How Many Wizards?
Since I’ve often heard of sources claiming there were only four Istari,
Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast and one unmentioned, it was a joy to come upon the
following passage from one of the closing chapters of “The Silmarillion”
(translated back into English from Swedish). It was a long time since I read
these books:
“Of these Cúrunir [i.e Saruman] was the eldest and the one to arrive first, and
after him came Mithrandir and Radagast, and OTHER Istari who travelled to the
eastern parts of Middle Earth and have no place in these tales.”
(About the Rings of Power and the Third Age; my emphasis)
Mind the plural! It would imply, and since any text included in “The
Silmarillion” must be regarded to have a comparatively high source value
(whether there ever was an Eldar compilation by that name or not) that there
actually exist more than one Valinor wizard, unmentioned in the Tolkien
corpus.
Me for one have sensed this, since I’ve got a positive hunch there’s at least a
“blue” wizard, living on an island in the great lake of Rhûn.
;)
