Radagast

Last updated

Radagast the Brown
Tolkien character
In-universe information
AliasesAiwendil
Race Maiar (wizards)
Book(s) The Hobbit (1937)
The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
The Silmarillion (1977)
Unfinished Tales (1980)

Radagast the Brown is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. A wizard and associate of Gandalf, he appears briefly in The Hobbit , The Lord of the Rings , The Silmarillion , and Unfinished Tales .

Contents

His role in Tolkien's writings is so slight that it has been described as a plot device, [1] though scholars have noted his contribution to the evident paganism in Middle-earth. He played a more significant role in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit film series, where he was portrayed by Sylvester McCoy. Some aspects of his characterisation were invented for the films, but the core elements of his character - namely communing with animals, skill with herbs, and shamanistic ability to change his shape and colours - are all described in Tolkien's works. He is also a character in role-playing video games based on Tolkien's writings.

Appearances

Tolkien's Radagast, with his affinity for animals, knowledge of herbs, and shape-changing abilities, has been compared to a shaman. Altai shaman pictured. SB - Altay shaman with drum.jpg
Tolkien's Radagast, with his affinity for animals, knowledge of herbs, and shape-changing abilities, has been compared to a shaman. Altai shaman pictured.

Unfinished Tales explains that Radagast, like the other Wizards, came from Valinor around the year 1000 of the Third Age of Middle-earth and was one of the angelic Maiar. His original name is said to have been Aiwendil, meaning bird-friend in Tolkien's invented language of Quenya. Yavanna, one of the god-like Valar, forces Radagast's fellow wizard Saruman to accept him as a companion, which, Tolkien says, may have been one of the reasons Saruman was contemptuous of him, to the point of scornfully calling him "simple" and "a fool". [T 1] However, he is an ally and confidant of Gandalf, who describes him in The Hobbit as his "cousin". He is a friend of the skin-changer Beorn, something that Gandalf relies upon to get his party of Dwarves and a Hobbit accepted by a sceptical Beorn. [T 2] [2]

Radagast lives at Rhosgobel on the western eaves of Mirkwood, its name deriving from Sindarin rhosc gobel meaning "brown village". [T 1] Radagast has a strong affinity for—and relationship with—wild animals. It is said he speaks the many tongues of birds, and is a "master of shapes and changes of hue". Radagast is described by Gandalf as "never a traveller, unless driven by great need", "a worthy Wizard", and "honest". [T 3]

In The Fellowship of the Ring , during the Council of Elrond, Gandalf tells of a previous encounter with Radagast. Radagast was unwittingly used by Saruman to lure Gandalf to his tower of Orthanc, where Gandalf was captured. Fortuitously, Radagast also helped rescue him by sending Gwaihir the eagle to Orthanc with news of the movements of Sauron's forces. When Gwaihir saw that Gandalf was imprisoned on the top of the tower he carried him off to safety. [T 3] The only other reference to Radagast in The Lord of the Rings is after the Council of Elrond when scouts are sent out. It is reported that Radagast is not at his home at Rhosgobel. [T 4]

The Silmarillion briefly summarizes the same events in Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, stating that Radagast is "the friend of all birds and beasts", [T 5] and noting that he innocently helps Saruman to assemble "a great host of spies" [T 5] including many birds. [T 5]

Etymology and origins

The in-fiction etymology, according to the essay "The Istari" in Unfinished Tales , is that the name Radagast means "tender of beasts" in Adûnaic, one of Tolkien's fictional languages. However, Christopher Tolkien says that his father intended to change this derivation and bring Radagast in line with the other wizard-names, Gandalf and Saruman, by associating it with the old language of the Men of the Vales of Anduin. No alternative meaning is provided with this new association; indeed, Tolkien stated that the name was "not now clearly interpretable". His title The Brown is simply a reference to his earth-brown robes; each of the wizards has a cloak of a different colour. [T 1]

