This article was originally a part of my thesis which discussed Tolkien’s depiction of ingenuine friendship, along with what became the article Boromir the misunderstood hero. In this installment I focus on the relationship between Saruman, Gríma Wormtongue, and Théoden the king of Rohan.
Abbreviations used:
Letters – The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
LOTR – The Lord of the Rings
SIL – The Silmarillion
UT – The Unfinished Tales
Gríma, the servant of two masters
Gríma was king Théoden’s counsellor. Nothing is known about his life before the events described in The Lord of the Rings, but it can be assumed that he was a close friend of the king, for no king would ever take as advisor someone whom he would not know well and could not trust. But it seems that Gríma had always been a very emulous person, not satisfied with just aiding the king. However, in his position he reached all he could, and he could aspire for nothing more as he was not of royal origin. So, he sought other, less fair, ways to fulfil his desires. It is not known when and how he got in touch with Saruman, but he certainly fell under the enchantment of his voice. Possibly, Saruman promised to give him all he wanted if he served him well; particularly the hand of the king’s niece Éowyn whom Gríma had lusted for for a long time but could not marry because she did not like him. Thus, Gríma became one of those Saruman’s thralls who remained under the power of his voice even when they were far away from him. He took orders from Saruman and advised the king in concordance with them. For several years Saruman ruled Rohan through him in a way that weakened the country. It is questionable what use Saruman had from it, except for that it ensured his orcs almost free pass through the lands, or how the country would serve him had he conquered it in the later battle.
Gríma took his chance when Théoden, aged 66 that time, got ill and he took care of his treatment. The king’s illness might have had a natural cause, but it is as likely that it was a result of Gríma’s “medicines,” for he poisoned the king not only with lies, but also with some drugs. That was in 3014 Third Age; this was five years before The War of the Ring (UT). During those five years he worked hard on making the king incompetent in taking decisions on his own. He used his rhetoric skills to impose on the King ideas in a way that they seemed as his own, and thus make rules to his own liking and need. Further, he concealed from the king the truth about what was going on in his country, so the king had no idea about its real state. And whenever anybody spoke truly about it, he accused them of lying. He even forbade them from chasing and killing Saruman’s orcs, making light of their marauding the country.
Moreover, he attempted to eliminate everybody who opposed him, mainly the king’s closest and dearest relatives. He told the king lies about them, trying to discredit them in his eyes and set them against each other. But that proved useless, as they remained loyal to the king despite his “illness,” got on well, and were joined by a common love and care for Théoden and dislike for Gríma. However, they could do nothing to remove him from his position, for the king was much dependent on him. When Gríma saw his tactics did not work, he turned to a rougher method – imprisonment. He imprisoned Éomer for several reasons: first, for breaking the rule and chasing and killing the hoard of orcs who were to bring the captured hobbits to Isengard; second, for letting Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli walk free in Rohan instead of bringing them first to the king to decide their doom, for lending them Rohirrim horses; and thirdly, for threatening Gríma with death when they came into conflict after Éomer told all of this to Théoden. Afterwards he forbade any stranger be let into the city to visit Théoden, which was a spiteful decision for he knew that Aragorn was bound to come and return the horses. Had the guards executed the order it would make Aragorn break his promise and that, in turn, would serve as a good excuse for persecuting him.
The effect of Gríma’s five-year-long dominance over Théoden was that the king looked and felt many years older than he actually was. He was described as being “so bent with age that he seemed almost a dwarf” with a long beard “laid like snow upon his knees,” (LOTR, p. 512). He needed a stick even to stand up from his throne and was not able to walk without support from others. The only indicator of his not being as old as he looked was his long thick hair in great braids and bright light that burned in his eyes.
The people of Rohan upon seeing that Gríma did not really care about the well-being of the king and the country; on the contrary, he did everything to weaken them both; named him Wormtongue. Everybody called him that except for the king, but only a few people dared to stand against him openly because they feared how he could punish them when he did not spare even the members of the royal family. The name Wormtongue is a modernized form of Old English wyrm-tunge, with the first part meaning reptile, or particularly snake (www.tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Gríma). It referred to the falsity of Gríma’s talk, liking him to the snake embodying Satan in Paradise who, by telling lies, tricked Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit.
