A universe of characters?
We know now that Middle-Earth's population is not simply a clash between good and evil but a universe of different races and tribes. But what about the creatures and individuals that form those tribes? Do the characteristic features of a certain race leave any room for individuality? Is Frodo really Frodo or just a Hobbit? And does Legolas really defer from any other elf? Time for a closer look at what really hides behind all those well-sounding names.
"Ash nazg durbatulûk,
Ash nazg gimbatul,
Ash nazg thrakatulûk,
Agh burzum-ishi krimpatul." (20)
The Verse Of The Rings
When thinking about the evil side of Middle-Earth at the time of the Ring War, there are only two names that come to your mind, really: Sauron and Saruman. Of course there are the orcs, the Uruk-Hai and the Nazgûl, but in fact, no more than five or six orkish names appear on the 1008 pages of "The Lord Of The Rings". The reason for this is that orcs refer to another orc (except for their leaders) as "snaga" (Black Speech for "slave"). Which wipes out the question of individuality from the beginning, really.
Sauron
The Lord Of The Rings and The Silmarillion give a nearly unbroken account of Sauron's life. But as much as we learn about his life story, as little does Tolkien tell us about his character. In his greed for power and his desire to pervert as many creatures as possible and reign over them, Sauron does not defer much from evil characters of other fantastic worlds, Lord Voldemort in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" for example. In fact, there are conspicious resemblences between Sauron and evil creatures in other books, e.g. the carrying of many different names (Lord Of The Rings, Dark Lord, Necromancer) which also applies to Xexano (Marduk,Tammuz, Dumuzi) in Ralf Isau's "Das Museum der gestohlenen Erinnerungen" or - again - the biblical angel Satan (Lucifer, Diabolo).
In the end, Sauron lacks the personality which makes up a vital part of an individual character.
The Orcs
His orcs, however, did not even have an identity of their own, being only a horde of nameless, identical creatures (21) who did not do anything but follow their master’s orders because they were scared of him. The only "individuality" worth talking of showed up in fights among themselves. But as we can see in the fight between Uglúk and Grishnákh, one of Sauron’s orc leaders and one of Saruman’s Uruk-hai, about what should happen to their prisoners (Merry and Pippin), they were only based on in the question of following or not following orders – provided that the orcs who did not want to follow the orders did not have any. (22)
The Nazgûul
Sauron's mightiest servants, the Nazgûl, were granted the freedom of moving freely around Middle-Earth and their leader, also called the Witch-king, ruled his own kingdom of Angmar and fought wars with his own army of orcs and other evil creatures until the Ring was taken away from Sauron. When Sauron's power rose again, the Witch-king built up a new dreadful army of his own in the forsaken Minas Ithil which was now called Minas Morgul, the Tower of Witchcraft; Khamûl, the second mightiest of the Nine, became king of Dol Guldur when Sauron returned to Mordor. But although the Nazgûl seem to be free to make their own desicions, the fact that they are only kept alive by the Nine Rings of Power that are ruled by the One Ring and thus make them slaves of Sauron's will makes clear that they are no individual characters either.
The difference between knowledge and wisdom: Saruman
"The robe he carried, white as snow
Wasn't all the truth
The eastern sights of the Eye
Poisoned his mind
The tall tower of fair wisdom
Turned to fortress of chaos."
Battlelore - Forked Height
Saruman the White was the head of the White Council of the Istari. He had "long studied the arts of the Enemy" (23) in order to use his knowledge against him and he knew more about the Rings and their whereabouts maybe even than Sauron himself for his special power was to uncover secrets. In the beginning he travelled across Middle-Earth increasing his knowledge, but soon his wisdom turned to folly: He became condescending and developped the plan of overthrowing Sauron and taking over his power in order to enslave the entire world. (24) He settled in Orthanc, the tower of Isengard, where one of the Palatíri was kept and when he used the Orthanc-Stone, probably to investigate about the Rings, Sauron, whom he wanted to destroy, fooled him and used him for his purposes. Saruman joined up with Sauron and the army of orcs and Urúk-hai (a larger, rather man-like kind of orcs that did not fear the sun) he had bred to assail Sauron in the first place was now used for Sauron’s plan of assailing Gondor and Rohan from two sides in order to wipe out the world of High and Middle Men. This plan nearly succeded and was only prevented by the wisdom of Gandalf the Grey and the destruction of the One Ring. However, Sauron’s attempt to bring on the downfall of Rohan nearly succeeded: His servant Gríma “Wormtongue” served Théoden, King of Rohan, as a counsellor and lulledhis will to sleep with the power of his voice until he would not leave his hall any more; only Gandalf was able to rouse him from this state of hypnosis and persuaded him to go to war and fight with Rohan’s allies.
