Sting (Middle-earth)
Sting has the magical ability to detect orcs or goblins nearby, glowing blue in their presence, as it did when the Fellowship encountered orcs in the mines of Moria. Tolkien establishes this as a common property of First Age Elf blades, particularly those forged in Gondolin. Sting is also exceptionally sharp. Bilbo manages to thrust it without effort deep into a wooden beam at Rivendell. Frodo also wounds a troll in Moria, after Boromir notches his own sword with his attempt. Sam uses Sting to cut through the giant spider Shelob's strong webs with ease, and also wound the spider, driving it away from the paralyzed Frodo.
Saruman
Saruman first appears in "The Fellowship of the Ring" (1954), which is the first volume of "The Lord of the Rings". The "Lord of the Rings" describes a quest to destroy the One Ring, a powerful and evil talisman created by the Dark Lord Sauron to control Middle-earth (the continent on which Tolkien's story takes place; it loosely represents the Old World in a fictional ancient era). Sauron lost the Ring in battle thousands of years before the beginning of the story, and it is now held in secret in the Shire by the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, who passes it on to Frodo Baggins, one of the story's main protagonists. Early in "The Fellowship of the Ring", the wizard Gandalf describes Saruman as "the chief of my order" and head of the White Council that forced Sauron from Mirkwood at the end of Tolkien's earlier book "The Hobbit". He notes Saruman's great knowledge of the magic rings created by Sauron and by the Elven-smiths. Shortly afterwards, Gandalf breaks an arrangement to meet Frodo and guide him out of the Shire to Rivendell to keep the Ring safe from Sauron's agents.