But nothing of Gríma’s treachery was fully revealed to Théoden until Gandalf came to “cure” him. How much the king was subdued by his counsellor is best seen in this scene. Gandalf always spoke directly to the king, but Gríma answered instead of him. And even when Théoden spoke to Gandalf at his coming, it was just the words prompted to him by Gríma, whose attitude towards the Grey wizard was in turn inspired by Saruman’s. Gríma hated Gandalf as much as Saruman did and to certain extent managed to impose this loathing also on Théoden. Because of this, the king said he rejoiced about the information of Gandalf’s death in Moria and was disappointed when it turned untrue, and he addressed him as Stormcrow, the bearer of ill news. For speaking like that his counsellor commended him, laughing grimly at Gandalf, calling him other bad names and berating him for taking the king’s best horse until the wizard lost patience with him. He cast him aside with the power of his magic staff, which Gríma formerly had advised the wardens to insist on not allowing him to take into the king’s house, noting that he had been poisoning the king with his twisted tales and crooked promptings.
When Gandalf revived Théoden and made him see the truth again, the king sent for his sword which Gríma, who meanwhile crept away, kept locked in his chest. He was at first loth to give the key to it; and once the chest was open it was found out that he was hiding there many things the king’s men missed. When Théoden asked Gríma if it displeased him to return him the sword, he exclaimed: “Assuredly not,” pretending it was just from his big concern about his health; that he did not want the king to exhaust or even hurt himself by wielding it (LOTR, p. 519). Instead, he tried to direct the king’s attention to a less relevant issue – his lunch. And after he learnt Théoden himself wanted to go to battle Gríma went almost crazy. He acted as if he was the only one truly concerned about the king’s well-being, telling him that those who truly love him would spare his failing years. He accused Gandalf of bewitching the king; thus the true bewitcher, in an attempt to put the suspicion off himself, attributed his own vicious characteristic to someone else. But Théoden was now aware of his manners responded: “If this is bewitchment, it seems to me more wholesome than your whisperings. Your leechcraft ere long would have had me walking on all fours like a beast,” (ibid.).
Then Gríma asked for his pity and pity he did get. Théoden gave him a choice, either to come with him and prove his faithfulness in battle, or to be exiled from Rohan but with the threat that, if he ever came back, the king would have no more mercy with him. Gríma then feared Théoden’s punishment and even more he feared Saruman’s. But the most he feared death in fight which would be quick for him, as he lived in a time of peace and had no experience in it, and as a counsellor was probably not even trained. A “look of a beast seeking some gap in the rings of his enemies” was in his eyes (ibid.), yet he continued playing his role. He even dared to propose that the king made him steward of his house and property in time of his absence. This inappropriate request only recalled general laughter and Gandalf’s anger. He called him a snake and warned Théoden:
“With safety you cannot take it with you, nor can you leave it behind. To slay it would be just. But it was not always as it now is. Once it was a man, and did you service in its fashion. Give him a horse and let him go at once, wherever he chooses. By his choice you shall judge him,” (LOTR, p. 520, my emphasis).
The use of the image of a snake was already explained. But the use of the pronoun it to refer to Gríma and his is remarkable here; it resembles Gollum. Just like him Gríma is corrupted by his vice; he had lost his dignity. And because he served two masters at the same time, he was torn in two; he did not know who he was; he’d lost himself. Because of his treachery he was not worth to be considered a human person, and his degradation into an unidentifiable creature became more evident as the story proceeded.
In the end, Gríma chose exile. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then he just ran away from the king, his eyes glittering with such malice that the by-standing men stepped back from him, scared. Théoden showed him a great mercy that he did not kill him right there; moreover, he granted him a horse and free way to wherever he would choose. And Gríma chose to return to his true master Saruman.
He reached Isengard right after the ents had ruined it and when he saw it he “gaped, and his face went almost green,” (LOTR, p. 573). He wanted to get away but he was stopped by Treebeard. In spite of his terror, he tried to deceive the ent, telling he was Théoden’s messenger bringing important news to Saruman, naming himself as the only one who dared to undergo that perilous journey through a land full of enemies – orcs, whom he, by the way, was seen riding along with. But Treebeard had information about him beforehand and he made him go to Orthanc through the dirty pool around it even though Gríma confessed he could not swim. Saruman surely was not happy about the turn of events and Gríma’s stay with him must have been more of a torture. When Gandalf and Théoden came to debate with Saruman and Gandalf broke his power, from a window, Gríma threw down in between the wizards a stone globe that he found in one of Saruman’s chambers, which was apparently palantír, but he was unaware of its use. That was presumably Saruman’s most grievous loss and led to him abusing Gríma all the more. On Gríma’s not hitting anybody with the stone Aragorn commented that his aim was poor, because he could not decide whom he hated more, Gandalf or Saruman.
