Whatever happened to Radaghast?

[FoolOfATook13]

In my several readings of LOTR, I've noticed Radaghast the brown is mentioned several times. Yet while poking around on the site, I was bugged to realize that I have no idea what happened to him. Is he elevated to Radaghast the grey after the fall of Sauroman and the "promotion" of Gandalf?

[Alcuin]

Radagast the Brown remained in Middle-earth. Recently, he has been seen running a Ben-&-Jerry’s in San Francisco; during the 1960s, he was instrumental in the founding of the Haight-Ashbury movement. During the nineteenth century, he founded the bohemian movement in Paris after during the Bourbons.

Tolkien wrote that of the Istari, only Gandalf remained true to his mission. Saruman clearly fell; Radagast seems to have become distracted, but at the Council of Elrond, Gandalf refers to him as “the honest Radagast”. He seems to have been excitable, whispering about the Nazgûl to Gandalf at their meeting near Bree on Midyear’s Day in 3018; but that could be argued to have been a most reasonable precaution. It was through his actions that Gwaihir the Windlord came to Orthanc and rescued Gandalf. (Tolkien also wrote that the Blue Wizards, who ventured deep into the east and/or south of Middle-earth, probably upset Sauron’s plans, but that they might also have fallen in one way or another.)

Your question can be divided into two parts. The first question is whether Radagast wanted to return to Valinor. The second is whether he would have been permitted to return if he had.

In the essay “The Istari” in unfinished Tales, Tolkien wrote,

…the Istari had need to learn much anew by slow experience, and though they knew when they came the memory of the Blessed Realm was to them a vision from afar off, for which (so long as they remained true to their mission) the yearned exceedingly. Thus by enduring of free will the pang of exile and the deceits of Sauron they might redress the evils of that time.

Indeed, of all the Istari, one only remained faithful, and he was the last-comer. For Radagast, the fourth, became enamored of the many beasts and birds that dwelt in Middle-earth, and forsook Elves and Men, and spent his days among the wild creatures.

Since he had not “remained true to [his] mission”, Radagast arguably lost his exceeding yearning to return to Valinor. On the other hand, Radagast had definitely not turned to evil as had Saruman. (Tolkien suggests the other two chief Istari, the Blue Wizards, also fell from grace as did Saruman.)

Besides helping Gandalf by deliberately seeing to it that Gwaihir the Eagle arrived at Orthanc and ended up rescuing Gandalf from Saruman, Radagast also inadvertently helped Gandalf almost immediately after the Ring was discovered. When Gandalf arrived with Bilbo at Beorn’s house, he told Beorn that Radagast was his “good cousin”, to which Beorn responded that Radagast was “not a bad fellow as wizards go… I used to see him now and again.” (The Hobbit, “Queer Lodgings”) So you could probably offer a reasonable argument that had Radagast sought to return home, he would have been permitted to do that.

Or you could hang out around San Francisco looking for a really old guy in brown robes, long beard, staff, and sandals (sneakers in the rainy winter months), followed closely by a whole troop of birds, squirrels, and other critters, and ask him.

[FoolOfATook13]

Alcuin,
thanks for all the info!

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

I think we may have just figured out who Bigfoot aka Sasquatch is.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Alcuin

Radagast the Brown remained in Middle-earth. Recently, he has been seen running a Ben-&-Jerry’s in San Francisco; during the 1960s, he was instrumental in the founding of the Haight-Ashbury movement. During the nineteenth century, he founded the bohemian movement in Paris after during the Bourbons.

Bwahahaha

[Coffeehouse]

Originally Posted by Alcuin

a really old guy in brown robes, long beard, staff, and sandals (sneakers in the rainy winter months), followed closely by a whole troop of birds, squirrels, and other critters, and ask him.

Wait, isn't that Noah? Radagast's Ark of Middle Earth Cudda happened!

[barrelrider110]

Radagast was ill-suited for the charge placed on him. He was sent into Middle Earth by Yavanna who is responsible beasts and plants of ME and requested the creation of the Ents to protect the trees from the Dwarves. Radagast's original name was Aiwendil, meaning "bird friend" in Quenya. Yavanna assigned him to accompany Saruman into ME. Saruman held him in much contempt, and used him, although as Alcuin points out, in the end Radagast is indirectly responsible for Gandalf's escape from Orthanc. Perhaps Yavanna sent Radagast to protect the kelvar and olvar; perhaps she saw something in Saruman so that he needed a foil, which Radagast unwittingly became. In any event, he became obsessed with nature as Saruman became obsessed with the ring and ultimately failed in his mission. Or did he?

[Coffeehouse]

For all we know Radagast was involved on the warfront east of the Misty Mountains, where the Wood-elves of Northern Mirkwood, the elves of Lorien, the Lake-people and the Dwarves fought, someplace and somehow. That's always been my line of reasoning anyways, but I realise there's no canon actually stating it I believe so since I've come to think of Gandalf as the wizard looking west (interest in Hobbits) of the Misty Mountains, Sarumann as the one looking south (interest in the Ring and human weakness) of the Misty Mountains and Radagast looking east (interest in birds, beasts and nature).

[ShadowedElf]

Or mayyybe... maybe Radagast is actually the mastermind behind PETA.
Maybe it was WETA... Wizards for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

[brownjenkins]

He did better than Alatar and Pallando!

