What is the significance of Saruman's Ring?

Question

At the council of Elrond, Gandalf tells of his encounter with Saruman.

But I rode to the foot of Orthanc, and came to the stair of Saruman; and there he met me and led me up to his high chamber. He wore a ring on his finger.

Gandalf seems draw particular attention to Saruman's ring. Yet, to my knowledge, nothing more is ever said of his ring. We know that Saruman had a great deal of knowledge regarding the rings of power. Is there anything in Middle-earth lore that indicates if there was anything extraordinary about this ring? Was Saruman emulating Sauron? Or could the ring have been given to him by Sauron?

Answer 1

According to The One Ring.net:

In July 3018, Saruman set a trap for Gandalf, using the Brown Wizard, Radagast, to lure him to Orthanc. When Gandalf came, Saruman revealed his rebellion sporting a newly made ring of his own, and vestments of many shifting colors. When Gandalf refused to join him, Saruman made him a prisoner atop the tower. In September Gandalf was able to escape by Eagle from the tower and return to the north.

Also,

For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker

So it is a magic ring that he himself made. Not one of the numerous other existing magic rings. Good catch, I totally missed that when I read it.

Answer 2

In the Foreword to the second edition of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien implied that Saruman's ring-making ability had gotten pretty advanced. He wrote that if the War of the Ring had resembled World War II,

Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own...

Answer 3

It shows Saruman's ambitions to be on a level with Sauron as a controller of peoples, a maker of Rings of Power. Him actively using the Palantír and thinking he is not controlled by Sauron through it is another sign of this.

Which of course shows Saruman's corruption and folly.

Answer 4

I thought that an interesting aspect of this question was that Gandalf had possession of Narya, one of the Elven Rings of Power.

As an aside, although Gandalf the Grey appeared subordinate to Saruman the White, Círdan gave Gandalf this ring. (Gandalf himself says Saruman is greatest of their order; Círdan sensed a greater good in Gandalf.)

However, as stated, Saruman at least temporarily defeated and imprisoned Gandalf, so Saruman's newly forged Ring must have been significantly powerful.

Saruman was also considered a Lore-master, especially about the history of the The Rings of Power (one reason Gandalf visited Saruman in the first place), so I wonder if Saruman knew where the Elven rings were being kept and was jealous of Gandalf.

Answer 5

You're right - nothing more is ever said of this ring, even when we see Saruman later in Isengard or in the Scouring of the Shire.

Saruman definitely lays claim to making the ring in the Fellowship of the Ring:

He wore a ring on his finger. ... 'For I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker...'

Gandalf never calls the claim into doubt so presumably he believed him, and we do have the word of the author from the foreword of the Lord of the Rings that Saruman had been researching Ring-lore:

Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would ... have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth.

We now definitely know that Saruman's ring was not a Great Ring but that Saruman had been researching rings, so it should be reasonable to assume that the ring is of Saruman's making rather than a gift from Sauron. It is never revealed what powers it may or may not have - Saruman definitely ascribed some potency to the ring (otherwise why call attention to it), but that may have been a bluff on his behalf.

One reason that we may not have seen the ring again was because of the nature of the later appearances by Saruman - in Isengard he was up in Orthanc, not seen closely enough to identify the ring. The remaining appearances all occur after the destruction of the One Ring and given all Ring-lore is ultimately derived from Sauron's influence on the Elven-smiths of Eregion, even the Three, Saruman's ring (if it had power) may have been rendered useless and hence discarded once that destruction occurred.

Answer 6

It seems likely the Saruman's ring was made by him as he implied. There is however the small chance that it could be a lesser ring made by the Elves of Eregion in the second age, presumably given to him by Sauron as a gift (or a trap), or found by him during his researches.

In Eregion long ago many Elven-rings were made, magic rings as you call them, and they were, course, of various kinds: some more potent and some less. The lesser rings were only essays in the craft before it was full-grown, and to the Elven-smiths they were but trifles — yet still to my mind dangerous for mortals. But the Great Rings, the Rings of Power, they were perilous.

_{LotR I 2 (60)}

Answer 7

Sauron (nee: Mairon) as well as Saruman were Maia of Aulë the Smith. It is safe to say that both of them studied and learned the craft of magic rings from him. Sauron, however might have used some powers that Melkor lent him or gave him in the making of the One, as he was Melkor's chief lieutenant, and Melkor taught him many things and gave him additional power to do his evil works. Saruman never had the knowledge that Sauron apparently was granted from his master, and therefore though he could make magic rings probably due to the knowledge they had both received from Aulë, he didn't know how to make one to enslave other people, as of course they would never learn such things from Aulë, as doing so would be against the will of Eru.

Answer 8

Saruman's robes stopped shimmering in many colours as soon as the One Ring was destroyed. It is feasible that his lesser ring that he had forged had given him such powers of illusion. In an early draft, Tolkien speculated that the ring-lore had given him "Voice" but he dropped that idea. It would have been clearer had Treebeard mentioned that Saruman lost his powers of colour the instant the world had changed far away.

Answer 9

Saruman would not have used any magical techniques taught by Aulë when he was a Maia spirit dwelling in Aman. In fact, he would not have remembered such techniques, nor much of his actual existence in the Blessed Realm. Tolkien is quite explicit by saying that, when the Maiar spirits were incarnated into the bodies of the Istari wizards, they were henceforth limited in their powers, objectives, and even memories of their origins, as well as being subject to mortal fears, anxieties, weariness, etc., while obviously immune to some of the ravages of time.

Moreover, the Istari all had to learn the ways of Middle-earth magic from scratch when they arrived—through study, travel, wandering, etc. across the ages.

It seems to me that the reference to Saruman’s ring indicates nothing more than his moral collapse into a desperate attempt to fancy himself some manner of rival to Sauron (despite being almost completely under Sauron’s sway) and his frustration at not being able to find the One Ring he desired. Surely, Saruman’s skills would have allowed him to fashion some sort of magic ring completely on his own, with its own potencies, quite apart from the kind of power that went into the arts of Celebrimbor at Eregion.

Calling himself a Ringmaker was Saruman’s way of making himself feel on a par, somehow, with Sauron—and let’s not forget, Saruman did indeed plan to “assist” Sauron’s reign (with Gandalf hopefully at his side) and eventually try to gain control and influence over him. He was deluded into thinking he could play the role of a rival Power to Sauron, hence the ring-making, the treachery, and the war-waging with his own, unique creations: the Uruks.

Answer 10

The Silmarillion doesn't say any of that but I think he is on the right track. The lesser rings were not like this. And Saruman's powers after he became plainly corrupted differ greatly from Gandalf and Radagast's powers. It could be simply his ego leading to further demonstration of his powers, but the idea that he has manifested this power in an object could explain things like his "voice" something known to have powerful influential effects, something that he had in common with Sauron.

Answer 11

I think it is probably a case of Saruman imitating people; he is frequently imitating Gandalf, (for example, he smokes pipeweed because Gandalf does, he pays attention to the Shire because Gandalf does, etc.) and he also aspires to be the "Lord of the Rings" like Sauron. It also might have served a practical purpose, maybe it allowed him to communicate with his captains or something, I'm just speculating here.

He is trying to raise himself up to the level of Sauron here; previously he had been trying to get Sauron's ring, but this is implying he is inferior to Sauron, since he can't make his own ring. He tries to defy this by making his own ring, then he will have a ring of power like Gandalf and have made a ring of power like Sauron.