When Saruman and Gríma later left Orthanc and met Gandalf and the Elves on their way north, it was shown that Saruman treated him worse than a dog. He called him an idiot, struck him with his staff and kicked him. He even withheld food from him. He fed him just crusts of his bread, and when he was not satisfied with Gríma’s behaviour not even that much. In Saruman’s company Gríma became very miserable and plunging in self-pity: “Poor old Gríma! Poor old Gríma! Always beaten and cursed. How I hate him! I wish I could leave him!” (ibid., p. 983, my emphasis). This again reminds us of Gollum’s manner of speech; Gríma even used the third person to refer to himself. Also, the whole of Gríma’s appearance indicates he was becoming still more and more like Gollum: his skin had always been unnaturally pale and his eyes heavy-lidded and squinted, but now he was crouching and whining too.
As for his wish to leave Saruman, which he confessedly could not do, he was probably not bound by any promise to stay with him. Even Gandalf bid him leave him if he wanted, and he would likely help him if he did so, if he sincerely regretted all his past mischief. But Gríma hated Gandalf for ruining Saruman and consequently his own plans, thus he could not join them. Neither could he go on his own for he would not be able to survive. It was the result of his losing his self. On his own he was nobody now. He was so much affected by Saruman’s enchantment that he no longer had any control over his life and was fully dependent on the “mercy” of his master. Without him he would be lost.
When they came to the Shire, Gríma did much dirty work for Saruman for little to no reward. But hobbits knew nothing of them, for Saruman, and his slave with him, remained hidden and commanded everything through Lotho as his dupe. When Frodo and his friends returned they did not guess they would find Saruman there in person until he greeted them at the front door of Frodo’s own old house. Saruman looked “well-fed and well-pleased, his eyes gleamed with malice and amusement,” (LOTR, p. 1018). He took pleasure in destroying their homeland in return for his, hoping they would never be able to heal the injuries he caused to their country, but Frodo only pitied him for that. He ordered him to leave the Shire at once knowing it was useless to meet revenge with revenge for it would heal nothing, which the by-standing hobbits thought unjust, demanding Frodo kill him. Saruman, aware that he had no other power remaining except his voice and could easily be overcome, laughed at this and maledicted that whoever would strike him should be accursed and if his blood stained the Shire (meaning that if he was killed by a hobbit), it should wither and never again be healed (LOTR, p. 1019).
He then summoned Gríma, whom he now called only Worm, pretending getting to leave, but as he passed Frodo he stabbed him with a knife which he had been hiding under his coat. A dozen hobbits led by Sam immediately flung Saruman to the ground and Sam drew out his sword to kill him. Luckily, Frodo had his Elven mail-coat on, so nothing happened to him and he stopped Sam from doing so. Instead, he showed Saruman great mercy, saying: “He was great once, of a noble kind that we should not dare to raise our hands against. He is fallen, and his cure is beyond us; but I would still spare him, in the hope that he may find it,” (ibid.). Such reaction surprised Saruman, as in his crookedness he was not able to imagine someone would act otherwise than him in such matters. Wonder, respect, and hatred mingled in his eyes. He responded: “You are wise, and cruel. You have robbed my revenge of sweetness, and now I must go hence in bitterness, in debt to your mercy. I hate it and you! Well, I go and I will trouble you no more. But do not expect me to wish you health and long life. You will have neither. But that is not my doing. I merely foretell,” (ibid.).
Then he truly turned to leave, but Gríma hesitated to follow him. Frodo bid him stay and have rest and food there for a while, until he got strong enough to go his own way, for he knew of nothing evil Gríma had done to him. But Saruman interrupted him, explaining that it was Gríma who murdered his foolish cousin Lotho, suggesting that he might had even eaten him as he had been starving lately. Gríma objected saying that he did it only on his command, and Saruman laughed at him always doing what he told him and kicked him in the face. At that something snapped in Gríma, he jumped at Saruman and cut his throat with a hidden knife and then set off, but before he could run far he was shot dead by several hobbit archers. Thus Saruman’s curse turned on him.
