Many writers create and recreate characters over and over again across the course of their writing journey,making small tweaks and changesthat result in a well rounded, fleshed out character in the end. And some writers even use earlier drafts of that character as a separate character in another work, to give them a test run of sorts, before they get to the final version. Using this as the basis, some Tolkien fans have come up with an interesting theory that Saruman is a reincarnation of Melkor.
Now this is meant both in the spiritual sense, of Melkor’s essence being brought back to being in the physical form of Saruman in Middle Earth, and also in the writing sense of Melkor essentially being an earlier draft of what would later become Saruman’s character in theLord of the Rings. There are lots of ways in which the two characters can be compared to one another, and in which readers have noted a progression from the early concepts ofThe Silmarillionthat Tolkien had been conceiving for many many years, to the more fleshed out version of the white wizard that appears in his most well known works.
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The most glaring similarity between the two characters are theirpowers of corruption, as they both started out as good beings, with noble intentions, but quickly became seduced by greed and narcissism, which they then spread to contaminate the peoples and the lands around them. ‘To Melkor among the Ainur had been given the greatest gifts of power and knowledge, and he had a share in all the gifts of his brethren.’ He is, like Saruman, one of the most powerful of his order, and as an Ainur, one of the most pure and the most trusted with great responsibility.
But both Saruman and Melkor become dissatisfied with the shared power that they have been given, and want to claim it for themselves, wishing to be recognized and revered for their achievements. For Melkor, ‘He had begun to conceive thoughts of his own unlike those of his brethren. Some of these thoughts he now wove into his music, and straight away discord arose about him, and many that sang nigh him grew despondent, and their thought was disturbed and their music faltered; but some began to attune their music to his rather than the thought which they had at first. Then the discord of Melkor spread ever wider, and the melodies which had been heard before foundered in a sea of turbulent sound.’
This power of persuasion, this use of the voice and the music to corrupt others, to twist their thoughts and make them second guess everything they believe they know, feels very familiar in theLord of the Rings, when looking at the chapter in which the members of the fellowship approach the white wizard who is locked in the tower of Orthanc in Isengard. Gandalf warns Pippin, who is the youngest and probably the most naively trusting ‘Saruman has powersyou do not guess. Beware of his voice!’. This is because Saruman uses the same tactics as Melkor, a power of persuasion that brings about Chaos, and that makes those around him second-guess things that they have long held in their hearts.
Saurman manipulatesthe Riders of Rohanwith his voice, in the same way that Melkor manipulates the song of the Ainur, and convinces them that Gandalf is the enemy: “Over their hearts crept a shadow, a fear of great danger: the end of the Mark in a darkness to which Gandalf was driving them, whilst Saruman stood beside a door of escape, holding it half-open so that a ray of light shone through.” Despite knowing that Gandalf is their savior, and that he has only ever acted in their best interest, they begin to question him, in the same way that the other Ainur begin to doubt the truth and beauty of Illuvatar’s vision in the song.
Many theorists of Tolkien’s work believe thatthe Ainur choose to walk among Middle Earth in disguise, and that each of the magical beings inThe Hobbitand theLord of the Rings, is actually a fake identity of the Ainur, the original beings. Or possibly their reincarnations, their physical forms in the world who are able to channel their powers from beyond the ethereal halls of Mandos and Valinor, where the Ainur dwell. After the coming ofthe first beings of elvesand men. There are so many similarities between the disarray and confusion that Melkor and Saruman inflict upon their victims, that the theory seems plausible for these two characters. But no real link was ever made by Tolkien himself, so it is up to the fans to decide what they believe is true.
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