The Death of Saruman

The Death of Saruman is the grim climax of the Scouring of the Shire, the episode in which the hobbits return home to find their land despoiled by Saruman's agents. It is the moment when the wizard who once stood as the head of the White Council and the master of Isengard meets his squalid end, not at the hands of any warrior or king, but at the knife of his own degraded servant, Gríma Wormtongue. The event carries the weight of the entire War of the Ring, serving as the final settling of accounts with the figure whose treachery had shadowed the quest from its beginning, and it closes with a strange supernatural dissolution that marks the complete extinction of Saruman's spirit from the world of the living.

The Confrontation at Bag End

The death scene unfolds at the very threshold of Bag End, the home that Saruman's agents had taken over during the hobbits' absence. As Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Peregrin Took approach, they find Saruman himself standing at the door, looking well-fed and well-pleased, his eyes gleaming with malice and amusement. The wizard's physical state is itself a revelation: far from the broken figure of his defeat at Isengard, he appears prosperous and self-satisfied, having transferred his operations from the ruined tower of Orthanc to the heart of the Shire. When Merry expresses his disgust at the mischief Saruman has caused, wishing he had stuffed his pouch down the wizard's throat, Saruman's reply is a taunt: he reminds Merry that he did not do so, and therefore he is able to welcome the hobbits home. It is at this moment that a sudden light breaks on Frodo, who cries out the name "Sharkey!" — the name by which Saruman's thugs knew him. Saruman laughs at the recognition, confirming that all his people used to call him that in Isengard, and he adds, with characteristic self-regard, that it was "a sign of affection, possibly." The exchange establishes the essential dynamic of the scene: Saruman, even in his fallen state, still believes himself to be in command, still capable of manipulating and mocking those around him.

The Murder of Saruman

The confrontation reaches its violent conclusion when Saruman, having been confronted by the hobbits, turns to leave. He addresses Gríma Wormtongue, the man who had served him as a spy in the court of Théoden and who had followed him into exile, with a cruel command: "You do what Sharkey says, always, don't you, Worm? Well, now he says: follow!" As Wormtongue grovels, Saruman kicks him in the face and makes off. But at that moment something snaps in the broken servant. Wormtongue rises up, drawing a hidden knife, and with a snarl like a dog he springs on Saruman's back, jerks his head back, and cuts his throat. The act is sudden, almost reflexive, the culmination of years of abuse and humiliation. With a yell, Wormtongue runs off down the lane, but before Frodo can recover or speak a word, three hobbit-bows twang and Wormtongue falls dead. The murder of Saruman is thus immediately followed by the execution of his murderer, the hobbits' arrows cutting down the man who had just freed them from their oppressor. The scene is a tangle of moral ironies: the servant who had been kicked and degraded finally turns on his master, only to be killed by those who had no quarrel with him, while the great wizard dies at the hands of the creature he had most despised.

The Dissolution of the Spirit

What follows the physical death of Saruman is stranger and more unsettling than the murder itself. To the dismay of those who stand by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathers, rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire. As a pale shrouded figure, it looms over the Hill, the very hill on which Bag End sits. For a moment it wavers, looking to the West — the direction of the Grey Havens and the sea, the road that Saruman, as one of the Istari, might once have taken in repentance. But out of the West comes a cold wind, and the figure bends away, and with a sigh dissolves into nothing. The passage is the only supernatural element in the death scene, and it carries a precise theological meaning: Saruman's spirit, having been corrupted beyond redemption, is refused the mercy of the West. The cold wind that disperses him is the same wind that carries the Elves to the Havens, but for Saruman it brings only annihilation. The grey mist that rises from his body is the last trace of his existence, and its dissolution into nothing is the final proof that his soul, like his body, has been utterly consumed by his own evil.

The Aftermath and the End of the War

Frodo looks down at the body with pity and horror, and as he looks, it seems that long years of death are suddenly revealed in it. The body shrinks, and the shrivelled face becomes rags of skin upon a hideous skull. The transformation is a kind of final judgment: the well-fed, well-pleased appearance that Saruman had maintained until the last moment is stripped away, and what remains is the true state of a soul that had been decaying for decades. Frodo lifts up the skirt of the dirty cloak that sprawls beside the body, covers it over, and turns away. His gesture is one of mercy, an attempt to give the fallen wizard at least the dignity of a covered corpse, but it is also an act of pity for a creature who had caused so much suffering. Sam's reaction is blunter: "And that's the end of that," he says. "A nasty end, and I wish I needn't have seen it; but it's a good riddance." Merry adds the final word: "And the very last end of the War, I hope." The exchange closes the scene on a note of exhausted relief, but the hope in Merry's words is qualified — the War of the Ring may be over, but the memory of what Saruman did, and what the hobbits were forced to see, will remain. The death of Saruman is thus not a triumph but a grim necessity, a dirty end to a dirty business, and the hobbits' reaction reflects the moral complexity of the moment: they are relieved that he is gone, but they are not glad that they had to witness it.