Analysis
I decided to treat the treachery of Saruman and Gríma within the same chapter because these two guys were similar in many aspects and their lives were interrelated. Both Gríma’s relationship with Théoden and Saruman’s relationship with the White Council, the Free Peoples of Middle-earth, and also Théoden, in particular, started as true friendships. But they both got corrupted by their unwholesome desires; they turned to evil and consequently their relationships turned into a false friendship. They both used their former friends for reaching their own goals. They still pretended friendship towards them, but secretly plotted the destruction of their assumed friends. Also, their relationship with each other was never based on true friendship but was based on mutual benefaction. Saruman needed Gríma to get control over Rohan and Gríma needed Saruman to get the woman he desired and possibly even Rohan’s kingship.
Their common characteristics include wisdom, boldness, and cunning. They both used to be very knowledgeable and intelligent persons respected and highly regarded by others. Many people come to them for advice and it was highly valued. However, they put their knowledge to ill uses. Also, they both had a great skill in rhetoric, but misused it to “bewitch” others and make them do what they wanted. Saruman and Gríma also shared a desire for self-advancement and the vices: imprudence, intemperance, covetousness, envy, anger, hatred, malice, craftiness (both guile and fraud) and treachery.
Furthermore, they both played on the side of good as well as evil. Saruman cooperated with the White Council but at the same time also with Sauron. Similarly, Gríma served both Théoden and Saruman. And they both performed double treachery. Saruman betrayed the White Council by making an alliance with Sauron, and betrayed Sauron by trying to get the Ring for himself. Moreover, he also betrayed Théoden by battling his country. Gríma betrayed Théoden by serving Saruman and working towards his conquering of Rohan. But he betrayed in Saruman in two ways: First when he revealed the Nazgûl truth about Saruman knowing the location of the Shire. The Nazgûl let him live that time and did not even punish Saruman immediately, because he perceived and predicted that Gríma would do his master more harm (UT, p. 349). And he was right. Saruman might had never found out the truth about it, but Gríma’s failure in keeping Gandalf away from Théoden resulted in the ruin of all Saruman’s plans. In the light of that, the loss of palantír was Gríma’s least mistake. Saruman’s consequent treatment of him eventually resulted in Gríma killing his master, which was the second case of his treachery towards Saruman.
Regarding Saruman’s relationship with Gríma, it was full of tricks as well. It is likely he never intended to fulfil his part of their pact – to give Gríma what he wanted. Naturally, he could not grant him Éowyn’s love, nor had any right to force her into marriage. But as Gandalf noted, he tended to overlook all his bargains, which Gríma did not believe at first. For many years he served him well and through him Saruman spied of Rohan’s ways. Thanks to him he learnt about its customs, politics, rules and statesmen’s decisions and secrets, and knew about what was going on in Rohan probably more than its king did. But his endeavour was quickly forgotten and Gríma’s sole reward was beating and starvation.
As for their individual characteristics, I begin with Gríma because he was less important and also less complex than Saruman. The motivation of his actions was obvious; it was a desire for self-advancement. When he first appeared in the book his appearance already indicated that he was not a very nice person. He was described as a wizened figure with a pale though wise face and heavy-lidded eyes (LOTR, p. 512). As it has been already mentioned, his complexion and heavy-lidded eyes remind us of Gollum. Especially those eyes indicated that he was probably hiding some unwholesome secret, just like Gollum whose eyes were always turned to the ground.
Also, his name Gríma indicates some concealment. It comes from Old English or Icelandic and means “mask, visor, helmet” or “spectre” (www.tolkiengateway.net/Gríma). The first three are items used for covering the face and the name can thus be interpreted as “the one who wears mask”. One of the meanings of the word spectre is “a mental image of something unpleasant or menacing” (www.thefreedictionary.com) and can refer to his rhetoric skill by which he was able to create unpleasant images even in other people’s minds.
