Saruman the White | |
---|---|
Tolkien character | |
First appearance | The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) |
Last appearance | Unfinished Tales (1980) |
In-universe information | |
Aliases | Curunír Curumo Sharkey Man of Skill White Messenger Head of the White Council Lord of Isengard |
Race | Maia |
Saruman, also called Saruman the White, later Saruman of Many Colours, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings . He is the leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the novel. He comes to desire Sauron's power for himself, so he betrays the Istari and tries to take over Middle-earth by force from his base at Isengard. His schemes feature prominently in the second volume, The Two Towers ; he appears briefly at the end of the third volume, The Return of the King . His earlier history is summarised in the posthumously published The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales .
Saruman is one of several characters in the book who illustrate the corruption of power. His desire for knowledge and order leads to his fall, and he rejects the chance of redemption when it is offered. The name Saruman (pronounced [ˈsɑrumɑn] ) means "man of skill or cunning" in the Mercian dialect of Anglo-Saxon; [1] he serves as an example of technology and modernity being overthrown by forces more in tune with nature.
Saruman was portrayed by Christopher Lee in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies.
The Lord of the Rings describes a quest to destroy the One Ring, a powerful and evil talisman created by the Dark Lord Sauron to control the nine rings of men, the remaining rings of the dwarves (originally seven) and the three of the elves, the most powerful, thus furthering Sauron's dominion over Middle-earth. Sauron lost the Ring in battle thousands of years before the beginning of the story, and it is now held in secret in the Shire by the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who passes it on to Frodo Baggins, one of the story's protagonists. Early in the first volume, The Fellowship of the Ring , the wizard Gandalf describes Saruman as "the chief of my order" [T 1] and head of the White Council that forced Sauron from Mirkwood at the end of Tolkien's earlier book The Hobbit . [T 2] He notes Saruman's great knowledge of the Rings of Power created by Sauron and by the Elven-smiths. Shortly afterwards, Gandalf breaks an arrangement to meet Frodo and guide him out of the Shire to Rivendell to keep the Ring safe from Sauron's agents.
Frodo and Gandalf are reunited at Rivendell midway through The Fellowship of the Ring. The wizard explains why he failed to join Frodo: he had been summoned to consult with Saruman but had been held captive. Saruman initially had proposed that the wizards ally themselves with the rising power of Sauron in order to eventually control him for their own ends, revealing himself as a traitor. Saruman went on to suggest that they could take the Ring for themselves and challenge Sauron. When Gandalf refused both options, the traitorous Saruman imprisoned him in the tower of Orthanc at Isengard, hoping to learn from him the location of the Ring. Whilst on the summit of Orthanc, Gandalf observed that Saruman had industrialized the formerly green valley of Isengard and was creating his own army of Half-Orc/Half-Man fighters and Wargs to rival Sauron. [T 3] Gandalf's escape from the top of the tower on the back of a Great Eagle left Saruman in a desperate position, as he knew he would now be known as traitor to his former allies, but was unable to procure the Ring directly for himself and therefore could not hope to truly rival Sauron. Shortly after arriving in Rivendell, Gandalf informs the Council of Elrond about Saruman's betrayal.
In The Two Towers , the second volume of the story, Orcs from Saruman's army attack Frodo and his companions, and carry off two of Frodo's closest friends, Merry and Pippin. The two escape into Fangorn Forest, where they meet the Ents, protectors of the trees, who are outraged at the widespread felling of trees by Saruman's Orcs. [T 4] Meanwhile, Saruman prepares to invade the kingdom of Rohan, which has lain exposed ever since he had his servant Gríma Wormtongue render Théoden, Rohan's king, weak and defenceless with "subtle poisons". Gandalf frees Théoden from Wormtongue's control just as Saruman's army is about to invade.
