Everything about Wizards Middle-earth totally explained
In the fiction of
J. R. R. Tolkien, the
Wizards of
Middle-earth are a group of five beings outwardly resembling
Men but possessing much greater physical and mental power. They are also called the
Istari (
Quenya for "Wise Ones") by the
Elves. The
Sindarin word is
Ithryn (sing.
Ithron). They were sent by the
Valar to help and assist the peoples of Middle-earth to contest
Sauron.
They were of the
Maiar, spirits of the same order of the Valar but lesser in power. The first three were known in Mannish tongue of
Westron as
Saruman ("Man of Skill"),
Gandalf ("Elf of the Wand"), and
Radagast ("Tender of Beasts") . The two others didn't have names in Westron, and were known as
Alatar and
Pallando. Each Wizard was assigned a colour with matching clothes, White being indicative of the chief, Saruman (himself one of the most powerful of the Maiar). Gandalf was Grey, Radagast was Brown, and Alatar and Pallando were both
Blue. In Tolkien's work
The Lord of the Rings Gandalf and Saruman both play important roles, while Radagast plays only a very minor part. Alatar and Pallando don't feature in the story, as they journeyed far into the east after their arrival in
Middle-earth.
Tolkien gives multiple names for all of them. Their Elvish
Quenya names were Curumo, meaning
Skillful one (Saruman); Olórin, meaning
Dreaming or
Dreamer (Gandalf); Aiwendil, meaning
Friend of birds (Radagast); Morinehtar, meaning
Darkness-slayer and Rómestámo, meaning
East-helper (either Alatar or Pallando). There are various other names in
Sindarin,
Khuzdul, and other
languages of Arda for each of the wizards listed in their individual articles
History and background
Arrival
They came to
Middle-earth around the year 1050 of the
Third Age, when the forest of 'Greenwood the Great' fell under shadow and became known as
Mirkwood. It was named this when Sauron formed a new army and began to command from Dol Guldur (South Mirkwood).
The wizards already appeared old when they entered Middle-earth. They were stripped of much of their powers and deliberately "clothed" in the bodies of old Men, as the Valar wished them to guide the inhabitants of Middle-earth by persuasion and encouragement, not by force or fear. However, they aged very slowly and were in fact immortal. They were, physically speaking, "real" Men, and felt all the urges, pleasures and fears of flesh and blood. Therefore, in spite of their specific and unambiguous goal, the Wizards were capable of human feelings; thus Gandalf felt great affection for the
Hobbits. They could also feel negative human emotions like greed, jealousy, and lust for power. It is hinted in the essay in
Unfinished Tales that the
Blue Wizards may have fallen prey to these temptations. They went into the East and don't enter into the stories of Middle-earth.
While in this form, although immortals by age, their physical form could be destroyed by violence—thus, Gandalf truly died in the fight with a
Balrog, beyond the power of the Valar to resurrect, as he
died as a mortal man. His return was by the direct intervention of
Ilúvatar. The Istari also carried staves, which seem to be tied to their ability to wield magic; when Saruman is defeated at
Isengard, Gandalf in the same breath casts him from the
White Council and breaks his staff.
Purpose
The sending of the wizards to Middle-earth by the Valar, with the dictate to never match Sauron's power with power, was in recognition of ancient error. The Valar had tried directly interfering in the destiny of the Elves in the Years of the Trees by leading the Eldar into the West, and this resulted in many bloody wars and confrontations, even between the Elves themselves. Recognizing this mistake, the Valar decided that now when the time had come to aid Men in the struggle against the Dark Lord, rather than trying to directly interfere, they should instead aid Men in achieving their own destiny. Thus, Gandalf and the other wizards were meant to not use their natural power as Maiar in fighting Sauron, but to use their great wisdom to persuade Men to take the course of action which would achieve Men's own goals, rather than trying to dominate them with their own. Saruman failed this directive when he tried to set himself up as a new power in opposition to Sauron, but Gandalf remained faithful to his orders. The wizards were sent to Middle-earth from Valinor, despite the fact that direct interference from the Valar in the affairs of Middle-earth was a rarity, because the Valar hadn't forsaken the faithful Men and Elves who still lived there. The wizards were sent to the North-west of Middle-earth (the Grey Havens, and the region from Arnor to Gondor in general), because the Valar felt that because of those remnants of Elendil's old kingdom, that was the region with the greatest hope of mounting resistance to Sauron. Very few of Middle-earth's inhabitants knew who the Wizards really were; the Wizards didn't share their identities and purposes except to great rulers. Most thought they were Elves or wise Men (the name
Gandalf represents this interpretation, meaning
Wand-elf, because the Men who gave him the nickname believed he was an Elf).
Saruman originally had the greatest power of the five Istari and was appointed the head of the White Council. In the year 2759 of the Third Age, he was invited by the rulers of Gondor and Rohan to settle in
Isengard. Saruman was learned in the lore of the
Rings of Power, gradually becoming corrupted by the desire for the Rings and by Sauron's direct influence on him through the
palantír of
Orthanc. Eventually he became ensnared in Sauron's power, took the title "of Many Colours" (as well as changing his robes thus) and assisted him in the War of the Ring (although he ultimately wanted the One Ring for himself, so that he could defeat and replace Sauron), until he was defeated by the
Ents and Gandalf, who broke his staff and cast him out of the White Council. Saruman's death came at the hands of his servant
Gríma Wormtongue in the
Shire, after the destruction of the
One Ring.
