On Saruman's loss of power in The Lord of the Rings

     In Tolkien's legendarium Saruman is a maia. There were two orders of the angelic beings created by the one god Eru Iluvatar called ainur who entered the world of Ea, the valar and the maiar. The ainur participated in the creation of Ea with their song; they sung themes given by Eru and then Eru gave existence to their song by allowing it to manifest itself with the creation of Ea. The valar and the maiar were those ainur who entered Ea and tethered their existence to it in order to help shape it. The valar were of higher order, more powerful and wiser than the maiar, who would most of the times assist the valar in their missions.

    In the events of The Lord of The Rings that takes place during the last recorded ages in Tolkien's legendarium, an order of wizards called the Istari has left Valinor, the land were the valar reside and entered middle-earth, the mortal lands, to help the children of Eru, the immortal elves and the mortal humans, face the evil lord Sauron. This happened as a pact with the valar. The Istari agreed to relinquish their ability to be invisible and formless spirits and manifest themselves in mortal flesh. They took the form of old men, who would age very slowly through centuries and could be subjected to pain and hunger. They were not allowed to rule the children of Eru neither to use their powers extensively, which were actually great sacrifices if one considers that they participated in the creation of the world. The maiar who agreed did so voluntarily and their noble purpose was to take that humble form to guide, support and offer their services to the races of middle-earth fighting for their freedom against Sauron. Sauron had helped the elves create the rings of power. Extremely powerful artifacts that could give to their owners legendary powers. The rings were shared between different races; humans, dwarves and elves. But, then Sauron deceived them and created the one ring, which could control all other rings and those who used them.

    At the end of the second age, Sauron and his armies of orcs were defeated within his own realm of Mordor by an alliance of men and elves, and Isildur, a king of men, cut his finger took his ring while Sauron lost his form and disappeared for centuries, before appearing again during the late third age. Meanwhile, Saruman, head of the order of the Istari, strayed from his original mission and purpose and had grown very ambitious with a hunger for power and desired the one ring which had been lost for many years for himself. The one ring would give him the power to control all races and become the one ruler of middle-earth. He deceived his allies; the elves, the humans and the other Istari pretending to be helping them while he was actually trying to find the one ring and use it. He also secretly allied with Sauron at some point after his return. When Sauron was about to unleash his endless armies of orcs Saruman had built his own army of orcs to aid Sauron. But, he deceived Sauron as well, because he was searching for the one ring for himself and not to give it back to Sauron who had this as his primary goal. However, Saruman was utterly defeated. His orc armies were decimated by men with the aid of the Istar wizard, Gandalf. And his fortress of Isengard was sacked and he was forced to abandon his tower called Orthank. By that time Saruman had lost his power as a wizard and his authority as Gandalf at one of their encounters destroyed Saruman's staff. His final act after the destruction of Sauron and of the one ring was to seize control of a place called the Shire, where a small population of halflings lived. He was slain by Grima, one of his own servants. There is an intriguing question regarding his fall; the loss of his power. It is directly stated that Saruman lost his powers in the story. But, how can someone who participated in the creation of the world become powerless? Even more so when Sauron, who was a maia as well had retained his powers despite his defeats throughout history even before creating the one ring.

    There are several reasons for Saruman's loss of power. First of all, he agreed to relinquish much of his power by incarnating to the form of an Istar and he made a pact with the valar to serve the peoples of middle-earth. It is highly possible that this pact came with some constraints. Gandalf's breaking Saruman's staff signified that Saruman had lost his authority in the order and possibly some of his powers. His betrayal of the pact he had made could mean that there were repercussions for his power. Another reason is his devotion to controlling others. In Tolkien's legendarium it has been made explicitly clear that when someone devotes their energy to control their environment this act is diminishing their power. The primordial dark lord Morgoth lost his ability to become invisible and change form after several acts of evil and control. Saruman devoted much of his power to create an army and control thousands of orcs. He even made a magic ring to amplify his control over them. After his defeat, all of his works were undone, and possibly much of his dispersed power was lost. Another reason and possibly the central one is his moral collapse. Unlike Sauron or Morgoth, Saruman came to middle-earth with a noble purpose and incarnated into a form bound to do noble deeds. When Saruman fell from his nobility he never achieved a purity in his evil. A purity Sauron always had. Saruman was in between pretending he would do things better for everybody yet desiring power. It is important to observe Gandalf's words when Saruman after his defeat failed while trying to use the power of his voice to persuade his former allies to forgive him and ally with him again. Gandalf claims that someone can not be both a tyrant and an advisor. Saruman was also attached to his pride and greed. He considered others inferior including his allies. Power demands some kind of unity of the self in order for someone to wield it. Saruman was tethered to his nobility but also to his evil. And he was tethered to his pride but was utterly defeated by those he considered lesser. He was shattered inside without the required integrity to wield any sort of power. So, these cases serve as an explanation as to why Saruman lost his power; his pact with the valar to a noble mission, his incarnation in a mortal body, his dispersing of his energies to assert control upon others along with the destruction of his work, his lack of purity and integrity that ultimately led to his moral collapse.

    Finally, there is one more interesting question; what would have happened if Saruman had obtained the one ring even after losing his power? It is highly possible that he would have been able to not only regain his full power but also become the strongest being in middle-earth. This is because the ring as evil as it was imbued with Sauron's malice, it would attune him to its cause and Saruman would have become purely evil. Moreover the ring's power would have immensely supplemented his own. So, middle-earth would have a new all-powerful dark lord.