Are wizards immortal?

[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.

[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.

[narfforc]

Gandalf was hiding the truth, this is not in its self a lie, he was keeping things simple, for simple folk. He could hardly say: Radagast is a emmisary of Valinor like myself, saying: He is my kin is would be also the same as he is my cousin, and are not some of the Valar aligned in the mind of Iluvatar as brethren.