The name Radagast is found in Edward Gibbon's 1776–1789 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , in the form "Radagaisus", the name of a Gothic king. [3] Slavic mythology contains a god named Radegast; this has been interpreted as "welcome guest", making him the god of hospitality. [4] Tolkien's wizard may represent an echo of this Slavic tradition, [5] a rare source among all the diverse influences on Tolkien's writings. [2]

Tolkien wrote that Josef Madlener's "Der Berggeist", which shows a man in a hat seated in a forest, communing with a wild deer, inspired his Gandalf [6] and set him thinking about the wizards Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast. [7]

Interpretations

Radagast appears so briefly that he has been described as a plot device for Saruman's treachery, rather than a genuine character. From the clues given, that he is a "master of shapes and a changer of hues", his friendship and communication with animals, and his skill in herbs, he resembles a shaman. [1] [2] He has been described as "one of the most interesting enigmas in Tolkien's writings"; given the treason of Saruman, he and Gandalf are the only two wizards available to counter Sauron, but Radagast fails to answer Elrond's call. [8]

In a letter, Tolkien wrote that Radagast gave up his mission as a Wizard by becoming too obsessed with animals and plants, but stated that he did not believe that Radagast's failure was as great as Saruman's. [T 6] Christopher Tolkien commented that Radagast might not have failed completely, as he was specifically chosen by the Vala Yavanna for a mission to protect the plants and animals. [T 1]

The Tolkien scholar Patrick Curry writes that the Slavic Radagast is the pagan patron of the Czech Beskyd mountains, depicted with a bird atop his horned helmet. In his view, this suggests that Tolkien's Radagast is one of many examples of paganism in Middle-earth. [9]

Adaptations

In film

Radagast was played as "a bumbling hero" by Sylvester McCoy in Peter Jackson's film trilogy of The Hobbit. Sylvester McCoy as Radagast the Brown.jpg
Radagast was played as "a bumbling hero" by Sylvester McCoy in Peter Jackson's film trilogy of The Hobbit.

In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , Radagast is played by Sylvester McCoy, [11] and is expanded far beyond his brief role in the book. [10] McCoy stated that he saw Radagast as "very otherworldly with, as Tolkien depicts him, an empathy and kinship with nature, a Middle-earth version of St Francis of Assisi". McCoy added that while Radagast was rather absent-minded, he comes out as "a bumbling hero". As for his house, McCoy said that the idea was that the tree decided to grow right through it, and Radagast agreed that he and the tree could live together. [10] In the film, Radagast is the first wizard to visit Dol Guldur after he realizes that an evil power has infected the wood in which he lives. He discovers that a Necromancer (who turns out to be Sauron) has taken residence in the ruined fortress. In Dol Guldur he encounters the spirit of the Witch-king of Angmar, as well as the shadow of the Necromancer himself, and escapes with the Morgul blade taken from the Witch-king. [10] Radagast's means of transportation is a sled pulled by enormous rabbits, a concept entirely original to the movie. [10] Radagast meets Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, and the Dwarves en route to Erebor, and tells them of his discovery in Dol Guldur. When Thorin's Company are attacked by Orcs riding Wargs, Radagast mounts his sled and provides a distraction. Later, Saruman makes contemptuous remarks about Radagast during a meeting with Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel. [12] The writer Brian Sibley comments that the fact that Tolkien said little about Radagast gave Jackson's screenwriters freedom to make of the character what they liked. [10] The Economist wrote that Radagast the Brown had been created from Tolkien's "sparse and bare" hints as to his character. [13] The sled chase was filmed in the Strath Taieri glacial valley of New Zealand's South Island, strewn with real boulders. [14]

Radagast's sled chase in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was filmed in the Strath Taieri, Otago, New Zealand Taieri Plain, Otago, New Zealand, June 2009.jpg
Radagast's sled chase in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was filmed in the Strath Taieri, Otago, New Zealand

In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug , Radagast appears with Gandalf in a few scenes. The two wizards investigate an empty tomb, determining that the Nazgûl are once again awake and have been summoned. Gandalf bids Radagast to go and tell Galadriel of all they find, and that the White Council must make a pre-emptive move on Dol Guldur. Inside the ruins, Gandalf confronts the Necromancer and finds that he is indeed Sauron, just as Radagast had thought. [15]

In The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Radagast arrives in Dol Guldur as the White Council battle Sauron and the Nazgûl, and carries the wounded Gandalf on his sled. [16] In the final battle, Radagast leads a charge of the Great Eagles at the end of the battle to assist the Dwarves, Men, and Elves against the Orcs.

