Are wizards immortal?

[davem]

Originally Posted by SarumanCymraeg

You know the idea of 'wizard parents' isn't so silly as it sounds, because after all in 'Queer Lodgings' in 'The Hobbit' Gandalf tells Beorn that Radagast is his cousin. I mean, that's a pretty clear statement indicating family ties, isn't it?

I mean, if he had said 'my brother' then that could easily be interpreted as 'my comrade' or something like that, but 'cousin' can't! Or, of course, Gandalf was lieing.

I think that's simply down to the fact that when TH was written it had nothing to do with the Legendarium, so Tolkien was free to create Wizards with family ties. It was only when the world of TH was drawn into the world of the Legendarium by means of LotR (very unsuccessfully as some of us would argue) that these kinds of problems arose.