they arrive in the middle country, Saruman's jeopardy for the role of Gandalf in the history of the middle country has already been ground beneath the surface.

We have found that the evil of Saruman is tied to his pride and goes to thousands of years before the "Lord of the Rings". If you want to become nibbling, he did not start accepting evil within a few hundred years later, when pride and knowledge grew, he is the head of the white council, and he secretly wants one to ring for his own. Even then, all evil is still in it - he still does not apply to it.

If you are looking for a moment when it completely "turns" evil, there is another option worth considering. In 500 years after becoming the head of the white council and became a "traitor in the heart", Saruman continued his meteoric growth. In the end, his status is so deep that Gondor gave him the keys to Ingengard as a home. He gets access to the Ortank Tower within its Wallsids and in that ancient structure, He finds a palantrist. The watching stone gives it even more power, as it can now look far through the middle country and learn things right away.

However, its use of Palantír eventually becomes his last pressure in open evil acts. The "King's Return" supplements say around 3000 from the third age:

Saruman dares to use Palantir of Ortank, but becomes trapped by Sauron, who has Iil-Kamen. He becomes a traitor to the council.

This happens a year before Billbo's 111th birthday and less than 20 years before Frodo's search. So, we have three key points in Saruman's slide in evil:

• Before it arrives even in the middle country, Saruman is already pride and preserves evil thoughts for Gandalf.

• 1,500 years after his arrival, Saruman was elected the leader of the White Council and became a traitor in his heart.

• Less than 20 years before Frodo's search, Saruman used Palantar and captured by Sauron, becoming his treacherous vassal.

Finding the correct moment Saruman turns into evil is one thing, but does not fully answer the question of Why He breaks badly when others like Gandalf and Radagast. Again, Tolkien is not direct for this, but if you add everything, the author constantly touches on a few main themes with the saruman character's arc.

It starts with the naked powder for power. Although it is contained in an old body (as a way to avoid creating two dark masters), Saruman falls into the same trap as Sauron. The wizard is covered by the desire to control control over others. He mentions this in the book "The Ring" scholar, when he tries to seduce Gandalf on his side by telling him:

"Our time is at hand: the world of the people we must rule. But we must have the power, the power to order all the things we want, for the good that only the wise can see."

While this is a little more on the speculative side, Saruman also seems to have some degree of intolerance with his physical restrictions when it comes to fighting Sauron. The wizard spends a lot of time studying things like an ancient orbus and the rings of power. He accepts positions of power and leadership, as well as a gift to Ortank. Wherever you look, even when he is not official evil, he seeks ways to gather power through knowledge, control and physical brutal force. The pure mountain of information it receives also seems to be an temptation in itself, as it learns about things such as raising the ring and the wicked empire that create the past.

Then, of course, here is his alubmorrhe of Gandalf. It seems to be always there, and Tolkien returns to him as a factor over and over. Whether it's frustration, desire, knowledge or alubmorrhemorrhea, however, one thing is for sure: Saruman's slide in evil is a long time, and when he finally makes his move during the "Lord of the Rings", it has a cataclysmic impact on the war and the search for Frodo.