there where apparantly 5 istari sent to Middle Earth. a grey one (Gandalf), a brown one (Radagast), a white one ( Saruman, and 2 blue ones. anybody know anything about them and what happened to them?
Nope. I think that all Tolkien ever said was that they went into the far East of Middle Earth. Since nothing in the stories took place there, they were never heard from again.
really bugs me that i want to know!
Alatar and Pallando .
Not really much mention made of them aside from their existence.
Alatar and Pallando .
Not really much mention made of them aside from their existence.
(Holy snapping proverbials, I accidentally hit submit instead of preview, immediately stop it, then when I try to submit I’m told I can only post every 60 seconds. Look down and the original was posted in under a second .
I’ll never complain about the speed of the boards again.
This was discussed onthe second page of this thread:http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=84776&pagenumber=2
To save time here is the relevant portion of my post.
Here is pretty much everything we know about the two blue wizards. An older essay can be found in History of Middle Earth XII - Peoples of Middle Earth
The ‘other two’ came much earlier, at the same time probably as Glorfindel, when matters became very dangerous in the Second Age. Glorfindel was sent to aid Elrond and was (though not yet said) pre-eminent in the war in Eriador. But the other two istari were sent for different purpose. Morinehtar and Rómestámo. Darkness-slayer and East-helper. Their task was to circumvent Sauron: to bring help to the few tribes of Men that had rebelled from Melkor-worship, to stir up rebellion … and after his first fall to search out his hiding (in which they failed) and to cause [? dissension and disarray] among the dark East … They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East … who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have … outnumbered the West.
This is an older essay however and seems to have been superceded by the following from Unfinished Tales
…for they [the Blue Wizards] into the East with Curunir, but they never returned, and whether they remained in the East, pursuing there the purposes for which they were sent; or perished; or as some hold were ensnared by Sauron and became his servants, is not now known.*
In a letter written in 1958 my father said that he knew nothing clearly about ‘the other two’, since they were not concerned in the history of the North-west pf Middle-earth. ‘I think.’ he wrote, 'they went as emissaries to distant regions, East and South, far out of Numenorean range: missionaries to enemy-occupied lands, as it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and ‘magic’ traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.
… the two other ‘Blue Wizards’, unnamed, who passed with Saruman into the East, but unlike him never returned into the Westlands;
Later Tolkien names the blue wizards as Allatar, and Pallando. AFAIK no direct translation for these names are given. However Allatar is likely formed from Alata (glittering or radiant) and Pallando is identified by Christopher Tolkien as containing Palan (afar). So it seems likely that Alatar=Morinehtar and thus Pallando=Romestamo.
Try this page: http://tolkien.cro.net/else/othertwo.html
They have lots of good information on Tolkien’s stories, including stuff that’s backed up by letters he wrote.