Saruman is ruined when the Riders of Rohan defeat his army and Merry and Pippin prompt the Ents to destroy Isengard. Saruman himself is not directly involved, and only appears again in chapter 10, "The Voice of Saruman", by which time he is trapped in Orthanc. He fails in his attempt to negotiate with the Rohirrim and with Gandalf, and rejects Gandalf's conditional offer to let him go free. Gandalf casts him out of the White Council and the order of the wizards, and breaks Saruman's staff. [T 5]
Saruman makes his final appearance at the end of the last volume, The Return of the King (1955), after Sauron's defeat. After persuading the Ents to release him from Orthanc, he travels north on foot, apparently reduced to begging. He is accompanied by Wormtongue, whom he beats and curses. [T 6] When they reach the Shire, Saruman's agents—both Hobbits and Men—have already taken it over and started a destructive process of industrialization. Saruman governs the Shire in secret under the name of Sharkey until the events of "The Scouring of the Shire". In that penultimate chapter, Frodo and his companions return and lead a rebellion, defeating the intruders and exposing Saruman's role. [T 7] Even after Saruman attempts to stab Frodo, Frodo lets him go; but Wormtongue, whom Saruman continues to taunt and physically abuse, finally snaps and murders him. [T 8] [T 7]
Consistent accounts of Saruman's earlier history appear in Appendix B to The Lord of the Rings, first published in The Return of the King, and in the posthumously published The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales . All were written in the mid-1950s. Saruman, like Gandalf and Radagast the Brown, is one of five 'wizards', known as the Istari, who begin to arrive in Middle-earth some two thousand years before the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. They are Maiar, envoys of the godlike Valar sent to challenge Sauron (who was regaining his strength following his defeat at the end of the second age) during the third age by inspiring the people of Middle-earth rather than by direct conflict. [T 9] Tolkien regarded them as being somewhat like incarnate angels. [T 10] Saruman initially travels in the east; he is later appointed head of the White Council and eventually settles at Gondor's outpost of Isengard. However, studying Sauron and the lore of the Rings of Power makes him desire to possess the ring for himself, eventually leading to his betrayal. Fifty years before The Lord of the Rings, after his studies reveal that the One Ring might be found in the river Anduin near Sauron's stronghold at Dol Guldur, he helps the White Council drive out Sauron in order to facilitate his search. [T 11]
Unfinished Tales contains drafts, not included in The Lord of the Rings, that describe Saruman's attempts to frustrate Sauron's chief servants, the Nazgûl, in their search for the Ring during the early part of The Fellowship of the Ring; in one version he considers throwing himself on Gandalf's mercy. There is also a description of how Saruman becomes involved with the Shire and of how he gradually becomes jealous of Gandalf. [T 12] Another brief account describes how the five Istari were chosen by the Valar for their mission. [T 13]
Tolkien had been writing The Lord of the Rings for several years when Saruman came into existence as the solution to a long-unresolved plot development, and his role and characteristics continued to emerge in the course of writing. Tolkien started work on the book in late 1937 but was initially unsure of how the story would develop. [2] Unlike some of the other characters in the book, Saruman had not appeared in Tolkien's 1937 novel, The Hobbit , or in his then-unpublished Quenta Silmarillion and related mythology, which date back to 1917. [a] When he wrote of Gandalf's failure to meet Frodo, Tolkien did not know what had caused it and later said: "Most disquieting of all, Saruman had never been revealed to me, and I was as concerned as Frodo at Gandalf's failure to appear." [T 14] Tolkien's son, Christopher, has said that the early stages of the creation of The Lord of the Rings proceeded in a series of waves, and that having produced the first half of The Fellowship of the Ring, Tolkien rewrote the tale from the start three times. [T 15] Saruman first appeared during a fourth phase of writing in a rough narrative outline dated August 1940. Intended to account for Gandalf's absence, it describes how a wizard titled "Saramond the White" or "Saramund the Grey", who has fallen under the influence of Sauron, lures Gandalf to his stronghold and traps him. [T 16] The full story of Saruman's betrayal was later added to the existing chapters. [T 3]
Several of Saruman's other appearances in the book emerged in the process of writing. Christopher Tolkien believes that the old man seen by Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli at the edge of Fangorn forest near the beginning of The Two Towers is in the original drafts intended to be Gandalf. In the finished version he is Saruman. [T 17] Similarly, in the first drafts of the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire", Sharkey is successively a ruffian met by the hobbits, and then that man's unseen boss. It is only in the second draft of the chapter that, as Christopher Tolkien puts it, his father "perceive[d]" that Sharkey was in fact Saruman. [T 18] The name used by Saruman's henchmen for their diminished leader is said in a footnote to the final text to be derived from an Orkish term meaning "old man". [3]
Saruman's death scene, in which his body shrivels away to skin and bones revealing "long years of death" and "a pale shrouded figure" rises over the corpse, [T 7] was not added until Tolkien reviewed the page proofs of the completed book. [T 19] John D. Rateliff and Jared Lobdell are among those to write that the scene shows similarities to the death of the 2000-year-old sorceress Ayesha in H. Rider Haggard's 1887 novel She: A History of Adventure . [4]
"[His voice was] low and melodious, its very sound an enchantment [...] it was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed wise and reasonable, and desire woke in them by swift agreement to seem wise themselves ... for those whom it conquered the spell endured while they were far away and ever they heard that soft voice whispering and urging them."