In games

Radagast features in computer and video games such as those from Games Workshop. [17] He plays an expanded role in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game The Lord of the Rings Online , which makes him a leader in a part of Middle-earth, allowing players to interact with him. [18] [19]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gandalf</span> Fictional character created by J. R. R. Tolkien

Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is a wizard, one of the Istari order, and the leader of the Company of the Ring. Tolkien took the name "Gandalf" from the Old Norse "Catalogue of Dwarves" (Dvergatal) in the Völuspá.

The Nazgûl, introduced as Black Riders and also called Ringwraiths, Dark Riders, the Nine Riders, or simply the Nine, are fictional characters in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. They were nine Men who had succumbed to Sauron's power through wearing Rings of Power, which gave them immortality but reduced them to invisible wraiths, servants bound to the power of the One Ring and completely under Sauron's control.

The Rings of Power are magical artefacts in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, most prominently in his high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. The One Ring first appeared as a plot device, a magic ring in Tolkien's children's fantasy novel, The Hobbit; Tolkien later gave it a backstory and much greater power. He added nineteen other Great Rings, also conferring powers such as invisibility, that it could control, including the Three Rings of the Elves, Seven Rings for the Dwarves, and Nine for Men. He stated that there were in addition many lesser rings with minor powers. A key story element in The Lord of the Rings is the addictive power of the One Ring, made secretly by the Dark Lord Sauron; the Nine Rings enslave their bearers as the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths), Sauron's most deadly servants.

Glorfindel is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He is a member of the Noldor, one of the three groups of High Elves. The character and his name, which means "blond" or "golden-haired", were among the first created for what would become part of his Middle-earth legendarium in 1916–17, beginning with the initial draft of The Fall of Gondolin. His name indicates his hair as a mark of his distinction, as the Noldor were generally dark-haired. A character of the same name appears in the first book of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, which takes place in Middle-earth's Third Age. Within the story, he is depicted as a powerful Elf-lord who could withstand the Nazgûl, wraith-like servants of Sauron, and holds his own against some of them single-handedly. Glorfindel and a version of the story of the Fall of Gondolin appear in The Silmarillion, posthumously published in 1977.

Thranduil is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. He first appears as a supporting character in The Hobbit, where he is simply known as the Elvenking, the ruler of the Elves who lived in the woodland realm of Mirkwood. The character is properly named in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and appears briefly in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

<i>Unfinished Tales</i> Writings by J. R. R. Tolkien

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980. Many of the tales within are retold in The Silmarillion, albeit in modified forms; the work also contains a summary of the events of The Lord of the Rings told from a less personal perspective.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, the Eagles or Great Eagles, are immense birds that are sapient and can speak. The Great Eagles resemble actual eagles, but are much larger. Thorondor is said to have been the greatest of all birds, with a wingspan of 30 fathoms. Elsewhere, the Eagles have varied in nature and size both within Tolkien's writings and in later adaptations.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's epic fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, the Battle of the Morannon or the Battle of the Black Gate is the final confrontation in the War of the Ring. Gondor and its allies send a small army ostensibly to challenge Sauron at the entrance to his land of Mordor; he supposes that they have with them the One Ring and mean to use it to defeat him. In fact, the Ring is being carried by the hobbits Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee into Mordor to destroy it in Mount Doom, and the army is moving to distract Sauron from them. Before the battle, a nameless leader, the "Mouth of Sauron", taunts the leaders of the army with the personal effects of Frodo and Sam. Battle is joined, but just as it seems the army of Gondor will be overwhelmed, the Ring is destroyed, and the forces of Sauron lose heart. Mount Doom erupts, and Sauron's tower, Barad-dûr, collapses, along with the Black Gate. The army of Gondor returns home victorious, the War of the Ring won.

