Saruman for or against Sauron?

[Elladan and Elrohir]

Saruman betrayed the Council to enter the service of Mordor; he then betrayed Mordor to work to get the Ring for himself. Sauron was aware of this from a very early time, I think. However, Saruman was for the present in his service, at least in public, and so he used Saruman as much as he could. Ultimately Saruman would never have been any match for Sauron, unless he got hold of the Ring, as Gandalf makes clear in Book Three.

[The Only Real Estel]

I think that Saruman did 'join' with Sauron, but had his own plans all along. Like Mansun said, I don't think there is any evidence at all that Saruman bred his army solely to help Sauron, he was breeding them in his own little attmept to copy Sauron's army. If he could get Sauron to fall for his lip-service pitch he could still destroy Rohan (which would help him quite a bit) and hopefully recover the Ring before Sauron did, with a decent sized army to protect him. That said I doubt Sauron fell for it for long.

I think it's sad how the film shows Saruman as being, like you say, a puppet and little more.

I'll third that. Saruman had his own powers and plans and was a good deal more than a stupid finger puppet, being bent to his new master's will.

[davem]

I think there's also Saruman's envy of Sauron to take into account. Its clear that Saruman saw Sauron as some kind of 'ideal' role-model:

A strong place and wonderful was Isengard, and long it had been beautiful; and there great lords had dwelt, the wardens of Gondor upon the West, and wise men that watched the stars. But Saruman had slowly shaped it to his shifting purposes, and made it better, as he thought, being deceived--for all those arts and subtle devices, for which he forsook his former wisdom, and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor; so that what he made was naught, only a little copy, a child's model or a slave's flattery, of that vast fortress, armoury, prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dur, the Dark Tower, which suffered no rival, and laughed at flattery, biding its time, secure in its pride and its immeasurable strength.(The Road to Isengard)

It seems that he wasn't so much competing with Sauron as wanting to become him. Whether Sauron was responsible for putting this desire into his mind, or whether it merely reflected some deep-rooted desire in his own psyche, I don't think we'll ever know for certain.

I think Sauron gave away the idea that he did have a decent understanding (so he thought!) with Saruman. If you remember, Pippin had an encounter with Sauron through the seeing stone, in which Sauron thought he was for a moment communicating with Saruman, asking " Why have you neglected to report for so long?". This implies that Saruman actually betrayed Sauron, but it is highly likely that should Sauron retain the Ring he would brush aside even a loyal Saruman to some low key mischief job, assuming that the Mouth of Sauron was to become the lieutenant of Isengard.

The fact that the Mouth of Sauron also made out that the Darklord no longer trusted Saruman to be worthy of that role when all was to be won at the black gate suggests that he did most likely work well with Saruman initially, but then was betrayed by him. Sauron must have thought Saruman was incapable of getting the Ring in the first place, and even if he got it, Sauron would know exactly where it was, and would bend his power towards Isengard like a storm (or quicker).

[mormegil]

They both agreed that they were working together and Saruman would assume to be the vassel of Sauron if the ring were recovered and M-E conquered. This was the plan on paper. In reality they were each using each other and each thought they had the upper-hand. However Sauron had the mastery. In other words they proclaimed their alligence to on another, or at least Sauron accepted Saruman's aid and offered rewards in return, but as most evil villains will do they would betray each other in the end. So I would argue that Saruman did have some powers yes but they were insignificant next to Mordor and was in fact a puppet to Sauron.

[Boromir88]

I've often compared the Saruman-Sauron relationship like the Hitler-Stalin relationship.

Hitler and Stalin necessarily didn't like eachother (they both had contrasting views) but they agreed to put their differences aside and not attack eachother. For a long time they would help eachother out, but both had plans of undermining eachother once the allies were gone. Hitler knew the two-front war was one reason for Germany's defeat in WW1 so he signs this pact with Russia trying to prevent that again. In secret he just wants to deal with the West first and then turn on Stalin. It was when Hitler believed that the West had been dealt with (one fault) when he turned on Stalin and started invading Russia (another fault).