Tolkien described Saruman at the time of The Lord of the Rings as having a long face and a high forehead, "...he had deep darkling eyes ... His hair and beard were white, but strands of black still showed around his lips and ears." [T 5] His hair is elsewhere described as having been black when he first arrived in Middle-earth. He is referred to as 'Saruman the White' and is said to have originally worn white robes, but on his first entry in The Fellowship of the Ring they instead appear to be "woven from all colours [, they] shimmered and changed hue so that the eye was bewildered" and he names himself 'Saruman of Many Colours'. [T 3]
The power of Saruman's voice is noted throughout the book. Jonathan Evans calls the characterisation of Saruman in the chapter The Voice of Saruman a "tour de force". [3] The early critic Roger Sale wrote of the same chapter in 1968 that "Tolkien valiantly tried to do something worth doing which he simply cannot bring off." [5] Tom Shippey writes that "Saruman talks like a politician ... No other character in Middle-earth has Saruman's trick of balancing phrases against each other so that incompatibles are resolved, and none comes out with words as empty as 'deploring', 'ultimate', worst of all, 'real'. What is 'real change'?" [6] Shippey contrasts this modern speech pattern with the archaic stoicism and directness, the Northern courage, that Tolkien employs for other characters such as the Dwarven King Dáin, which Shippey believes represent Tolkien's view of heroism in the mould of Beowulf. [6]
Saruman has been identified by critics as demonstrating the fall of an originally good character who has distinctively modern connections with technology. [7]
Tolkien writes that The Lord of the Rings was often criticized for portraying all characters as either good or bad, with no shades of grey, a point to which he responds by proposing Saruman, along with Denethor and Boromir, as examples of characters with more nuanced loyalties. [T 20] Marjorie Burns writes that while Saruman is an "imitative and lesser" double of Sauron, reinforcing the Dark Lord's character type, he is also a contrasting double of Gandalf, who becomes Saruman as he "should have been", after Saruman fails in his original purpose. [8]
Saruman "was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare raise our hands against" but decays as the book goes on. [9] Patricia Meyer Spacks calls him "one of the main case histories [in the book] of the gradual destructive effect of willing submission to evil wills". [10] Paul Kocher identifies Saruman's use of a palantír , a seeing-stone, as the immediate cause of his downfall, but also suggests that through his study of "the arts of the enemy", Saruman was drawn into imitation of Sauron. [11] According to Jonathan Evans and Spacks, Saruman succumbs to the lust for power, [3] [10] while Shippey identifies Saruman's devotion to goals of knowledge, organization and control as his weakness. [12] Tolkien writes that the Istari's chief temptation (and that to which Saruman fell) is impatience, leading to a desire to force others to do good, and then to a simple desire for power. [T 21]
Treebeard describes Saruman as having "a mind of metal and wheels". [T 22] Evil in The Lord of the Rings tends to be associated with machinery, whereas good is usually associated with nature. Both Saruman's stronghold of Isengard and his altered Shire demonstrate the negative effects of industrialization and Isengard is overthrown when the forests, in the shape of the Ents, literally rise against it. [10] Patrick Curry says Tolkien is hostile to industrialism, linking this to the widespread urban development that took place in the West Midlands where Tolkien grew up in the first decades of the 20th century. He identifies Saruman as one of the key examples given in the book of the evil effects of industrialization, and by extension of imperialism. [13]
John R. Holmes writes that there is a philological link between "a perverted will to power with the love of machines we see in Isengard". The etymologies of English "magic", Latinized Greek magia, "the power of causing physical change in the real world", and English "machine", Greek mekhane or makhana "device", are both from Old Persian maghush "sorcerer", from Proto-Indo-European *magh, "to have power". Thus, Holmes writes, Tolkien was following an ancient cultural connection in making Saruman think in this way, using magic. [14]
Shippey notes that Saruman's name repeats this view of technology: in the Mercian dialect of Old English used by Tolkien to represent the Language of Rohan in the book, the word saru [b] means "clever", "skilful" or "ingenious". This has associations with both technology and treachery that are fitting for Tolkien's portrayal of Saruman, the "cunning man". [15] He also writes of Saruman's distinctively modern association with Communism in the way the Shire is run under his control in "The Scouring of the Shire": goods are taken "for fair distribution" which, since they are mainly never seen again, Shippey terms an unusually modern piece of hypocrisy in the way evil presents itself in Middle-earth. [16]