The fictional races and peoples that appear in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth include the seven listed in Appendix F of The Lord of the Rings: Elves, Men, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents, Orcs and Trolls, as well as spirits such as the Valar and Maiar. Other beings of Middle-earth are of unclear nature such as Tom Bombadil and his wife Goldberry.

"The Council of Elrond" is the second chapter of Book 2 of J. R. R. Tolkien's bestselling fantasy work, The Lord of the Rings, which was published in 1954–1955. It is the longest chapter in that book at some 15,000 words, and critical for explaining the power and threat of the One Ring, for introducing the final members of the Company of the Ring, and for defining the planned quest to destroy it. Contrary to the maxim "Show, don't tell", the chapter consists mainly of people talking; the action is, as in an earlier chapter "The Shadow of the Past", narrated, largely by the Wizard Gandalf, in flashback. The chapter parallels the far simpler Beorn chapter in The Hobbit, which similarly presents a culture-clash of modern with ancient. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey calls the chapter "a largely unappreciated tour de force". The Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge writes that the chapter brings the hidden narrative of Christianity in The Lord of the Rings close to the surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saruman</span> Fictional character created by J. R. R. Tolkien

Saruman, also called Saruman the White, later Saruman of Many Colours, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He is the leader of the Istari, wizards sent to Middle-earth in human form by the godlike Valar to challenge Sauron, the main antagonist of the novel. He comes to desire Sauron's power for himself, so he betrays the Istari and tries to take over Middle-earth by force from his base at Isengard. His schemes feature prominently in the second volume, The Two Towers; he appears briefly at the end of the third volume, The Return of the King. His earlier history is summarised in the posthumously published The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

Mirkwood is any of several great dark forests in novels by Sir Walter Scott and William Morris in the 19th century, and by J. R. R. Tolkien in the 20th century. The critic Tom Shippey explains that the name evoked the excitement of the wildness of Europe's ancient North.

The Maiar are a fictional class of beings from J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy legendarium. Supernatural and angelic, they are "lesser Ainur" who entered the cosmos of Eä in the beginning of time. The name Maiar is in the Quenya tongue from the Elvish root maya- "excellent, admirable".

The Lord of the Nazgûl, also called the Witch-king of Angmar, the Pale King, and the Black Captain, is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. He had once been the King of Angmar in the north of Eriador. He is the bearer of a Ring of Power, one of the nine that the dark lord Sauron gave to Men, who become the Nazgûl or Ringwraiths. This gives him great power, but enslaves him to Sauron and makes him invisible. By the end of the Third Age, his name has been forgotten. He stabs the bearer of the One Ring, the Hobbit Frodo Baggins, with a Morgul-knife which would reduce its victim to a wraith. Much later in the narrative, in his final battle, the Lord of the Nazgûl attacks Éowyn with a mace. The Hobbit Merry Brandybuck stabs him with an ancient enchanted Númenórean blade, allowing Éowyn to kill him with her sword.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle-earth</span> Continent in Tolkiens legendarium

Middle-earth is the setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the Miðgarðr of Norse mythology and Middangeard in Old English works, including Beowulf. Middle-earth is the oecumene in Tolkien's imagined mythological past. Tolkien's most widely read works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, are set entirely in Middle-earth. "Middle-earth" has also become a short-hand term for Tolkien's legendarium, his large body of fantasy writings, and for the entirety of his fictional world.

Aragorn is a fictional character and a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Aragorn is a Ranger of the North, first introduced with the name Strider and later revealed to be the heir of Isildur, an ancient King of Arnor and Gondor. Aragorn is a confidant of the wizard Gandalf and plays a part in the quest to destroy the One Ring and defeat the Dark Lord Sauron. As a young man, Aragorn falls in love with the immortal elf Arwen, as told in "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen". Arwen's father, Elrond Half-elven, forbids them to marry unless Aragorn becomes King of both Arnor and Gondor.

