TheWizards orIstari inJ. R. R. Tolkien's fiction were powerful angelic beings,Maiar, who took the physical form and some of the limitations ofMen to intervene in the affairs ofMiddle-earth in theThird Age, after catastrophically violent direct interventions by theValar, and indeed by the one godEru Ilúvatar, in the earlier ages.
Two Wizards,Gandalf the Grey andSaruman the White, largely represent the order, though a third Wizard,Radagast the Brown, appears briefly. Two Blue Wizards are mentioned in passing. Saruman is installed as the head of the White Council, but falls to the temptation of power. He imitates and is to an extent the double of the Dark LordSauron, only to become his unwitting servant. Gandalf ceaselessly assists theCompany of the Ring in their quest to destroythe Ring and defeat Sauron. He forms the double of Saruman, as Saruman falls and is destroyed, while Gandalf rises and takes Saruman's place as the White Wizard. Gandalf resembles the Norse godOdin in his guise as Wanderer. He has been described as a figure ofChrist.[1]
All three named Wizards appear inPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings andThe Hobbit film trilogies. Commentators have stated that they operate more physically and less spiritually than the Wizards in Tolkien's novels, but that this is mostly successful in furthering the drama.
The Wizards of Middle-earth are Maiar: spirits similar to the godlikeValar, but lesser in power. Outwardly resemblingMen but possessing much greater physical and mental power, they are calledIstari (Quenya for "Wise Ones") by theElves. They were sent by the Valar to assist the free peoples ofMiddle-earth in theThird Age to counter the Dark LordSauron, a fallen Maia of great power.[T 1][2] During the First Age, they andMelian (another Maia) had also been sent by the Valar to guard the Elves atCuiviénen.[T 2]
The first three of these five Wizards were named inThe Lord of the Rings asSaruman "man of skill" (supposedly translated fromRohirric, in realityOld English),Gandalf "elf of the staff" (supposedly in the tongue of northern Men, in realityOld Norse), and Radagast "tender of beasts" (possiblyWestron). Tolkien never provided non-Elvish names for the other two; their names inValinor are stated as Alatar and Pallando,[T 1] and in Middle-earth as Morinehtar and Rómestámo.[T 3] Each Wizard in the series had robes of a characteristic colour: white for Saruman (the chief and the most powerful of the five), grey for Gandalf, brown for Radagast,[3] and sea-blue for the other two, who are known as the Blue Wizards (Ithryn Luin inSindarin).[4] Gandalf and Saruman play important roles inThe Lord of the Rings, while Radagast appears only briefly, more or less as a single plot device. He innocently helps Saruman to deceive Gandalf, who believes Radagast since he is honest, but fortuitously alerts theeagleGwaihir to rescue Gandalf. The two Blue Wizards do not feature in the narrative of Tolkien's works; they are said to have journeyed far into the east after their arrival in Middle-earth,[T 1][2] and serve as agitators or missionaries in enemy occupied lands.[4] Their ultimate fates are unknown.[5]
As the Istari were Maiar, each one served a Vala in some way. Saruman was the servant and helper ofAulë, and so learned much in the art of craftsmanship, mechanics, and metal-working, as was seen in the later Third Age. Gandalf was the servant ofManwë orVarda, but was a lover of the Gardens ofLórien, and so knew much of the hopes and dreams of Men andElves. Radagast, servant ofYavanna, loved the things of nature, both animals and plants. As each of these Istar learned from their Vala, so they acted in Middle-earth.[T 1]
Gandalf the Grey is a protagonist inThe Hobbit, where he assistsBilbo Baggins on his quest, and inThe Lord of the Rings, where he is the leader of theCompany of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" from theOld Norse"Catalogue of Dwarves" (Dvergatal) in theVöluspá; its meaning in that language is "staff-elf".[6][T 1] Originally called Olórin, he was the wisest of the Maiar and lived in Lórien until the Third Age, when Manwë tasked him to join the Istari and go to Middle-earth to protect its free peoples. He did not want to go as he feared Sauron, but Manwë persuaded him, telling him that his fear of Sauron was why he was a good fit for it.[T 1]
As a Wizard and the bearer of aRing of Power, Gandalf has great power, but works mostly by encouraging and persuading. He sets out as Gandalf the Grey, possessing great knowledge, and travelling continually, always focused on his mission to counterSauron. He is associated with fire, his ring beingNarya, the Ring of Fire, and he both delights infireworks to entertain thehobbits ofthe Shire, and in great need uses fire as a weapon. As one of the Maiar he is an immortal spirit, but being in a physical body on Middle-earth, he can be killed in battle, as he is by theBalrog fromMoria. He is sent back to Middle-earth to complete his mission, now as Gandalf the White and leader of the Istari.[T 1]
Tolkien once described Gandalf as anangel incarnate; later, both he and other scholars likened Gandalf to theNorse godOdin in his "Wanderer" guise.[T 4][7] Others have described Gandalf as a guide-figure who assists the protagonists, comparable to theCumaean Sibyl who assistedAeneas inVirgil'sThe Aeneid, or to Virgil himself inDante'sInferno;[8][9] and as aChrist-figure, aprophet.[10][11][12][13][1]
Saruman the White is leader of the Istari and of the White Council, inThe Hobbit and at the outset inThe Lord of the Rings. However, he desires Sauron's power for himself and plots to take over Middle-earth by force, remodellingIsengard along the lines of Sauron's Dark Tower,Barad-Dur.[T 1][2]