After his big plans had failed, Saruman took revenge on those who had prevented them: He took possession of the Shire and established a reign of terror; when Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin returned from their adventures, they found their home devastated and most of their friends imprisoned for breaking the senseless rules Saruman had set up. But some hundred of Saruman’s Easterlings could not terrify the four Hobbits who had gone through much worse things on their journey: They raised the Shire-folk and defeated the Easterlings in the Battle of Bywater; Saruman, who tried to flee when he saw that once again, his plan had not worked out, was stabbed by his own servant. His soul "[wavered for a moment], looking into the West, but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing." (25)
Gollum/Sméagol
"But stream and pool
Is wet and cool:
So nice for feet!
And now we wish
To catch a fish,
so juicy-sweet!"
Gollum
Sméagol was a Hobbit of the people of the Stoors who lived in the valleys of Anduin. One day, his cousin Déagol found a golden ring in the river while fishing. Sméagol wanted to have that ring and when Déagol refused to give it to him, he killed his cousin and took it by force, then hid in the tunnels under the Misty Mountains. This ring was the Ruling Ring of Power, and as it extended his life unnaturally and he stayed in his refuge for several hundred years. Living in the sunless caves disfigured Sméagol’s body until he could not be recognized as a Hobbit any more: His hair vanished, he began two walk on all fours and his eyes became very large; he began to hate the sun, ate raw fish and talked to his "precious", as he called the Ring. He was now called Gollum, after the ugly sounds he made while speaking. When Bilbo got lost in the tunnels under the Misty Mountains, he happened to find the Ring, which Gollum had lost, (26) and kept it; Gollum left his cave in order to get back his "precious" which Bilbo had "stolen". During his quest for the Ring, Gollum came to Mordor where he was taken prisoner and tortured. Sauron’s servants only got two words out of him, but those were already enough: "Shire" and "Baggins". Sauron released him and he continued his search; in the mines of Moria he caught up with the Fellowship. When he attacked Sam and Frodo on the Emyn Muil, they overpowered him and he promised them to lead them to Mordor. Frodo was, of course, well aware that he could not fully trust him, but he knew that he would not find the way to Mordor alone and Gomllum was waiting for an opportunity to get hold of the Ring. But something happened to Gollum when Frodo called him by his real name which he had long forgotten: He became what we would call "schizophrenic", his new, evil, character struggling against his old self which had been brought back to life by Frodo’s courteous way of handling him. This inner struggle showed up in extreme changes of his mood: Gollum could be most pitiable and even very kind at times; seconds later, he was back to old, cursing Frodo who showed so much mercy.
In the end, Gollum, and the lust for the Ring, triumphed over Sméagol and he decided to lead Frodo into a trap: Cirith Ungol where the giant spider Shelob was lurking. Frodo and Sam, however killed Shelob and continued their way. When they had reached Mount Doom, Gollum attacked for the last time: He bit off Frodo’s finger whch wore the Ring. But he did not have much time to celebrate: He stumbled and fell into the Crack of Doom, and so the Ring was destroyed.
With his outrageous history and ambigous character, he is probably the most unique being in Tolkien’s creation.
Although there are some of Sauron's slaves that have some power of their own, Saruman and Gollum, who have got special positions in the story of Middle-Earth, remain the only individual evil characters in Tolkien's creation.
20 Black Speech of Mordor: "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them." TLOTR II/II, p. 247
21 with some exceptions where names are needed to keep the events understandable, e.g. Uglúk and Grishnákh.
22 "Kill all but NOT the halflings; they are to brought back ALIVE as quickly as possible. That's my orders." - Uglúk. "Not our orders! We have come all the way from the Mines to kill, and avenge our folk." – Grishnákh [The argument ends in a fight.] TLOTR III/III, p.435/436
23 TLOTR, p. 152
24 cf. Saruman’s “choice“ to Gandalf, TLOTR II/II, p. 252
25 TLOTR VI/VIII, p. 997