[Tinman]

"However, some of this changes in a text written in the last year or two of Tolkien's life (published in The Peoples of Middle-earth) of 1968. They are said to have arrived not in the Third Age, but in the Second, around the year 1600, the time of the Forging of the One Ring. Their mission was to travel to the east and weaken the forces of Sauron. And it is here said that the Wizards far from failed; rather, they had a pivotal role in the victories of the West at the end of both the Second and the Third Ages. At the same time, Tolkien considered the possibility that Glorfindel arrived back in Middle-earth along with the Blue Wizards. On this later, more positive interpretation, the Blue Wizards may have been as successful as Gandalf, just located in a different theatre beyond the borders of the map in The Lord of the Rings.[5]"

From wiki... so god knows its accuracy... but that would lead us to believe the blue wizards werent absolute failures.

[Attalus]

*Can't wait to get home and haul out The Peoples of Middle-earth*

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

Even with the possible revisions that indicate that Saruman was truly the only one of the five Istari who completely failed, I think it is still important to remember that Gandalf is the only one who truly and completely succeeded.

...if that makes any sense.

[Farimir Captain of Gondor]

I don't think Radagast failed. Their mission was to counteract what Sauron had done. If I remember right they showed up before Sauron was thought to have returned. So maybe Radagast's only mission was to help heal the 'lesser' creatures of ME. To make sure animals returned and thrived in the regions Sauron had destroyed. Sauron did torch most of Eregion and animals aren't immune to the effects of war.

I'd like to think he stayed long after all the others, including elves, had left and began to bring life back to places like the Brown Lands, Dagorlad, and even Mordor itself. Then, after he was satisfied with his work, he sailed home and was welcomed back.

[Attalus]

Well, you have to remember the mission of the Istari - the very reason they were sent over Sea, was to oppose Sauron. Obviously Saruman the Traitor, a "mere vulgar mechanical Magician," as JRRT put it in On Fairy-Stories failed most resoundingly. Radagast, indeed struck a significant blow in the War of the Ring by inadvertantly freeing Gandalf from Orthanc, but it was just that, inadvertant. I scarcely think that the Lords of the West went to so much trouble to send a bird-tamer, however worthy, to Middle-Earth.

[Gordis]

Originally Posted by Attalus

I scarcely think that the Lords of the West went to so much trouble to send a bird-tamer, however worthy, to Middle-Earth.

Yet he was chosen by Yavanna. Thus it is little surprise that he mostly protected her creatures. I can't see how he could be blamed for it.

Another indication of somehow different mission is the fact that Radagast remained in ME after Sauron had been brought down. Gandalf regarded his mission as terminated (he was the enemy of Sauron), but not Radagast. He remained and continued his task.

Originally Posted by Attalus

Radagast, indeed, struck a significant blow in the War of the Ring by inadvertantly freeing Gandalf from Orthanc, but it was just that, inadvertant.

First and formost, Radagast was the first to give warning against the nazgul when he became aware that they had crossed the Anduin. He acted without delay: he left Rhosgobel and went (flew) to report to Saruman, the head of the Order. He also consented to go look for Gandalf to warn him. But for it, Gandalf would have remained oblivious of the danger. It was not Radagast's fault that Gandalf got trapped in Orthanc and that Butterbur failed to send the letter to Frodo. What is important is that Rhadagast was willing to forget his birds for a time and do his duty against Sauron.

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

I could find no mention of Radagast in the Appendices or indeed anywhere beyond Book II. Where did you learn that he remained in Middle Earth?

[Gordis]

Originally Posted by The Dread Pirate Roberts

I could find no mention of Radagast in the Appendices or indeed anywhere beyond Book II. Where did you learn that he remained in Middle Earth?

He was not on the last ship....

[Attalus]

Originally Posted by Gordis

Yet he was chosen by Yavanna. Thus it is little surprise that he mostly protected her creatures. I can't see how he could be blamed for it.

Another indication of somehow different mission is the fact that Radagast remained in ME after Sauron had been brought down. Gandalf regarded his mission as terminated (he was the enemy of Sauron), but not Radagast. He remained and continued his task.


First and formost, Radagast was the first to give warning against the nazgul when he became aware that they had crossed the Anduin. He acted without delay: he left Rhosgobel and went (flew) to report to Saruman, the head of the Order. He also consented to go look for Gandalf to warn him. But for it, Gandalf would have remained oblivious of the danger. It was not Radagast's fault that Gandalf got trapped in Orthanc and that Butterbur failed to send the letter to Frodo. What is important is that Rhadagast was willing to forget his birds for a time and do his duty against Sauron.

I'll grant you that Rhadagast brought the news of the Nazgul's crossing the River was an active deed and done against his inclinations - he was obviously nervous and afraid, (he whispered as if the hedges had ears, and rode off as if the Nine were after him). I'll further grant you that, being Yavanna's servant, he would look after her creatures. But that did not absove him of his primary responsibilty. It is as if Gandalf bought a nice little place in Hobbiton and settled down, foraying only in direst need. But to Gandalf, his friends were important but secondary to his batle with Sauron. That is why he was said by JRRT to have ben the only success. Though, I think we can grant Radagast an 'assist', as it were.

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

Originally Posted by Gordis

He was not on the last ship....

Are you saying you think he never returned to Valinor? Or just that he stayed in M.E. longer than Gandalf after Sauron's fall?

The ship Gandalf, Galadriel, and Frodo took wasn't the last, btw. Legolas, Celeborn, and some would say Gimli and Sam all sailed west, too, at some point.