I think the Sauron and Saruman relationship can be similar to this. They both are after the same thing (The Ring) and they enter into this agreeance of "Look we both hate these people let's get rid of them," but they were secretly planning to betray eachother if and when they finished with Gondor and Rohan.

[Ar-Pharazon]

I don't think Sauron and Saruman were truly allies and more competitors using the metaphor as a chess match, where they would make moves to counter the other.

When Sauron arises in Mirkwood, Saruman goes along with the plan of the council to march on Dol Guldur and force him out. His reasoning was that it would move Sauron farther from Anduin so he couldnt freely search for the ring.

In the UT - Sauron dispatches the Ringwraiths in search of the Ring, but all they know is there is a creature named Baggins and he is in a land called the Shire. The wraiths come upon Isengard. Here the story gets muddled about what exactly happens. But the gist is that Saruman lies to the Ringwraiths about where the Ring is, he either sends them to Rohan and on the way they run into Grima who, out of fear, tells them where the shire is. The other is Saruman sends them on a scenic route north and on the way they run into one of the Ruffians whose working on the shire and he has all sorts of maps on them. Either way the wraiths discover Saruman's treachery and later Sauron learns of it.

When Pippen touches the Palantir, Sauron assumes that because a hobbit touched the stone it is the one that has the Ring and therefore Saruman has the ring. Sauron immediately dispatches a Nazgul on a fell beast who flies over the company after they leave Isengarde.

In my opinion the book's represent Saruman and Sauron as a dueller of wits. For at first Saruman hated Sauron, but after studying him he came to envy his power and respect him as a rival.

~ArP

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Ar-Pharazon

When Sauron arises in Mirkwood, Saruman goes along with the plan of the council to march on Dol Guldur and force him out. His reasoning was that it would move Sauron farther from Anduin so he couldnt freely search for the ring.

This brings to mind something I've been pondering. When Saruman went along with the White Council to work to eject Sauron from Dol Guldur, was he, at that time, using the Palantir? These events took place not long before the beginning of the War of the Ring, and so we must presume that he was using it, that he may have been using it for quite a long while (he might have sought to occupy Isengard as he knew the Palantir was there). So he must have been able to cloak his thoughts and actions from Sauron at that time which begs the question why did he supposedly fall under the influence of Sauron so quickly?

From this line of thought, it is likely that he was not totally in thrall to Sauron. Saruman seemed to seek a 'third way' in Middle earth. This may have begun with him choosing to deal with the problem of the Ring and Sauron in a different way. If we think about the range of suggestions for dealing with the Ring displayed by the great and the good at the Council of Elrond, then it is obvious that the way supported by Gandalf and Elrond is not the only opinion that was held in Middle earth.

What makes Sauron different is that he thought he had the superior knowledge to deal with the Ring in another way. He seeks to discover the nature of Eru and divinity in Arda by breaking the Light, and wishes to use the knowlegde he has gained by taking over from Sauron. Compare this with Galadriel, who is also a power-seeker; when she is offered the Ring she knows that she too could take over and provide a third way, but she instead rejects this power. So I think that this is the key similarity between Saruman and Sauron - they are different characters seeking different ends, but both have such a desire for the Ring that they are prepared to do just about anything to get it.

They are both villains in the grand scheme of Middle earth, and though on the surface they have made an alliance, it is purely a surface alliance in my opinion. Their desire has got the better of them and there is simply no possibility that one can possess the Ring while the other does not have it.

I'd love to think what might have happened between the two of them had Saruman got his hands on the Ring.

[Raynor]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

I've often compared the Saruman-Sauron relationship like the Hitler-Stalin relationship.

I believe that it was more of a superior-subordonate relationship; or at least both feigned it was - because soon Saruman would begin to deceive Sauron's agents, but Sauron didn't have yet the strength to avenge that.

