Broken Light, Broken Wisdom: How Saruman Lost the White and Gandalf Found it

A broken white is not white.

Saruman the White was white up to a point. Beyond this point, he only “seemed” white. He said to Gandalf in Orthanc,

“I am Saruman the Wise, Saruman Ring-maker, Saruman of Many Colours!’’

When Gandalf looked, he “saw that his robes, which had seemed white, were not so, but were woven of all colours, and if he moved they shimmered and changed hue so that …