Saruman

Above even Gandalf in the counsels of the wise stands the white-robed figure. Saruman the White is the chief of the order of wizards in Middle-earth, eldest of that strange brotherhood and accounted its greatest. His particular study is the lore of the Rings of Power, their making and their history, and on such matters the other wise defer to his knowledge. He dwells far to the south in the tower of Orthanc, within the ring-walled fastness of Isengard near the Gap of Rohan. Gandalf speaks of him as a colleague of long standing whose learning runs deeper than his own, and it is partly on Saruman's ring-lore that the early understanding of Bilbo's ring rests. He keeps to his tower and his studies.