Further south there are no passes, till one comes to the Gap of Rohan. I do not trust that way since your news of Saruman

I it was who summoned the White Council. And if my designs had not gone amiss, it would have been governed by Gandalf the Grey, and then mayhap things would have gone otherwise.

And Curunír (that was Saruman the White) was chosen to be their chief, for he had most studied the devices of Sauron of old. Galadriel indeed had wished that Mithrandir should be the Lead of the Council, and Saruman begrudged them that, for his pride and desire of mastery was grown great; but Mithrandir refused the office, since he would have no ties and no allegiance, save to those who sent him, and he would abide in no place nor be subject to any summons.

Upon their shields they bore a strange device: a small white hand in the center of a black field; on the front of their iron helms was set an S-rune, wrought of some white metal.
'I have not seen these tokens before,' said Aragorn. 'What do they mean?'
'S is for Sauron,' said Gimli. 'That is easy to read.'
'Nay!' said Legolas. 'Sauron does not use Elf-runes.'
'Neither does he use his right name, nor permit it to be spelt or spoken,' said Aragorn. 'And he does not use white. The Orcs in the service of Barad-dur use the sign of the Red Eye.' He stood for a moment in thought. 'S is for Saruman, I guess,' he said at length. 'There is evil afoot in Isengard, and the West is no longer safe. It is as Gandalf feared: by some means the traitor Saurman has had news of our journey. It is likely too that he knows of Gandalf's fall. Pursuers from Moria may have escaped the vigilance of Lorien, or they may have avoided that land and come to Isengard by other paths. Orcs travel fast. But Saruman has many ways of learning news. Do you remember the birds?'

'I would have guided Frodo to Mordor and gone with him to the end but if I seek him now in the wilderness, I must abandon the captive to torment and death. My heart speaks clearly at last: the fare of the Bearer is in my hands no longer.

'I do not know what has happened here of late, nor in what mind the Rohirrim may now be between the traitor Saruman and the threat of Sauron. They have long been the friends of the people of Gondor...they will not love the Orcs.'

'But at this time, our chief concern is with Saruman. He has claimed lordship over all this land, and there has been war between us for many months. He has taken Orcs into his service, and Wolf-riders, and evil Men, and he has closed the Gap against us, so that we are likely to be beset both east and west.
'It is ill dealing with such a foe; he is a wizard both cunning and dwimmer-crafty, having many guises. He walks here and there, they say, as an old man hooded and cloaked, very like to Gandalf, as many now recall. His spies slip through every net, and his birds of ill omen are abroad in the sky. I do not know how it will all end, and my heart misgives me; for it seems to me that his friends do not all dwell in Isengard. But if you come to the king's house, you shall see for yourself.'

Suddenly, Gimli looked up, and there just on the edge of the firelight stood and old bent man, leaning on a staff and wrapped in a great cloak; his wide-brimmed hat was pulled down over his eyes. Gimi sprang up, too amazed for the moment to cry out, though at once the thought flashed into his mind that Saruman had caught them.

Uglúk to torture (chamber) with stinking Saruman-filth. Dung-heap. Skai!

We are the fighting Uruk-Hai!...We are the servants of Saruman the Wise, the White Hand, the Hand that gives us man's-flesh to eat.

I Grishnakh say this: Saruman is a fool, and a dirty treacherous fool. But the Great Eye is on him.

'But Saruman now! Saruman is a neighbour: I cannot overlook him...Saruman is a Wizard, more than that I cannot say. I do not know the history of Wizards. They appeared first after the Great Ships came over the Sea; but if they came with the Ships I never can tell. Saruman was reckoned great amoung them, I believe. He gave up wandering about and minding the affairs of Men and Elves, some time ago - you would call it a very long time ago; and he settled down at Angrenost, or Isengard as the Men of Rohan call it. He was very quiet to begin with, but his fame began to grow. He was chosen to he head of the White Council, they day; but that did not turn out too well. I wonder now if even then Saruman was not turning to evil ways. But at any rate he used to give no trouble to his neighbours. I used to talk to him. There was time when he was always walking about in my woods. He was polite in those days, always asking my leave (at least when he met me); and always eager to listen. I told him many things that he never would have found out by himself; but he never repaid me in like kind. I cannot remember that he ever told me anything. And he got more and more like that; his face, as I remember it - I have not seen it for many a day - became like windows in a stone wall; windows with shutters inside.
I think that I now understand what he is up to. He is plotting to become a Power. He has a mind of metal and wheels; and he does not care for growing things, except as far as they serve him for the moment. And now it is clear that he is a black traitor. He has taken up with foul folk, with the Orcs. Brm, hoom! Worse than that; he has been doing something to them; something dangerous. For these Isengarders are more like wicked Men. It is a mark of evil things that came in the Great Darkness that they cannot abide the Sun; but Saruman's Orcs can endure it, even if they hate it. I wonder what he has done? Are they Men he has ruined, or has he blended the races of Orcs and Men? That would be a black evil!