Apart from the vices that he had in common with Saruman, he had one unique – a lust for a woman, Éowyn. Because they were both living in the king’s house she was always haunted not only by his looks but also his words. Gandalf’s commentary in the Houses of Healing (LOTR, p. 867) suggests that, to a great extent, Gríma was responsible for Éowyn’s feeling of uselessness and encagedness and desire to go into a war and die doing great deeds. In a very cunning way he fed her with Saruman’s opinion that the house of Eorl was only a bunch of drunkards and thus contributed to her feeling less worthy as a human being, which was already strong enough because of the gender stereotypes that her brother and uncle imposed on her in an attempt to protect her.
The last thing to mention about him is the use of his nickname. It is known that, except himself and Théoden, nobody used his real name Gríma. Instead, everybody called him Wormtongue, including the narrator, which is remarkable. Gríma was introduced as a nameless man and he did not name himself; only when Gandalf addressed him with the nickname the narrator picked it up and used it thereafter. Only once did the narrator use the name Gríma and even then it was in combination with the nickname. Eventually, even Théoden started to use the name Wormtongue after he offered him to go with him into the battle and Gríma refused, choosing instead to serve Saruman. Gríma never used the nickname himself, but Saruman did as a sign of his dissatisfaction with his service. It is likely that formerly he called him his proper name to show him at least pretended respect, and started to use the nickname only when Gríma came to Orthanc after Théoden exiled him. Towards the end he even downgraded his name to mere Worm.
Saruman’s analysis is a bit more complicated. Before he came to Middle-earth as one of the Istari he was a Maia belonging to Aulë, the Vala concerned with mining and smithcraft. His choice is remarkable considering the fact that Sauron originally also belonged to Aulë. Sauron was the greatest of Aulë’s servants, which would make Saruman the second most powerful. It seems as if Aulë was trying to make up for his supposed fault in having something to do with Sauron and thus ease his consciousness by sending Saruman to repair Sauron’s mischief. But that also explains Saruman’s liability to evil. [The problem of Saruman’s and Sauron’s inclination to evil is far more complex and is related to Aulë’s disobedience of Eru when he secretly created his own species of humanoid being, dwarves, but that cannot be explained here as it would require a separate article or even study.]
Also, Saruman’s dislike of Gandalf had started already before their coming to Middle-earth. When Manwë chose his Maia Gandalf to go as the third Istar, his wife Varda exclaimed: “Not as the third one,” (UT). Saruman perceived the meaning of her words and never forgot it.
Nonetheless, at first he behaved in concord with his mission. But his pride had grown with his knowledge and he started to take ill any meddling (LOTR, p. 48). It has been already stated that pride was his chief vice, from which all his other formerly mentioned vices derived. It resulted in him feeling superior to everybody else whom he pretended to be friends with and he sought their destruction. Saruman travelled to the East along with the two Blue Wizards, but unlike him the two never returned from there and nothing more was known about them. It is possible that they might have become Saruman’s first victims or at least that he contributed to their undoing. Also, Saruman corrupted art and science, which are originally virtues but when they are put to evil uses as Saruman did they can become vices.
The full extent of Saruman’s treachery was revealed in Gandalf’s story at Elrond’s council. Interestingly enough, this creates some dramatic irony as the readers now know more about Saruman’s plans than certain characters in the book, for example, Théoden. Saruman’s motivation was obvious too. Like Gríma, he desired self-advancement, but on top of that, he wished to become the ruler of the whole of Middle-earth. His desire of the Ring played only a minor part in it as for him it was only a tool in one of the possible ways of how to achieve it. He had enough knowledge that had Sauron been defeated and his own treachery remained undiscovered he could find Sauron’s smithies and make a powerful ring of his own. In the pursue of his goal he did not restrain from allying with the Enemy himself, pretending he was doing it only in order to take control over him and thus eliminating him, scarifying the means for the achievement of greater good. In his maintaining contact it played an important role the palantír and thus it was his downfall.
The signs of Saruman’s turn to evil include his turn from nature and concern in machines and war devices. Saruman represents a modern man of the industrial era, which Tolkien regarded very negatively for they were concerned only with materialism and power. In concord with this Tolkien’s view James Davis (2008, p. 57) described Saruman in the following way: “he is certainly disruptive, eager for novelty in his attempts to create new weapons of war, and future-oriented in his quest to destroy everything to do with the past and create his own version of the future. Saruman also is the faber of things metallic, genetic (the Uruks), and social (his desire to change the political face of Middle-earth). Saruman is never shown directly conjuring any harmful magic; his methods of choice are those of a “faber” of the industrial age.”
