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Elrond:
"Radagast the Brown !' laughed Saruman, and he no longer concealed his scorn.
'Radagast the Bird-
tamer! Radagast the Simple! Radagast the Fool! Yet he had just the wit to play
the part that I set him.'"
Whereas in the essay on the Istari it is said that the two who passed into the
East had no names save
Ithryn Luin
"the Blue Wizards" (meaning of course that they had no names in the West of
Middle-earth), here they are named, as Alatar and Pallando, and are associated
with Oromë, though no hint is given of the reason for this relationship. It
might be (though this is the merest guess) that Oromë of all Valar had the
greatest knowledge of the further parts of Middle-earth, and that the Blue
Wizards were destined to journey in those regions and to remain there.
Beyond the fact that these notes on the choosing of the Istari certainly date
from after the completion of
The Lord of the Rings
I can find no evidence of their relation, in time of composition, to the essay
on the Istari.
7
I know of no other writings about the Istari save some very rough and in part
uninterpretable notes that are certainly much later than any of the foregoing,
and probably date from 1972:
We must assume that they [the Istari] were all Maiar, that is persons of the
"angelic" order, though not necessarily of the same rank. The Maiar were
"spirits," but capable of self-incarnation, and could take
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"humane" (especially Elvish) forms. Saruman is said (e.g. by Gandalf himself)
to have been the chief of the
(especially Elvish) forms. Saruman is said (e.g. by Gandalf himself) to have
been the chief of the Istari that is, higher in Valinórean stature than the
others. Gandalf is evidently the next in the order. Radagast is presented as a
person of much less power and wisdom. Of the other two nothing is said in
published work save the reference to the Five Wizards in the altercation
between Gandalf and Saruman [
The Two Towers
III
10]. Now these Maiar were sent by the Valar at a crucial moment in the history
of Middle-earth to enhance the resistance of the Elves of the West, greatly
outnumbered by those of the East and South. It may be seen that they were free
each to do what they could in this mission; that they were not commanded or
supposed to act together as a small central body of power and wisdom; and that
each had different powers and inclinations and were chosen by the Valar with
this in mind.
Other writing are concerned exclusively with Gandalf (Olórin, Mithrandir). On
the reverse of the isolated page containing the narrative of the choice of the
Istari by the Valar appears the following very remarkable note:
Elendil and Gil-Galad were partners; but this was "the Last Alliance" of Elves
and Men. In Sauron's final overthrow, Elves were not effectively concerned at
the point of action. Legolas probably achieved least of the Nine Walkers.
Galadriel, the greatest of the Eldar surviving in Middle-earth, was potent
mainly in wisdom and goodness, as a director or counsellor in the struggle,
unconquerable in resistance
(especially in mind and spirit) but incapable of punitive action
. In her scale she had become like Manwë with regard to the greater total
action. Manwë, however, even after the Downfall of Númenor and the breaking of
the old world, even in the Third Age when the Blessed Realm had been removed
from the "Circles of the World,"
was still not a mere observer. It is clearly from Valinor that the emissaries
came who were called the Istari (or
Wizards), and among them Gandalf, who proved to be the director and
coordinator both attack and defence.
Who was "Gandalf?" It is said that in later days (when again a shadow of evil
arose in the Kingdom) it was believed by many of the "Faithful" of that time
that "Gandalf" was the last appearance of Manwë
himself, before his final withdrawal to the watchtower of Taniquetil. (That
Gandalf said that his name "in the
West" had been Olórin was, according to this belief, the adoption of an
incognito, a mere by-name.) I do not
(of course) know the truth of the matter, and if I did it would be a mistake
to be more explicit than Gandalf was. But I think it was not so. Manwë will
not descend from the Mountain until Dagor Dagorath, and the coming of the End,
when Melkor returns. To the overthrow of Morgoth he sent his herald Eönwë.
To the
8
defeat of Sauron would he not then send some lesser (but mighty) spirit of the
angelic people, one coëval and equal, doubtless, with Sauron in their
beginnings, but not more? Olórin was his name. But of Olórin we shall never
know more than he revealed in Gandalf.
This is followed by sixteen lines of a poem in alliterative verse:
Will thou learn the lore
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/ that was long secret of the Five that came
/ from a far country?
One only returned.
/ Others never again under Men's dominion
/ Middle-earth shall seek until Dagor Dagorath
/ and the Doom cometh.
How hast thou heard it:
/ the hidden counsel of the Lord of the West
/ in the land of Aman?
The long roads are lost
/ that led thither, and to mortal Men
/ Manwë speaks not.
From the West that was
/ a wind bore it to the sleeper's ear,
/ in the silences under night-shadow,
/ when news is brought from lands forgotten
/ and lost ages over seas of years
/ to the searching thought.
Not all are forgotten
/ by the Elder King.
Sauron he saw
/ at a slow menace ....
There is much here that bears on the larger question of the concern of Manwë
and the Valar with the fate of
Middle-earth after the Downfall of Númenor, which must fall quite outside the
scope of this book.
After the words "But of Olórin we shall never know more than he revealed in [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]