We all know Saruman the traitor as depicted in the Lord of the Rings. But even Gandalf speaks of Saruman with respect as having been great once, before his fall. Why was Saruman so well-regarded, simply for his position as head of the Order of the Istari, or because he earned his status as the greatest of Wizards? In Saruman and the Blue Wizards, I offer the reader my own musings on how Saruman acquired his reputation – and how even as he saved Middle Earth from great peril, he tragically planted the seeds of his own ultimate corruption.