Originally Posted by Holbytlass

Saruman stepped onto Middle-Earth on the side of good, head of the white council, follower of Eru's plan. Somewhere along the way, he wanted to be mightiest, strongest, most powerful being, which doesn't always equate to evil.

I agree; in fact, that is true for both Sauron and Saruman:

Originally Posted by Letter #181

[The istari] were also, for the same reason, thus involved in the peril of the incarnate: the possibility of 'fall', of sin, if you will. The chief form this would take with them would be impatience, leading to the desire to force others to their own good ends, and so inevitably at last to mere desire to make their own wills effective by any means. To this evil Saruman succumbed. Gandalf did not.

Originally Posted by Letter #183

[Sauron] had gone the way of all tyrants: beginning well, at least on the level that while desiring to order all things according to his own wisdom he still at first considered the (economic) well-being of other inhabitants of the Earth.

Originally Posted by Notes on motives in the Silmarillion, i, Myths Transformed, HoME X

[Sauron] still had the relics of positive purposes, that descended from the good of the nature in which he began: it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and co-ordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction.(It was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him.) Sauron had, in fact, been very like Saruman, and so still understood him quickly and could guess what he would be likely to think and do, even without the aid of palantiri or of spies; whereas Gandalf eluded and puzzled him.

Originally Posted by Mansun

Would Saruman then, after finding out that if he could not master the Ring, hand it back to Sauron if he ever got hold of it?

I doubt that:

Originally Posted by Council of Elrond, FotR

Why not? The Ruling Ring? If we could command that, then the Power would pass to us. That is in truth why I brought you here.

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

Of 'mortals' no one, not even Aragorn...Of the others only Gandalf might be expected to master him-being an emissary of the Powers and a creature of the same order, an immortal spirit taking a visible physical form.
We have to assume that Saruman fell into the category of "Of the others" even though he too was an emissary of the Powers.

I think a great deal of debate has gone over a false dilemma. The initial quote looks like this:

Originally Posted by Letter #246

In his actual presence none but very few of equal stature could have hoped to withhold it from him. Of 'mortals' no one, not even Aragorn.

The passage in question doesn't concern who would master the ring _in general_, but who could master the ring in Sauron's presence. Maybe only Gandalf can master the ring in such a situation, but that doesn't exclude the fact that others can master the ring properly, should Sauron not be in the vicinity.

Originally Posted by Smaug

Would Saruman with his own armies from his base in Isenguard have battled Sauron for power in ME?

At the council of Elrond, as Boromir88 I believe quoted, Saruman is stated to have pursued a veiled policy of overcoming Sauron:

We may join with that Power. It would be wise, Gandalf. There is hope that way. Its victory is at hand; and there will be rich reward for those that aided it. As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts

In the introduction to LotR, Tolkien gives an alternate view on how Saruman would challenge the leadership over M-E, should Sauron be enslaved:

The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dur would not have been destroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth.

[Kuruharan]

Now that the other Saruman thread has died down a bit...

The passage in question doesn't concern who would master the ring _in general_, but who could master the ring in Sauron's presence. Maybe only Gandalf can master the ring in such a situation, but that doesn't exclude the fact that others can master the ring properly, should Sauron not be in the vicinity.

Please explain how a physical confrontation with Sauron could possibly be avoided by this putative ringlord. How could said ringlord be sure they had mastered the Ring when they fought Sauron? I picture the Ring having a thought process similar to this...

Ring: Hmmm...another dullard who thinks they can master me. What to do? I know! I'll pretend like they've mastered me and get their ego all blown out of proportion. My new "master" will fall all over itself (har, har "it"self, clever reference to part of the discussion in other thread ) to take me back to my Master.

*time passes, battle is waged, Sauron makes beeline for new "ringlord"*

Ring: DADDY!!!!!!!

*BAM* new ringlord is jello

Ring and Sauron: Boo-YAA!!!