[Thingol]

Well first off it never said that Saruman's ring was rainbow colored. Saruman's cloak shimmered and appeared to take on different colors, that is where the Saruman of many colors title comes from. As for his ring, Tolkien never said anything about it, to my knowledge at least. I've always believed that it would have helped Saruman control his army of orcs and half orcs. Sort of like a miniature One Ring. Tolkien stated that it took a tremendous amount of power out of Melkor and Sauron to control their armies and that the One Ring assisted Sauron in controling his armies by enhancing his power to dominate others. It makes sense to me that Saruman would want to imitate Sauron. I think that Saruman would have had the power to make such a ring, he was after all, a maia of Aule, just like Sauron. Saruman's ring would have undoubtedly been much weaker than the One Ring, but still useful. Also in the forward to The Lord of the Rings (while denying that his work was a political allegory) Tolkien states that if his book would have been an allegory for World War Two one of the wise would have claimed the Ring for themselves and challenged Sauron. In the ensuing battle Saruman would have gained the knowledge to create his own great Ring. Both sides would have enslaved Hobbits, and there would have been a great deal more destruction. It seems plausible that Saruman’s ring was an attempt to create a great ring, which probably failed, but was still useful.

[ June 22, 2002: Message edited by: Thingol ]