Should Saruman have accompanied Mauhur and his "lads" ?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by PrinceOfTheHalflings

Oh, I quite agree. Saruman was not very brave and certainly didn't trust anyone. Although he didn't have to go to Moria - the ideal time would have been after the Fellowship left Lorien.

Well the Moria was illustration. Saruman could not have known where the Fellowship will go, I was speaking generally. Imagine that Saruman would not have caught up with the Fellowship until, say, Cirith Ungol. He would not have liked to go there either. Or to Minas Tirith. Or to Edoras. Stuff like that.

The thing is - all of Saruman's plan really did depend on getting the Ring - perhaps he didn't fully understand how much peril he was in once Sauron discovered his deception.

Definitely. But Saruman was ultimately deceiving himself, there's no way how it could work. But he could have deceived himself also by making himself think that he will manage to survive as Sauron's faithful servant in the worst case. Of course it wouldn't work, but if it came to that, that's what he would sort of try to hope for.

In any case, Saruman really could not put all his bets on the Ring - even if he had achieved it, he had to have his strong Isengard with a strong army behind him to take the Ring safely to. The Ring alone would not give him victory and he knew as much. Getting ther Ring and returning to Isengard besieged by Rohirrim would not be good at all. That's why he could not dare to leave the war against Rohan to somebody else. He wanted to make sure that it works.