Gríma son of Gálmód was the counsellor of King Théoden, a pale man whom the Rohirrim called Wormtongue. He had served Saruman in secret, and under his counsel the old king grew feeble, deaf to his captains, and indifferent to the Orcs raiding his borders.1
When Gandalf came to Edoras and broke the spell on Théoden, he laid Gríma's treachery before the court: that he had played the spy for Saruman, had worked to keep the king old and idle, and had looked on the king's niece Éowyn with greedy eyes. Théoden, healed, gave him the choice between riding to war at his side and leaving. Gríma crept away, and made for Isengard.1
The travellers met him again at Orthanc, where he was Saruman's go-between and, after the Ents had flooded Isengard, the one man left in the tower with its master. During the parley a dark crystal ball was hurled down from a high window, and Gandalf's company saw Gríma's pale face looking out. The ball was the palantír of Orthanc.2,3
His end came in the Shire. Saruman, brought down to a wandering beggar, was found at Bag End abusing his servant, and Gríma, pushed past endurance, cut his master's throat. The hobbit archers shot him dead before he could flee.4
On screen
Where the best-known adaptation departs from the books. Nothing in this section is evidence for the books themselves.
In the extended edition of Peter Jackson's The Return of the King Gríma stabs Saruman in Orthanc, and is shot down by Legolas. In the book both die at Bag End, after the Shire has been retaken.5,4
Sources
Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.
- Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
- Adaptation Films and other adaptations. Never evidence for the books.
- Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 6, “The King of the Golden Hall”
- Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 10, “The Voice of Saruman”
- Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 11, “The Palantír”
- Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 8, “The Scouring of the Shire”
- Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Return of the King (2003, extended edition)