Struck down by Grima's dagger atop Orthanc in the long version of "Return of the King", Saruman does not die in exactly the same way in the works of JRR Tolkien. Find out how the treacherous magician really ended up.
Defeated by the armies of Rohan and Ents at the end of the Two Towers, Saruman took refuge at the top of Orthanc in the company of his "faithful" Grima, but Gandalf and his allies have not yet finished with him. Coming to question him at the foot of his fortress, the White Magician engages in a final face-to-face with his enemy.
The latter, after seeing his staff break, humiliates his servant once too much and immediately pays the price. Grima stabs him in the back like that before being struck down by an arrow from Legolas. Wounded to death, Saroumane then made a spectacular fall to the bottom of his tower.
If you have been able to discover this scene like this in the long version of The Return of the King, know that it does not occur at all in the same circumstances within the works of JRR Tolkien:
"Saroumane's death is not the same in the book", explains Peter Jackson in the audio commentary of his feature film. "What normally happens in the Shire is happening here in Isengard, but despite this change, we have kept the same dynamic."
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Indeed, as all readers of the original work know, it is in the very last pages of the third part that Saroumane ends up being killed. As Peter Jackson says, the events are quite similar to what can be seen in the movie, but the scene does not take place at all in the same place, nor at the same time.
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In the book, after the destruction of the Ring and the fall of Sauron, the four hobbits have the unpleasant surprise of stumbling upon Saruman while returning to their native Shire. After his defeat in Rohan, the fallen magician, now known as Sharcoux, indeed invaded the region with the help of a horde of looters.
Organizing the revolt alongside their fellow Hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry end up defeating Saruman once again. Things then unfold more or less the same way as in the film, but in front of Cul-de-Sac (the house of Frodo), and not at the top of Orthanc: Saruman is slaughtered by Grima, who ends up killed at his turn by the arrows of the hobbits.
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If he did not integrate this final battle at the end of his trilogy, Peter Jackson ultimately decided to include Saruman's death in its long version, for a very simple reason:
"(...) We found ourselves faced with a problem: the need to include this scene because of the palantir. This is why our characters come back to Isengard. It is not to face Saroumane. Hence the absence of the stage in the cinema version. (...) Compared to the beginning and the duration of the film, this sequence was a real headache and we wondered for a long time if they could avoid coming back to Isengard, if they could recover the palantir elsewhere. "
It is therefore in order to recover the famous "stone of vision" by which Pippin then comes into contact with Sauron that Gandalf and his companions paid a last visit to Saruman in the film.
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