Saruman's character illustrates the corruption of power; his desire for knowledge and order leads to his fall, and he rejects the chance of redemption when it is offered.[T 1][2] The nameSaruman means "man of skill or cunning" in theMercian dialect ofAnglo-Saxon;[14] he serves as an example of technology and modernity being overthrown by forces more in tune with nature.[T 1][2]
Radagast the Brown is mentioned inThe Hobbit and inThe Lord of the Rings. His role is so slight that it has been described as a plot device.[T 1][2][15] He played a more significant part inPeter Jackson'sThe Hobbit film series. Some aspects of his characterisation were invented for the films, but the core elements of his character, namely communing with animals, skill with herbs, andshamanistic ability to change his shape and colours, are as described by Tolkien.[16] Unusually among Middle-earth names, Radagast is Slavic, the name ofa god.[17]
Tolkien stated that the maintemptation facing the Wizards, and the one that brought down Saruman, was impatience. It led to a desire to force others to do good, and from there to a simple desire for power.[T 5]
The Tolkien scholarMarjorie Burns writes that while Saruman is an "imitative and lesser" double of Sauron, reinforcing the Dark Lord's character type, he is also a contrasting double of Gandalf, who becomes Saruman as he "should have been", after Saruman fails in his original purpose.[18]
Charles Nelson writes that although evil is personified in Sauron and his creatures such asBalrogs, along withShelob and other "nameless things" deep below the mountains, evil threatens the characters from within, and the moral failures of those such as Saruman,Boromir, andDenethor endanger the world.[19] Nelson notes that in a letter, Tolkien stated that "Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary 'real' world."[T 6] Each race exemplifies one of theSeven Deadly Sins, for instance Dwarves embodygreed, Menpride, Elvesenvy. In this scheme, the Wizards represent the angels sent by God, or as Tolkien wrote "Emissaries (in the terms of this tale from theFar West beyond the Sea)".[19][T 7] Pride is the greatest of the Sins, and affects the Wizards who take the shape of Men. Saruman, likeLucifer, is overwhelmed by pride and vainglory, just as Denethor is.[19] Nelson states that Saruman's argument for the need for power "definitely echoes"Hitler's rationalisations for theSecond World War, despite Tolkien's claims to the contrary.[19][T 8]
The scholar of humanitiesPatrick Curry rebuts the "common criticism" of Tolkien, levelled by literary critics such as the scholar of English literature Catherine Stimpson, that his characters are naively either good or evil. Curry writes that far from being "seemingly incorruptible" as Stimpson alleges, evil emerges among the Wizards.[20]
William Senior contrasts Tolkien's Wizards as angelic emissaries with those inStephen R. Donaldson'sThe Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (published 1977–2013), who are simply human. In Senior's view, where Tolkien used myth and a medievalhierarchy of orders of being, with Wizards higher than Elves who are higher than Men, Donaldson's Lords are "wholly human" and "function democratically".[21]
Three Wizards appear inPeter Jackson'sThe Lord of the Rings andThe Hobbit film trilogies: Saruman, portrayed byChristopher Lee;[22] Gandalf, portrayed byIan McKellen;[24] and Radagast, portrayed bySylvester McCoy.[16]
The critic Brian D. Walter writes that the films seek to make Gandalf a powerful character without having him take over the Fellowship's strategy and action. As in the novels, Gandalf is "an oddly ambivalent presence, extraordinarily powerful and authoritative ..., but also a stranger, the only one of the Istari who never settles down".[24] On screen, Gandalf is necessarily "less remote, less liminal, more bodily present", less like an angelic spirit than in Tolkien, but in Walter's view this benefits the films' dramatic tension and helps to bring out many other characters. Still, he appears more as a magical than a heroic figure, for example when the Fellowship is attacked bywargs inHollin, where he uses words and a firebrand rather than drawinghis sword Glamdring.[24]Brian Rosebury calls the film Saruman "incipientlyShakespearean ... [with] the potential to rise to a kind of tragic dignity"; he considers that Lee attains a suitable presence as "a powerfully haunted and vindictive figure, if less self-deluding than Tolkien's", even if the film version of the verbal confrontation with Gandalf fails to rise to the same level.[23]
Kristin Thompson notes that the Wizards' staffs are more elaborate in the films; their tips are "more convoluted" and can hold a crystal, which can be used to produce light.[25]Rosebury considers the staff-battle between Gandalf and Saruman inOrthanc "absurd", breaking the spell of the film inThe Fellowship of the Ring, and coming "uncomfortably close" to thelight-sabre fights inStar Wars.[23]
In Amazon's seriesThe Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,Daniel Weyman portrays "the Stranger", a Wizard who falls from the sky in a meteorite.[26] In the show's second season,Ciarán Hinds portrays "the Dark Wizard" in the land of Rhûn.[27] On the show'ssecond season finale, the Stranger is confirmed as a younger version of Gandalf,[28] while the series creatorsJ. D. Payne and Patrick McKay have indicated that the Dark Wizard is one of the other five, but extremely unlikely to be Saruman.[29]
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