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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jester47" data-source="post: 1288638" data-attributes="member: 2238">Looking at that great post by James, it seems that the "Hey, wizards must live in towers!" thought began in the 1930's.  We have T.H. White stuffing Merlin into a Tower, Howard having Conan kill everyone in the tower, and Tolkein doing followup in the 50's with Saruman in the Orthanc.From the research that I have been looking at, there is a strong tradition of wizard towers in eastern literature coming (as James said) from persia.  All in all though, it is a handy trope that really saw its formulation in the 30's.  The tower = the inaccesible place, the holiest of holies, the restricted areaThe wizard = the one who can access it, the high priest, the guy with the clearance. The corrupting influence = power gained from such a position There are numerous characters in literature that follow this combination.  Faust, Frankenstein, Abdul al Hazred, Prospero to an extent, and many others.There seems at the core the abandonment of humanity for power through some force and how that faustian bargain corrupts.  I think while this literary pattern develops time and time again, I think that the character of Saruman is a complete synthesis of this literary type.  He lives in a place of power, removed from the rest of the world, he has a power at his command but has given up his "soul" for unlimited power.  So looking at this we find the end result.  The final draft of the "wizard in the tower."  But we are looking at the beginning... I recently spent some time looking through the influences of Tolkien as laid out by Tom Shippey in The Road to Middle Earth.  In there he points out a particular "Dark Tower" story from a book of English Fairy Tales, and also notes the citation of the Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan i Sabbah.  If one looks at the traits of the historical site, you get the impression that the fortress would have been very tower like.  With all the legends, we can see how the idea of a "wizard in a tower" could come from reading abut this.  The major research on the historical Alamut was done by Freya Stark in the 1930s.  So that could be an element.  Furthermore, Howard would have been aware of the travels of Marco Polo, and his wizards (especially thier use of the black lotus) seems to be very much inspired by Hassan-i-Sabbah and the Assassins as laid out by Polo, and later Mandeville.  Mandeville was also a work that Tolkien would have looked at.  So I am thinking that the trope comes from three sources: 1) Legends of the Assassins.  Polo, Mandeville.  I think this is largely the source that howard used in the Scarlet Citadel.2) Faust, Faustus, Frankenstien.  The Faustian bargain of magic/technology in exchange for soul and humanity.3) Historical Persian and Arab priest/astrologersWe see all of these in synthesis in the character of Saruman and the location of Orthanc.  Grima Wormtounge is a further example of the Assassin traits of Saruman.  The palantir is an example of the astrologer aspect (the stars were thought to be in a crystal sphere...) and saruman is sort of a "high priest."More to come.Aaron.</blockquote>

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