Saruman and Gorr

Absolute Power Corrupting Absolutely

Lord Acton’s infamous phrase “absolute power corrupts absolutely” is one that is thrown around a lot – particularly when talking about works of fiction. Many fans of certain IPs observe that this idea comes out in the themes of the mediums they love. In a world with thousands of years of evil governments, oppressive religious institutions, predatory cult leaders, and cruel gods, the clinging to Acton’s musing on power makes sense. In our primary world, there sometimes seems little that ordinary folk can do to counter these powers and principalities. The chorus “I fought the law and the law won” from the song originally written and performed by The Crickets, later covered by a multitude of bands including The Clash and Green Day, comes to mind. Art is sometimes the only place where every day people can safely wrestle with “the Man;” not even then sometimes. Both in safe and in dangerous times, artists continue to deal with the issues of power, and fans jump into the fray with them.  

            Tolkien is one of the foremost fantasy writers that the quote of Lord Acton is attributed because the theme of corrupt power and good people fighting against that power is so prevalent in his writings. From the cosmological origins of Middle-earth to the end of the Third Age and beyond there are beings who attempt to acquire absolute power so that they can shape the World to fit their own vision rather than work with others to bring about a good World in line with the harmony of diverse existence.

            Most know Tolkien’s Big Bad Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. Sauron is the famed creator of the One Ring. He made this ring to control others in Middle-earth so that they would mold the World to his dominant aims. However, this was not always Sauron’s disposition. Sauron was created by the One God of Tolkien’s legendarium Ilúvatar, where he started his career as an angelic being termed a maia, commissioned to bring about the theme of Ilúvatar - to create a beautiful World. It was not until the original Evil of Tolkien’s cosmos named Morgoth began his rebellion against Ilúvatar and started to recruit followers did Sauron turn to corruption. Ultimately, Morgoth’s attempt at an isolated plan to remake the World in his own image leads to his destruction and a chance for Sauron to repent. Sauron does repent, but his penance is short lived. Tolkien gives us insight into Sauron’s return to evil in his letter to Milton Waldman:

“He repents in fear when the First Enemy is utterly defeated, but in the end does not do as was commanded, return to the judgement of the gods. He lingers in Middle-earth. Very slowly, beginning with fair motives: the reorganising and rehabilitation of the ruin of Middle-earth, ‘neglected by the gods’, he becomes a re-incarnation of Evil, and a thing lusting for Complete Power – and so consumed ever more fiercely with hate (especially of gods and Elves).” (Letters, 131)

Children of Ilúvatar are not born evil but have the freedom to choose whether they will cooperate to cultivate a better World for all dwellers of Middle-earth or not.

            One prominent character in The Lord of the Rings that we see move gradually from good and well-intentioned to dominant and power-hungry is Saruman. We see the original White Wizard, like a frog in a slowly heating pot of water, become the very thing he vows to dedicate his life to defeating. Saruman begins his life in the same way as Sauron - as a maia. In the year 1000 of the Third Age when Sauron was rising to power, Ilúvatar, through the help of the Valar (the gods of Tolkien’s legendarium), recruited a group of Wizards called the Istari to go to Middle-earth to unite the free people’s therein and encourage them to resist Sauron. The number of Istari who arrived in Middle-earth is unknown, but the five chieftains of the order are Saruman, Radagast, Alatar, Pallando, and Gandalf. Saruman was considered to be the leader of the order by the Elves because of his skill and knowledge.

            Where Saruman starts as the head of the resistance to Sauron by working together with those who were virtuous and good, we learn later at “The Council of Elrond” in The Fellowship of the Ring that Saruman had changed his tactic in “resisting” Sauron:

            “'He drew himself up then and began to declaim, as if he were making a speech long rehearsed. "The Elder Days are gone. The Middle Days are passing. The Younger Days are beginning. The time of the Elves is over, but our time is at hand: the world of Men, which we must rule. But we must have power, power to order all things as we will, for that good which only the Wise can see.

'"And listen, Gandalf, my old friend and helper! " he said, coming near and speaking now in a softer voice. "I said we, for we it may be, if you will join with me. A new Power is rising. Against it the old allies and policies will not avail us at all. There is no hope left in Elves or dying Númenor. This then is one choice before you. before us. We may join with that Power. It would be wise, Gandalf. There is hope that way. Its victory is at hand; and there will be rich reward for those that aided it. As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means."

'"Saruman," I said, "I have heard speeches of this kind before, but only in the mouths of emissaries sent from Mordor to deceive the ignorant. I cannot think that you brought me so far only to weary my ears."

'He looked at me sidelong, and paused a while considering. "Well, I see that this wise course does not commend itself to you," he said. "Not yet? Not if some better way can be contrived? "

`He came and laid his long hand on my arm. "And why not, Gandalf? " he whispered. "Why not? The Ruling Ring? If we could command that, then the Power would pass to us. That is in truth why I brought you here. For I have many eyes in my service, and I believe that you know where this precious thing now lies. Is it not so? Or why do the Nine ask for the Shire, and what is your business there? " As he said this a lust which he could not conceal shone suddenly in his eyes.

