A simple question, but one I’d like to see the geeks on this board debate. My vote goes to Saruman, Other contenders are Grima, Denethor, Sauron, and Gollum. Or you could throw your vote to Boromir, the Sackville-Baginses, Shelob, or a particular orc.
I vote for Saruman for a number of reasons – He turned on his entire nature and mission to Middle Earth when he started scheming to get the ring & its power. He was wantonly destructive of nature, and a wizard should know better. Most importantly, he was ordinary & small in his villainy. I am referring to his insults to Theoden, and Grima, and esp. to his plundering of the Shire for (as I see it) pure spite. I may not be explaining myself very well, but I think the Saruman of Rohan and of the Shire is the most frightening villain of the book, as he is the most akin to real world dictatorial evil
Good points about Saruman. His evil is more personal, because you see him as an on-screen character in the movies and books. While Sauron is certainly more powerful, he never really appears as a character (other than in the movie prologue), and is more the evil driving force than a villain per se.
And, the fact that Saruman was supposed to be one of the good guys makes his evil more nasty, in a way.
Toss up between Grima and Saruman. Saruman is the more evil in that he knows the true nature of the world and Eru and yet actively moves to dominate wills and align with Sauron. Grima though is more immediately villainous. He poisons Theoden, stalks Eowyn and continually acts to damped, slow and delay Rohan’s response to orc raiders and the threat from both Mordor and Isenguard.
Saruman made a choice to make a play for power. He should have been smart enough to know the risks he takes trying to control the ring, and so forth.
In the trilogy, Sauron appears more like an ominous force of evil, almost like a rabid dog. “It’s his nature.”
In real life, violent criminals who chose to be so are more despised than those who are a victim of circumstance (like being insane).
With just the trilogy to go on, one definately may feel that Saruman was more evil, because of his betrayal of those who trust him.
In the Silmarillion, however, Sauron, in the Second Age, was much more of a schemer, and betrayed the trust of the Men of Numenor. I would have to go with Sauron, by a nose.
Has to be Sauron. Most everyone else, while exhibiting evil behavior, were only doing it because they were influenced by the evil that emanated from Sauron, either through the ring (like Gollum) or more directly (like the Orcs).
Saruman was only evil after coming under Sauron’s spell. Same with Denethor, but not nearly to such a great extent.
We never really learn how Grima came to be such a jagoff, but he hardly rises to the heights of the others. Shelob got her evil from Ungoliant, an original evil being from the days of Morgoth, so you can’t blame her on Sauron, but she’s still just a creature of her nature. The Sackville-Bagginses aren’t really evil, just jealous. And Boromir, I always thought, was just a good dude caught in an impossible situation. So my vote goes with Sauron, as the only evil being who was born to be bad, and made the most of it…TRM
Sauron had millenia more of being evil behind him, but in the beginning, he was just like Saruman, being seduced over by Melkor. It’s just that by the time of the book, Sauron is so much more further advanced in evil that he’s become that ominous force of evil. If Saruman had had the time, he would have ended up like Sauron as well.
So I think Sauron gets it on seniority. He is evil personified, while Saruman is just taking the baby steps along that road.
Sorry, not quite. Saruman began dissembling about his goals and aims before he looked into the Palantir.
In Letters by JRRT, #181 pg. 237 Tolkien states that Saruman’s fatal temptation was impatience, leading to a desire to force others to do good, and then to a simple desire for power.
While using the Palantir was the immediate visible precipitator of his downfall, it was his study of the arts of the enemy, and his imitation of those same arts, that made him susceptible.
As to the OP, one could argue that the Balrog is the most evil, having served Melkor even longer than Sauron did, without wavering as Sauron did after the Break of Thangorodrim.
Well, the answer turns on whether you mean the most villanous character or not, and the most villanous in The Lord of the Rings or the whole selection.
Saruman is the clearly the most villainous character. He’s just a bastard. He betrays everyone and nearly brings victory to the side of evil.
Sauron does not appear as a character in Lord of the Rings (but does in the Silmarillian et al. The similarity of names with Saruman is no accident, I think, because Saruman is symbolic of the character of Sauron and his descent into evil. Morgoth occupies the “arch-enemy of good” role that Sauron later took over.
Shelob is really properly speaking a monster. She was born into evil, and never chose the slightest deviance from it.
Now, Golum wasn’t exactly good, but it’s certainly true that his evil was not wholly his own. At times, he actually showed great resiliance against it, but was captured by a power too great for him to handle. In fact, he may or may not even be considered an evil character. I agree that he is a villain in the context of the story, however.
Denethor is similar, but even more resiliant. He was actualy able to use the Palantir to good effect, although it also slowly destroyed his will to live. I might actually note that for once Gandalf may have been neglecting his duties a bit, since Denethor was perhaps the key figure in need of Secret Fire against despair. Later on the story he was clearly semi-delusional.
Grima is perhaps the most interesting, however. On the one hand, he clearly chose evil several times, but perhaps out of a misplaced sense of loyalty. And later, he seemed to have regretted his choice and struck back against the darkness which enslaved him.
I don’t know that Denethor was evil at all. Admittedly, he was a jerk to his younger son, but he committed the forces of Gondor to defeat Sauron, lit the beacons to draw the army together, and called the Riders of Rohan as allies. It was only after his older son was killed, the army of Gondor was shattered at Osgilath, and his younger son was apparently mortally wounded that he lost hope and killed himself.
Denethor made some bad decisions, but he wasn’t evil.
Sauron for me was the most evil because he wanted to dominate everyone with his malice and cruelty and turn them to his will. Saruman lusted for power and was willing to do evil and did great evil to gain that power, but he wasn’t a slave to the ideals of malice and cruelty. Even Melkor used evil only to gain what he believed was rightfully his as the most powerful being in Arda. Sauron was evil for the sake of evil.
My vote is for Sauron. He was the root of all evil, at least in the Lord of the Rings, either by influence through the Palantir or the rings. The only one not influenced to evil by Sauron, either directly or indirectly, was Shelob, and I don’t think she was really evil. Just hungry.