Elrond Half-elven is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium. Both of his parents, Eärendil and Elwing, were half-elven, having both Men and Elves as ancestors. He is the bearer of the elven-ring Vilya, the Ring of Air, and master of Rivendell, where he has lived for thousands of years through the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth. He was the Elf-king Gil-galad's herald at the end of the Second Age, saw Gil-galad and king Elendil fight the dark lord Sauron for the One Ring, and Elendil's son Isildur take it rather than destroy it.

Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings and one of the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo is a hobbit of the Shire who inherits the One Ring from his cousin Bilbo Baggins, described familiarly as "uncle", and undertakes the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. He is mentioned in Tolkien's posthumously published works, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wizards in Middle-earth</span> Group of Wizards (Istari) in J. R. R. Tolkiens legendarium

The Wizards or Istari in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction were powerful angelic beings, Maiar, who took the form of Men to intervene in the affairs of Middle-earth in the Third Age, after catastrophically violent direct interventions by the Valar, and indeed by the one god Eru Ilúvatar, in the earlier ages.

The theme of addiction to power in The Lord of the Rings is central, as the Ring, made by the Dark Lord Sauron to enable him to take over the whole of Middle-earth, progressively corrupts the mind of its owner to use the Ring for evil.

References

Primary

  1. 1 2 3 4 Tolkien 1980 , Unfinished Tales , part 4, ch. 2 "The Istari"
  2. ↑ Tolkien 1937 , The Hobbit, ch. 7 "Queer Lodgings"
  3. 1 2 Tolkien 1954 , The Fellowship of the Ring , book 2, ch. 2 " The Council of Elrond "
  4. ↑ Tolkien 1954 , The Fellowship of the Ring , book 2, ch. 3 "The Ring Goes South"
  5. 1 2 3 Tolkien 1977 , The Silmarillion , Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
  6. ↑ Carpenter 2023 , Letters , #156 to Robert Murray, S.J., 4 November 1954

Secondary

  1. 1 2 3 Harvey, Greg (2011). The Origins of Tolkien's Middle-earth For Dummies. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 159–160. ISBN   978-1-118-06898-4.
  2. 1 2 3 Birns, Nicholas (2007). "The Enigma of Radagast: Revision, Melodrama, and Depth". Mythlore . 26 (1): 113–126.
  3. ↑ Shippey 2005, p. 396.
  4. ↑ Aitamurto, Kaarina; Simpson, Scott (2014). Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Routledge. p. 356. ISBN   9781317544623.
  5. ↑ Orr, Robert (1994). "Some Slavic Echos in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth". Germano-Slavica. 8: 23–34.
  6. ↑ Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography . London: Allen & Unwin. p. 51. ISBN   978-0049280373.
  7. ↑ Hammond & Scull 2005, pp. 240–245.
  8. ↑ Winick, Stephen (5 March 2013). "In Defense of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey". HuffPost . Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  9. ↑ Curry 1998, p. 114.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sibley 2012, pp. 130–135.
  11. ↑ "Sylvester McCoy is Radagast the Brown". Filmonic. 27 October 2010. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  12. ↑ Holston & Winchester 2018, pp. 130–132.
  13. ↑ Prospero (11 December 2012). "An unexpected disappointment". The Economist . Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  14. ↑ "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 2012". Movie Locations. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  15. ↑ Holston & Winchester 2018, pp. 132–133.
  16. ↑ "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Quotes – 'Will you follow me, one last time?'". Movie Quotes and More. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  17. ↑ Robb, Brian J.; Simpson, Paul (2013). Middle-earth Envisioned: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: On Screen, On Stage, and Beyond. London, England: Race Point. p. 90. ISBN   978-1-937994-27-3.
  18. ↑ Voorhees, Gerald A.; Call, Joshua; Whitlock, Katie (2012). Dungeons, Dragons, and Digital Denizens: The Digital Role-Playing Game. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 123. ISBN   978-1-4411-9518-0.
  19. ↑ Tresca, Michael J. (2014). The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 38. ISBN   978-0-7864-6009-0.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.