'"Saruman," I said, standing away from him, "only one hand at a time can wield the One, and you know that well, so do not trouble to say we! But I would not give it, nay, I would not give even news of it to you, now that I learn your mind. You were head of the Council, but you have unmasked yourself at last. Well, the choices are, it seems, to submit to Sauron, or to yourself. I will take neither.” (FR, 339 – 341)

Rather than organizing and persuading those who oppose Sauron, Saruman reveals that he is joining Sauron for the purpose of tricking him so that Saruman can use the One Ring to defeat Sauron and take his place as the one who establishes “Knowledge, Rule, and Order” in Middle-earth.

            We learn later that Saruman had been studying the craft of making Rings of Power as Sauron had in an attempt to understand Sauron to get a leg up on him. It is revealed that Saruman has also had access to a palantír by which he used to access the one that Sauron had in his possession and eventually began to communicate with him. Saruman believed that he could fool Sauron into believing that he was on his side to later defeat him. Any means to achieve the ends of Sauron’s defeat was the beginning of the end of Saruman. This approach motivated Saruman to cruelty and inspired arrogance within him. He imprisons Gandalf to prevent him from getting to the hobbits, he builds an army to destroy Rohan for military gain, and he pillages parts of Fangorn forest to fuel his power machine. The identity of Saruman and Sauron become indistinguishable at times. Ultimately, Saruman is defeated by Rohan and the Ents and runs way from his former stronghold Isengard. In “The Scouring of the Shire” in The Return of the King, the Hobbits return to The Shire after the defeat of Sauron to find their home desolated and ruled by ruffians led by a man named Sharkey. We find that Sharkey is actually Saruman, and in his last attempt at a grab for power, he uses the last scrap of it he has left to twist The Shire into a land that bends to his will. He is defeated, confronted by the Hobbits, and killed by his servant Grima Wormtongue because of his cruel posture towards Grima. In the end, absolute power corrupted and consumed Saruman absolutely.

            Another character shrouded in white that goes bad is Gorr the God Butcher from Thor: The Saga of Gorr the God Butcher, the comic series from which the movie Thor: Love and Thunder was based. Like much of the MCU’s source material, this comic run is much darker than the movie adaptation, though the same message comes through.

            In the beginning of the run, Thor learns that gods all over the universe are being horrendously murdered. He investigates and encounters Gorr, who is extremely powerful because he wields the Necrosword, a black sword that is made for its wielder to kill gods. Thor goes through a series of ass-beatings from Gorr and in between each he attempts to track Gorr and discover a seemingly ever-growing plot to kill the gods. The reader learns that Gorr has been killing gods and trying to build a “God Bomb” for 900 years in an attempt to wipe out all the gods across the universe once and for all.

            But who is this Gorr? Later in the run, we learn of Gorr’s origins. He is a man who lives on a desolate desert planet, where his mother is eaten by sand tigers, his pregnant wife dies by falling in a rockslide, and his children starve to death. Throughout his tragic life, he is constantly reminded to pray to and trust the gods. His mother and wife are devout. When his final child dies, Gorr’s religious elder reminds him to conduct the proper funeral rituals so as not to risk his son’s soul to damnation. Gorr publicly refutes the gods of his community and is excommunicated. As he wanders in isolation in the desert, starving to death, he encounters two gods who have fallen from the sky in battle. Both are impaled. One, who is still living, begs for Gorr’s help. It is here that Gorr denounces the god for his negligence, acquires the Necrosword from the dead god and slays the one remaining. His first kill blazes the trail for his deicide.

            As time goes on, Gorr becomes more and more powerful, trumping the might of any and all gods that get in his way. In fact, he ends up enslaving a slew of gods to build the God Bomb that will lead to their demise. We see a man who has moved from rags to riches, manifesting a Pharoah-like persona, inspired by the book of Exodus.

            Like Saruman, we see Gorr spiral into a man who is willing to engage in any means to meet his ends. Gorr has a son and wife that look up to him and encourage him along his journey to kill the gods so they can live in a world without them and focus on living in peace as a family. Towards the end of the run, Gorr nonchalantly kills his wife in the aftermath of his butchering enslaved gods who rebel against him. His son witnesses this and comes to realize that the man he looked up to for his mission to exterminate the gods for their absence of compassion and posture of dominance has become the very thing he has sought to destroy. In the end, Gorr’s son (who is an illusion created by the Necrosword) calls him the God of Hypocrisy and is then beheaded by a younger Thor from an alternative timeline.

            What we see in both Saruman and Gorr, in both Tolkien and Jason Aaron, the writer of this Thor comic run, and their exploration of power, is that trying to acquire power to fight power leads to a power struggle that causes collateral damage, hurting the things once loved. Further, the quest for absolute power induces the end for its seeker. What truly makes headway in the resistance against oppressive powers is fellowship and compassion with ourselves and others. Cooperation for a better world through shared wellbeing as opposed to perceived individual control to shape the world into a more “orderly” plane of existence are what true heroes are made of.