Saruman’s change was also reflected in his visage. Treebeard said his face “became like windows in a stone wall: windows with shutters inside,” (LOTR, p. 473). The stone wall was an image of his pretence; Saruman could perfectly conceal his true designs, nothing of that was visible on him from the outside, so no one ever knew what was going on in his mind. The shutters inside were then a sign of his self-centredness. He was looking only after his own business, his interest turned inside himself. Even though he was physically looking around him, he saw nothing but himself. He did not see and did not care about anybody and anything but his own person, and he was blind to the trouble he caused others.
Yet a feature that most obviously reflected his corruption was the colour of his dress. It went from white, the symbol of purity, truth and goodness, into an unidentifiable one. His dress flickered with many colours at each movement “so that the eye was bewildered” at that sight (LOTR, p. 259). Just like the colour was changing in a nick of time, so did Saruman’s mind. One time he cooperated with the good ones in opposition to Sauron, next time he served Sauron and worked on the destruction of the good ones, then he hoped to rival Sauron and rule also his enemies pursuing his own plans. He was changing his attitudes and allies as is momentarily suited him. So, no one could ever trust him as they could never be sure what side he currently was on. He became very unpredictable.
Towards the end of the story Saruman used the name Sharkey. Though its meaning is different, it reminds us of the word “shark”. Jane Chance (2001, p. 39) noted that it along with Gríma’s nickname Worm connote “the cold-blooded and animal nature of the monster[s]” they have become. Moreover, Saruman, like Gríma, is likened to a snake. The image of Satan reappears. Just like the Satan-snake’s offer in Paradise Saruman’s speeches always seem fair, but are actually foul.
The very last thing to consider about the relationship of Saruman and Gríma is their ending. The treacherous lives of both end in murder; however, their deaths are not the results of some inexplicable natural causalities or external forces; thus cannot be considered punishment of the Providence for their vices. Though the idea of punishment could be partially true in Saruman’s case. He was killed by Gríma in revenge for the cruel and degrading treatment he had been receiving from him. Brian Rosebury remarked that it had been vividly communicated in the story, gradually creating the sense in readers that by this point Gríma was as much a victim as he was a persecutor. Saruman had humiliated Gríma and wrath had been slowly accumulating in him, until at one point “something snapped” and he acted impulsively. Rosebury states that “His action is a classic case of “sudden loss of self-control” following, in this case, sustained and ultimately unbearable provocation—a mitigating feature in English law and in many other jurisdictions, though he did have the option of abandoning Saruman some months earlier,” (Rosebury, 2008, p. 11). Gríma’s death is then a natural consequence of his action which is performed by execution of civil law, although maybe unreasonable and without proper treatment. He killed Saruman and thus deserved to be killed in turn as a punishment for his unlawful act.
Yet such an ending could have been avoided had they repented their mischief and turned to good. Both Saruman and Gríma were offered such a choice three times. Saruman was first offered it by Gandalf ere he cast him off the wizard order, the second time by Galadriel when the Elves met him on his way north, and last by Frodo. In Gríma’s case it was the same except for the first instance. Gríma’s first offer for change came from Théoden. But they both refused each offer and so doomed themselves to a disastrous end.
Resources
Chance, J., Tolkien’s Art: A Mythology for England, [online], 2001, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2001. 262 pp. ISBN 0-81319-020-7, downloadable at: www.scribd.com
Davis, D. J., 2008. Showing Saruman as Faber: Tolkien and Peter Jackson. In Tolkien Studies. [online]. Vol. 5, July 2008. Online available at: http://complete.jrrtolkien.ru/download/Tolkien_Studies-Vol5-2008.pdf
Tolkien, J.R.R., The Lord of the Rings, 2011, ISBN 978-0-261-10357-3
Tolkien, J.R.R., The Silmarillion, 1992, ISBN 978-0-261-10273-6
Tolkien, J.R.R., The Unfinished Tales, 1998, ISBN 978-0-261-10362-8
Tolkien, J.R.R.; Carpenter, H. (ed.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, 2006, ISBN 978-0-261-10265-1
Rosebury, B., 2008. Revenge and Moral Judgement in Tolkien. In Tolkien Studies. [online]. Vol. 5, July 2008. Online available at: http://complete.jrrtolkien.ru/download/Tolkien_Studies-Vol5-2008.pdf