Saruman the Good

[Sardy]

Originally Posted by Celuien

Quite true, though I think that the mere act of making a ring for the purpose of challenging Sauron would have required turning bad...

Possibly. But I tend to think that there is much, much more to ring-lore and craft than just making an evil ruling ring. I think that Sauron's use of "evil" in designing his ring was a bit of an enigma. Surely the Three were not evil, nor any (or at least most) of the lesser rings crafted by the elves (and others?). I would assume that the many lesser rings that existed were (for the most part) not evil (or perhaps we would've heard more about them?)

What I'm getting at is that to design a ring-weapon might have gone against Tolkien's vision (though when dicussing and imagining alternate strategies and story-lines, I also think t's fair to consider alternate philosophies, ideals, strategies than Tolkien's, etc.) But if Saruman did posses the extensive ring-lore that he boasted (and, indeed, aligned himself with the good), either alone or with the elven-smiths, he could very consivably have crafted a ring to RESIST (as opposed to challenge) Sauron. Or a ring to of light powerful enough to usurp the One Ring's dark power... and so on...

With more knowledge of, and experts in, ring-lore active in Middle-earth, who knows what magical powers there might've been to behold? Perhaps even a magic ring arms race...