'Birds used to flock there. I like birds, even when they chatter; and the rowan had enough (berries) and to spare. But the birds became unfriendly and greedy and tore at the trees, and threw the fruit down and did not eat it. Then the Orcs same with axes and cut down my trees.'

'Yes, I am white now,' said Gandalf. 'Indeed I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have been.'

'For the Enemy has failed - so far. Thanks to Saruman.'
'Then is not Saruman a traitor?' said Gimli.
'Indeed yes,' said Gandalf. 'Doubly. And is that not strange? Nothing that we have endured of late has seemed to grievous as the treason of Isengard...between them our enemies have contrived only to bring Merry and Pippin with marvelous speed; and in the nick of time, to Fangorn, where otherwise they never would have come at all!'

The coming of the hobbits and the tidings that they brought have spilled it; it will soon be running like a flood; but its tide is turned against Saruman and the axes of Isengard.

'Down on your belly! How long is it since Saruman bought you? What was the promised price? When all the men were dead, you were to pick your share of the treasure, and take the woman you desire? Too long you have watched her under your eyelids and haunted her steps.'

Between the Dike and the eaves of that nameless wood only two open furlongs lay. There now cowered the proud hosts of Saruman, in terror of the king and in terror of the trees

'I wish to speak with Saruman, as soon as may be now,' said Gandalf,'and since he has done you great injury, it would be fitting if you were there.'

'Help now to repair the evil in which you have joined,' said Erkenbrand;'and afterwards you shall take an oath never again to pass the Fords of Isen in arms, nor to march with the enemies of Men; and then you shall go free back to your land. For you have been deluded by Saruman. Many of you have got death as the reward of your trust in him: but had you conquered, little better would your wages have been.'
The men of Dunland were amazed; for Saruman had told them that the men of Rohan were cruel and burned their captives alive.

No green thing grew there in the latter days of Saruman. The roads were paved with stone-flags, dark and hard; and beside their borders instead of trees there marched long lines of pillars, some of marble, some of copper and iron, joined by heavy chains.

A strong place, and wonderful was Isengard, and long it had been beautiful; and there great lords had dwelt, the wardens of Gondor upon the West, and wise men that watched the stars. But Saruman had slowly shaped it to his shifting purposes, and made it better, as he thought, being deceived - for all those arts and subtle devices, for which he forsook his former widsom, and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor; so that what he made was naught, only a little copy, a child's model or a slave's flattery, of that vast fortress, armoury, prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dur, the Dark Tower.

'The Lord Saruman is within; but at the moment he is closeted with one Wormtongue, or doubtless he would be here to welcome such honorable guests.'

'I don't know what Saruman thought was happening; but anyway he did not know how to deal with it. His wizardry may have been falling off lately, of course; but anyway I think he had not much grit, not much plain courage alone in a tight place without a lot of slaves and machines and things, if you know what I mean. Very different from old Gandalf. I wonder if his face was not all along mainly due to his cleverness in settling at Isengard.'
'No,' said Aragorn,' Once he was as great as his fame made him. His knowledge was deep, his thought was subtle, and his hands marvellously skilled; and he had a power over the minds of others. That power he certainly still keeps. There are not many in Middle-Earth that I should say were safe, if they were left alone to talk with him, even now when he has suffered a defeat.'

'He seems to have been at the gates when we arrived: I expect he came to watch his splendid army march out. When the Ends broke their way in, he left in a hurry. They did not spot him at first. But the night had opened out, and there was a great light of stars, quite enough for Ents to see by, and suddenly Quickbeam gave a cry "The tree-killer, the tree-killer!" Quickbeam is a gentle creature but he hates Saruman all the more fiercely for that; his people suffered cruelly from orc-axes.'

Ugluk, I think shows loyalty (to Saruman), courage, some skill in managing an unruly command. He dies bravely, even heroically.

'For a little space you may triumph on the field, for a day. But against the Power that now arises there is no victory. To this City only the first finger of its hand has yet been stretched.'

'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;'

Ugluk, I think shows loyalty (to Saruman), courage, some skill in managing an unruly command. He dies bravely, even heroically.

21. Would you say that Saruman's treachery is as bad, if less effective, and more recent, than Sauron's?

For Círdan saw further and deeper than any other in Middle-earth and he welcomed Mithrandir at the Grey Havens, knowing whence he came and whither he would return."