Saruman is in part the architect of his own downfall. Kocher, Randel Helms and Shippey write that Saruman's actions in the first half of The Two Towers, although intended to further his own interests, in fact lead to his defeat and that of Sauron: his orcs help split the Fellowship at Parth Galen, and in carrying off two of the hobbits initiate a series of incidents that lead to his ruin. In turn this frees the Rohirrim to intervene at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields and then together with the men of Gondor to assault Sauron's stronghold of Mordor and distract him from Frodo's final effort to destroy the Ring. Shippey says that this demonstrates the value of persistence in the face of despair, even if a way out cannot be seen; [17] Kocher and Helms write that it is part of a pattern of providential events and of the reversed effects of evil intentions throughout the book. [18] [19]
After the defeat of his armies, having been caught in the betrayal of Sauron, Saruman is offered refuge by Gandalf, in return for his aid, but having chosen his path, is unable to turn from it. [10] Evans has compared the character of Saruman to that of Satan in John Milton's Paradise Lost in his use of rhetoric and in this final refusal of redemption, "conquered by pride and hatred". [3]
In the end, the diminished Saruman is murdered, his throat cut, and Shippey notes that when he dies his spirit "dissolved into nothing". He identifies Saruman as the best example in the book of "wraithing", a distinctive 20th-century view of evil that he attributes to Tolkien in which individuals are "'eaten up inside' by devotion to some abstraction". [12] Referring to Saruman's demise, Kocher says that he is one example of the consistent theme of nothingness as the fate of evil throughout The Lord of the Rings. [20]
Saruman has appeared in film, radio, stage and video game adaptations of The Lord of the Rings. BBC Radio produced the first adaptation in 1955, in which Saruman was played by Robert Farquharson, and which has not survived. Tolkien was disappointed by it. [21] BBC Radio's second adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, from 1981, presents Saruman much as in the books. Smith and Matthews report Peter Howell's performance as Saruman as "brilliantly ambiguous ..., drifting from mellifluous to almost bestially savage from moment to moment without either mood seeming to contradict the other". [22]
In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which corresponds to The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers, Saruman is voiced by Fraser Kerr. He has only one major scene—his attempt to persuade Gandalf to join him. He appears again briefly before the Battle of Helm's Deep, speaking to his army. The character is dressed in red and is called 'Saruman' and 'Aruman' at different points. Smith and Matthews suggest that the use of 'Aruman' was intended to avoid confusion with 'Sauron'. [23] The 1980 Rankin/Bass TV animated version of The Return of the King begins roughly where Bakshi's film ends but does not include Saruman's character. [24] Saruman is played by Matti Pellonpää in the 1993 television miniseries Hobitit produced and aired by Finnish broadcaster Yle. [25]
In Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), Saruman is significantly more active in the first two films than in the corresponding books, and he appears in several scenes that are not depicted in Tolkien's work. He was portrayed by Christopher Lee. In the films, Saruman presents himself outright as a servant of Sauron and a traitor to the White Council. Smith and Matthews suggest that Saruman's role is built up as a substitute for Sauron—the story's main antagonist—who never appears directly in the book, a theory which Jackson confirms in the commentary to the DVD. [26] They suggest that having secured the veteran British horror actor Christopher Lee to play Saruman, it made sense to make greater use of his star status. [27] Despite this increased role in the first two films, the scenes involving Saruman that were shot for use in the third film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, were not used in the cinematic release, a decision which "shocked" Lee. Jackson reasoned that it would be anticlimactic to show Saruman's fate in the second movie (after the Battle of Helm's Deep) and too retrospective for the third one. [28] The cut scenes end with Saruman falling to his death from the top of Orthanc after being stabbed by Wormtongue and include material transposed from the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire". They are included at the start of the Extended Edition DVD release of the film. [29] In Jackson's film adaptations of The Hobbit (2012–2014), Lee reprises his role as Saruman the White, even though Saruman does not appear in the book. In the first film, Saruman, Gandalf, Galadriel, and Elrond gather at a meeting of the White Council in Rivendell, loosely based on material from the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings. [30] Lee posthumously reprises his role as Saruman in the 2024 anime film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim through archived voice recording. [31]
In the 2014 video game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor , Saruman is voiced by Roger L. Jackson. [32] Saruman appears as a minor villain in Lego Dimensions , in which he allies himself with main antagonist Lord Vortech. [33]
The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel by the English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book The Hobbit but eventually developed into a much larger work. Written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold.
Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is a wizard, one of the Istari order, and the leader of the Company of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" from the Old Norse "Catalogue of Dwarves" (Dvergatal) in the Völuspá.
Gríma, called (the) Wormtongue, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He serves as a secondary antagonist there; his role is expanded in Unfinished Tales. He is introduced in The Two Towers as the chief advisor to King Théoden of Rohan and henchman of Saruman.
Treebeard, or Fangorn in Sindarin, is a tree-giant character in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He is an Ent and is said by Gandalf to be "the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-earth." He lives in the ancient Forest of Fangorn, to which he has given his name. It lies at the southern end of the Misty Mountains. He is described as being about 14 feet in height, and in appearance similar to a beech or an oak.
A palantír is one of several indestructible crystal balls from J. R. R. Tolkien's epic-fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. The word comes from Quenya palan 'far', and tir 'watch over'. The palantírs were used for communication and to see events in other parts of Arda, or in the past.
The Two Towers is the second volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. It is preceded by The Fellowship of the Ring and followed by The Return of the King. The volume's title is ambiguous, as five towers are named in the narrative, and Tolkien himself gave conflicting identifications of the two towers. The narrative is interlaced, allowing Tolkien to build in suspense and surprise. The volume was largely welcomed by critics, who found it exciting and compelling, combining epic narrative with heroic romance.
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings, Isengard is a large fortress in Nan Curunír, the Wizard's Vale, in the western part of Middle-earth. In the fantasy world, the name of the fortress is described as a translation of Angrenost, a word in Tolkien's elvish language, Sindarin, a compound of two Old English words: īsen and ġeard, meaning "enclosure of iron".
Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980. Many of the tales within are retold in The Silmarillion, albeit in modified forms; the work also contains a summary of the events of The Lord of the Rings told from a less personal perspective.
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the Eagles or Great Eagles, are immense birds that are sapient and can speak. The Great Eagles resemble actual eagles, but are much larger. Thorondor is said to have been the greatest of all birds, with a wingspan of 30 fathoms. Elsewhere, the Eagles have varied in nature and size both within Tolkien's writings and in later adaptations.
"The Scouring of the Shire" is the penultimate chapter of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy The Lord of the Rings. The Fellowship hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, return home to the Shire to find that it is under the brutal control of ruffians and their leader "Sharkey", revealed to be the Wizard Saruman. The ruffians have despoiled the Shire, cutting down trees and destroying old houses, as well as replacing the old mill with a larger one full of machinery which pollutes the air and the water. The hobbits rouse the Shire to rebellion, lead their fellow hobbits to victory in the Battle of Bywater, and end Saruman's rule.
Magic in Middle-earth is the use of supernatural power in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth. Tolkien distinguishes ordinary magic from witchcraft, the latter always deceptive, stating that either type could be used for good or evil.
