Radagast, Alatar and Pallando

[TheLostPilgrim]

Originally Posted by Legolas

This is a pretty popular topic; searching the site should give you several threads on the other wizards. I also wrote a FAQ on it sometime ago. The topic of these other wizards has always been interesting to me, but I've been disappointed at the outcome and lack of detail given. They were clearly low priority for Tolkien as they had only limited (Radagast) or no (Alatar/Pallando) involvement in his main narrative. Given enough time, he may have eventually decided what happened with the blue guys.



As for the other Istari not fulfilling their purpose, Tolkien says as much in the quote above (direct explanation for Radagast, indirect for the Blue Wizards). The Istari quest was a singular mission from Manwë - to guide the peoples of Middle-earth to defeat Sauron. Any other objectives were not 'secondary' missions present on Manwë's agenda (arrived at by counsel with Eru), but misguided and unapproved personal goals of the other Valar or the individual wizards.

Their mission:


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Failure - particularly in Radagast's concern - does not necessarily mean turning to evil. As you say, it seems Radagast may have been sent by Yavanna with an ulterior motive, but he certainly failed in regards to the Istari mission which was to guide Middle-earth's inhabitants to deal with Sauron. I do not think Yavanna sent Radagast with Saruman for any other reasons; if he was sent to supervise Saruman, they obviously picked the wrong sort of fellow as from the start, Saruman resents his presence and seems to regard him as lower in intelligence or power. ("Radagast is presented as a person of much less power and wisdom" [than are Saruman and Gandalf].)

Unwittingly Radagast still played a positive part in the story. Upon warning Gandalf of the threat of Nazgul, he sent Gwaihir who ended up saving Gandalf from Orthanc (and of course, showing up again later). Perhaps Yavanna suspected that the animals of Middle-earth (particularly eagles) would continue to have important moments as they did earlier in history.
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Like the Radagast/Yavanna/nature connection, Christopher Tolkien observes a similar connection (if not completely ulterior motives) in Alatar and Pallando being Maiar of Oromë:



Early in Arda's history, Oromë rode all about the world on his horse, including the east where he found the elves while still sleeping. It could be no coincidence that 'his' two wizards wander off in the same direction.

While you suggest that they established certain spiritual or magical practices, those are not heralded as positive things as Tolkien speculates on their actions. It's important to remember that 'Alatar' and 'Pallando' are never even mentioned by name in anything Tolkien published nor are they in The Silmarillion, so these names are not fully canon. They are only known to have existed by Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast, Cirdan, and probably Elrond, Galadriel, and Celeborn. As readers, we were only alerted to the existence of the fourth and fifth wizards by Saruman's reference to "the rods of the Five Wizards" in his confrontation with Gandalf. I suspect the names 'Alatar and Pallando' are the most widely known because they were first to be revealed (1980, Unfinished Tales), and stuck because they are more pronounceable than Morinehtar and Romestamo (1996, History of Middle-earth XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth).

These other two wizards are only described in any fashion on four occasions - a letter, two notes in Unfinished Tales, and one passage in HoME XII.

1) without name or color in a 1958 letter (#211) response to a curious reader. The reader asked what color the other two wizards were, and Tolkien replied he did not know - he actually did have ideas but because he was undecided and nothing had been published on them yet, he didn't commit to anything.


2) as the Blue Wizards or Ithryn Luin in the 1954 Istari essay in Unfinished Tales:


3) as Alatar and Pallando in a slightly later 'hasty sketch' of the council held to choose and send the Istari, summed up by Christopher Tolkien in Unfinished Tales:


4) as Morinehtar and Romestamo in History of Middle-earth XII: Peoples of Middle-earth, which I believe was abandoned, but I cannot find my copy to look at a possible date on this excerpt. It clearly does not agree that much with the other three statements, having them show up during the Second Age and with these names unique to this passage.


Quite the wall of text, I know. I weighed over this a while, but maybe the information will be useful to some. I'll catch up to the conversation in the next post.

It sounds like (in the 1958) letter, he may have pondered them being of use in The New Shadow, if he had finished it--Wasn't he writing that around the late 1950s or so?
In any case, it seems like (in the general idea from those several writings) Tolkien had a general but unrefined idea that the "Blue Wizards" as we commonly call them had a different purpose than Saruman, Gandalf, and Radagast. That their mission was in the east, and since The Lord of the Rings focuses on events in the West, we do not hear of them, yet since Saruman mentions them in that story albeit briefly and indirectly, we can assume they were active in some way. Their mission was just slightly different. It seems to me that Tolkien went back and forth on whether they failed or not and wasn't entirely sure.

As to Radagast, what you've seen shown me does make it rather clear that he failed to have an active role (ala Gandalf and Saruman) in the War of the Ring. Gandalf was the only one who had an active role AND stayed on the side of light, against Sauron; Saruman was important, but fell to his own evil. It seems Radagast was a good spirit but he did not have as active a role in fighting Sauron. But that he helped Gandalf, even indirectly, does at least "redeem" him in my eyes. He was simply of a weaker will than Gandalf. Really, Saruman and Radagast can sort of embody two extremes--One who falls in love with his own power and has little time for the needs/cares of the world (remember Treebeard describing Saruman as being "hasty", not very interested in the life of the world, even before he fell to evil); and one who cares too little and falls too much in love with the world he is sent to. Gandalf is the more moderate of the two, perhaps owing to his more humble and wise spirit.

I would think Radagast probably was also sent with some ulterior motive on Yavanna's part, like I said, perhaps to protect the things she loved like birds and animals if the others failed and Middle Earth was overrun. As you note above, Saruman did not want his presence; She forced it on the other 4. So she indeed had a reason in picking him.

He was simply a good wizard, who fell too in love with the beasts and birds of Middle Earth to be of any real use in overthrowing Sauron, although even he had a little part to play, and even his minor action greatly helped the mission by warning Gandalf of the Nazgul and sending Gwaihir. That in my eyes 'redeems' him as I said. Now, while he was of no use in overthrowing Sauron, perhaps he came to be useful in some later conflict, in the Fourth Age or beyond, of which we were never told about.

Which is along the same lines as the Blue Wizards: They seem to have had other purposes, but they are of no importance to the main narrative of the LOTR, hence, we hear little of them. And Gandalf does not mention them in any ill way--Perhaps suggesting they were fulfilling their goals in the East, but since the East doesn't concern us in the LOTR, we do not hear of them actively.

But again, it doesn't seem like JRRT ever came to a final conclusion about them outside of them being in the East; Whether they died there, or pursued a different mission against Melkor and Sauron's followers there, or later themselves fell to evil is not known. But it does appear that they did SOMETHING over there. That their purpose carried them there.

Perhaps they were to the East what Gandalf, Saruman and Radagast were meant to be to the West. After all, certainly Sauron was not the only force of evil in the entirety of Middle Earth. He was a grave power, and a most immediate and looming threat, but perhaps in the East there were other (lesser) evils at work.