Did Saruman kill Radagast?

[Valandil]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Heh. One's allowed to change one's mind in a discussion.

I suppose. Never seems to happen on the internet though. Certainly not on Facebook!

There is no mention of how Saruman contacted Radagast in the beginning and commanded him to find and send Gandalf to Isengard. But if he had use of the Crebain from Fangorn and Dunland as messengers he no doubt could have communicated with Radagast as much as he liked. (Although I remember the Crebain watching and spying the lands near the Fellowship, I don't recall that in the books it is implied they spied for Saruman, unlike in the movies. So maybe that point is, well, pointless.)

I think they WERE spying for Saruman. I don't think Sauron had a great amount of spies so far away from Mordor. We don't see the crebain - or other birds - continue to hound the fellowship after their trip through Moria, when they're closer to Sauron's sphere of influence. So I concur that they're Saruman's spies.

In a way it's odd because Tolkien was into tying up loose ends in the final parts of LoTR. What isn't resolved in the story proper, gets a send-off of a sort in the appendices. Other figures at least have some material on them in other writing. Radagast gets even a speaking part in LoTR but elsewhere he rates barely above the Blue Wizards and they are a mere detail (an interesting one, rife with fanfic possibilities, mind but still but a detail.)

Radagast either completely slipped Tolkien's mind or he always was more of disposable plot-device to get an unsuspecting Gandalf into Saruman's clutches rather than character that deserved closure.

Or... maybe he WASN'T a loose end anymore, because Saruman had killed him.