"The Council of Elrond" is the second chapter of Book 2 of J. R. R. Tolkien's bestselling fantasy work, The Lord of the Rings, which was published in 1954–1955. It is the longest chapter in that book at some 15,000 words, and critical for explaining the power and threat of the One Ring, for introducing the final members of the Company of the Ring, and for defining the planned quest to destroy it. Contrary to the maxim "Show, don't tell", the chapter consists mainly of people talking; the action is, as in an earlier chapter "The Shadow of the Past", narrated, largely by the Wizard Gandalf, in flashback. The chapter parallels the far simpler Beorn chapter in The Hobbit, which similarly presents a culture-clash of modern with ancient. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey calls the chapter "a largely unappreciated tour de force". The Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge writes that the chapter brings the hidden narrative of Christianity in The Lord of the Rings close to the surface.
Meriadoc Brandybuck, usually called Merry, is a Hobbit, a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, featured throughout his most famous work, The Lord of the Rings. Merry is described as one of the closest friends of Frodo Baggins, the main protagonist. Merry and his friend and cousin, Pippin, are members of the Company of the Ring. They become separated from the rest of the group and spend much of The Two Towers making their own decisions. By the time of The Return of the King, Merry has enlisted in the army of Rohan as an esquire to King Théoden, in whose service he fights during the War of the Ring. After the war, he returns home, where he and Pippin lead the Scouring of the Shire, ridding it of Saruman's influence.
Peregrin Took, commonly known simply as Pippin, is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is closely tied with his friend and cousin, Merry Brandybuck, and the two are together during most of the story. Pippin and Merry are introduced as a pair of young hobbits of the Shire who become ensnared in their friend Frodo Baggins's quest to destroy the One Ring. Pippin joins the Company of the Ring. He and Merry become separated from the rest of the group at the breaking of the Fellowship and spend much of The Two Towers with their own storyline. Impetuous and curious, Pippin enlists as a soldier in the army of Gondor and fights in the Battle of the Morannon. With the other hobbits, he returns home, helps to lead the Scouring of the Shire, and becomes Thain, or hereditary leader of the land.
Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings and one of the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins, described familiarly as "uncle", and undertakes the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. He is mentioned in Tolkien's posthumously published works, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.
The theme of environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings has been remarked upon by critics since the 1970s. The Hobbits' visions of Saruman's industrial hell of Isengard and Sauron's desolate polluted land of Mordor have been interpreted as comments on modern society, while the destruction of Isengard by the tree-giant Ents, and "The Scouring of the Shire" by the Hobbits, have a strong theme of restoration of the natural environment after such industrial pollution and degradation. However, Tolkien's love of trees and unspoilt nature is apparent throughout the novel.
"The Shadow of the Past" is the second chapter of J. R. R. Tolkien's bestselling fantasy work, The Lord of the Rings, which was published in 1954–1955. Tolkien called it "the crucial chapter"; the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey labelled it "the vital chapter". This is because it represents both the moment that Tolkien devised the central plot of the book, and the point in the story where the protagonist, Frodo Baggins, and the reader realise that there will be a quest to destroy the Ring. A sketch of it was among the first parts of the book to be written, early in 1938; later that year, it was one of three chapters of the book that he drafted. In 1944, he returned to the chapter, adding descriptions of Gollum, the Ring, and the hunt for Gollum.
The lives of the characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth appear variously to be driven by luck or by fate. This is arranged in such a way that the characters' free will is never compromised; they must rely on their own courage, just like Old English heroes like Beowulf and figures from Norse mythology. The text of The Lord of the Rings, while never Christian on the surface, hints at the working of higher powers, which the cosmology in The Silmarillion presents as the angelic or godlike Valar, who in turn carry out the will of the creator, the one God Eru Ilúvatar.
J. R. R. Tolkien's best-known novels, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, both have the structure of quests, with a hero setting out, facing dangers, achieving a goal, and returning home. Where The Hobbit is a children's story with the simple goal of treasure, The Lord of the Rings is a more complex narrative with multiple quests. Its main quest, to destroy the One Ring, has been described as a reversed quest – starting with a much-desired treasure, and getting rid of it. That quest, too, is balanced against a moral quest, to scour the Shire and return it to its original state.
Scholars have seen multiple resemblances between the medieval Christian conception of hell and evil places in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth. These include the industrial hells of Saruman's Isengard with its underground furnaces and labouring Orcs; the dark tunnels of Moria; Sauron's evil land of Mordor; and Morgoth's subterranean fortress of Angband. The gates to some of these realms, like the guarded West Door of Moria, and the Black Gate to Mordor, too, carry echoes of the gates of hell.