Later events
During the
War of the Ring, it was Gandalf who led the Free Peoples to victory over Sauron. He also became "Gandalf the White", and defeated the traitorous Saruman. After the destruction of Sauron's forces at the Black Gate at the mountainous borders of Mordor, Gandalf left Middle-earth and went over the Sea, along with the
Ring-bearers and many of the Elves.
In the course of
The Lord of the Rings, it's never made clear what exactly Gandalf and Saruman are (though Treebeard informs Merry and Pippin that they landed in the Grey Havens from across the Great Sea 2,000 years ago, little else is revealed in the narrative). In a certain point, Pippin seems to wonder what his friend Gandalf really was, and notices that it was the first time in his life he did so. At the very end of Book III, as Gandalf is riding towards Minas Tirith he ponders his newfound possession of a
palantír, pondering if he can use it to see into the past; he then remembers
Valinor in the
Years of the Trees. This indicates how truly old Gandalf is, and makes it clear that he isn't human.
The essay given in
Unfinished Tales was originally begun in order to be included in the appendices of
The Lord of the Rings, but wasn't completed in time. A more explanatory passage on the nature of the wizards is found at the end of
The Silmarillion.
Wizards and their staves
Books
Apparently, to some degree Tolkien ties a Wizard's power to his staff.
In Book II of
The Two Towers, when Gandalf rides to
Edoras to meet King
Théoden he's explicitly asked by the doorwarden who is under the orders of
Gríma Wormtongue to leave his staff at the door and move in unarmed. Gandalf persuades
Aragorn to even leave his sword at the door but is reluctant to leave his staff behind, and he talks the doorwarden into letting him keep his staff. It appears as if Gandalf needed his staff to rouse Théoden from his fatalistic impotence.
Gandalf banishes Saruman from the Order of Wizards in
The Return of the King by saying, "Saruman, your staff is broken", but later Saruman was still able to use his persuasive voice against the Hobbits (though Frodo notes that Saruman has lost all other powers). Earlier, Saruman accuses Gandalf of wanting to claim the staves of the Five Wizards.
This notion takes further strength from
The Hobbit. In many places in
The Hobbit and also in
The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien refers to Gandalf's staff as a '
wand'. From this, it appears Gandalf's staff is some sort of long wand. However, there's one significant event which serves to disconnect the idea that a wizard's power is somehow tied to his staff: in
The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf lost his First Staff to Saruman who imprisoned him on the top of Orthanc, Gandalf Escapes on the back of a Giant Eagle. He somehow gains a new Staff when he arrives in Rivendell. Later he's is able to defeat the Balrog without the use of his staff, since the staff breaks when he destroys the
Bridge of Khazad-dûm. Since the Balrog itself is a Maia, Gandalf must have retained significant power to do so. In
The Two Towers, Gandalf has a new staff, made of ash. Of course, it could also be argued that the invocation of his magic without his staff is what truly killed him, when he fought the Balrog. Saruman couldn't call upon his magic without his staff, not because Gandalf, or even the Valar, took it from him, but for fear of dying in the process, knowing what his fate was after his life was spent. In this way, the staff could be seen as a focus away from their mortal bodies, and a control set upon them by the Valar, who told them not to use their power to rule. If their staves could be taken, then they were not invincible, and Sauron possessed no such item (though a Maia of significantly higher order, he was still a Maia).
Film trilogy
In
Peter Jackson's
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, however, the notion of a staff being a "long wand" was extended. In, Gandalf and Saruman fight a magical duel using
telekinesis-like powers at Isengard, when the latter tries to detain the former. Saruman wins when he seizes Gandalf's staff and uses it against him. None of this happens in the book, where Gandalf's telling of his own detention to Frodo in Rivendell (the only account given, Gandalf being a possibly
unreliable narrator) involves no explicit battle.
In, Jackson expands Théoden's predicament into being actually possessed by Saruman; Gandalf's staff is given more significance also, as it's used to free Théoden from Saruman's influence.
In, Gandalf drives off the flying Ringwraiths with a beam of light from his staff; in the book, the light came from his hand. There is also a deleted scene (added in the Extended edition) in which the
Witch-king breaks Gandalf's staff. The confrontation is based loosely upon a similar scene in the book, where Gandalf briefly confronts the Witch-king at the gate of Minas Tirith only to be interrupted by the arrival of the
Rohirrim; however, in the book his staff is
not broken. Notably, Gandalf retains his sword Glamdring (the only weapon at his disposal for his fight against the Balrog, a more powerful foe than any Nazgûl).
This scene proved controversial for fans, since in the book Gandalf claims he's stronger.
In a dialogue with Denethor in the book, Gandalf himself appears unsure if he was stronger than the Witch-king, or even if he could defeat him in battle:
might be so". Therefore this isn't a clear admission that he could actually be defeated by the Witch-king. When earlier he replies to Gimli's remark that Fangorn is a dangerous wood, he gives a clearer statement:
Gandalf also says later that he
could have defeated the Witch-king if he didn't have to save Faramir from Denethor's madness.
Unfinished Tales reveals Gandalf is a Maia, an angelic being — as opposed to the Witch-king, a mere undead human though a great sorcerer.
In the DVD commentary, Peter Jackson said that they were trying to establish the Lord of the Nazgûl as a particularly grave threat, and demonstrating that he could nearly overpower even Gandalf would show just how powerful he was.
Still, if the Istari are bound in the flesh of Men, then Gandalf may not have been allowed/able to deliver the deathblow, anymore than Théoden, Aragorn, or others before them could. We will never really know.
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