The Blue Wizards Reborn! Tolkien's Reimagining of the Eastern Wizards
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- Опубликовано: 17 мар 2024
- Beyond the edges of the map, amidst the whispers of the great evils that dwell in the lands of Middle-earth's eastern expanse, there exists an enigmatic duo, shrouded in cloaks of sea-blue.
Details of their mission may be sparse, yet we are able to piece together the tantalising clues which tell of these enigmatic figures, known simply as the Ithryn Luin; the Blue Wizards.
What became of them? Did they neglect their duty in order to follow other pursuits as Radagast did? Did they follow Saruman’s path and succumb to the seductive allure of dark power? Or, were they unsung and forgotten heroes deprived of the renown that they deserved? Join me as we embark on a journey into the heart of this riddle, where sorcery dances among the eastern realms.
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Probably the biggest question mark in TLOTR beside maybe Tom Bombadil
Tom is The New Shadow lol
Tom is "THE" power in middle Earth...He just doesn't care to show it.
I sometimes get the feeling he could have walked into Mordor and dragged Sauron out by his ear and given him a good spanking for being a very naughty Maia.
Tom is indeed a maia ! The Maiar of earth, the only we know and his wife a maia of water ! Infos from I. C. E books Valar and Maiars !
Tolkien lies about hating allegory because the entire series is just the fun parts of the Bible retold. And Tommy B? That's Tolkien and his nature loving spirit who hates the industrial revolution.
@@pasqualesorrentino5780 But that's from an RPG. I don't think that's canon. Also, it should be noted that Tom claims to have already been in Arda when the Ainur came to it from outside.
Radagast did not neglect his duties! His mission was given by Yavanna to take care of nature and the damage Sauron and his minions did to it and not to take part in the war itself.
I was literally gonna comment this. It’s makes perfect sense especially when you consider he made his abode on the outskirts of Mirkwood, an area heavily effected by Sauron’s influence and he probably lingered for a time after the War Of The Ring as part of the clean up effort
He's still kind of a slack off, all in all
Tolkien himself said that Radagast gave up on his mission, because he was bewildered by the animals and plants of middle-earth.
I have long held a hypothesis, based on Tokien's statement that they were the founders of traditions of magic, that the two blue wizards were the men known to later history as Zoroaster and Hermes Trismegistus. Zoroaster was the founder of the religion that bears his name in Persia, whose priests were called "magi," and from which we get the word "magic". Hermes was the progenitor of Hermeticism, in Egypt, upon which Western occultism is based. And both prophets taught monotheism in the midst of polytheistic cultures, which would be in keeping with their mission to teach the truth (i.e., about Eru).
And that got me thinking, if they were the two most famous wizards in the East and South, perhaps Radagast was the wizard known in later ages as Merlin.
An absolutely brilliant hypothesis!!! It really got my brain thinking and it all makes sense as the legendarium is supposed to be a history before ours which ties it in quite neatly!! Love this theory 😁
And if Radagast is Merlin, then Excalibur is Anduril, and the Lady of the Lake and the Fisher King are probably Elves. Perhaps Arwen and Elladan or Elrohir.@@hablub29
Interesting perspective.
Harut and Marut 🤣 tested by allah and they taught the magic to enter heaven to Venus who got turned into the planet 😃
My theory is that one of them fell into evil but the other stayed true.
*Pallando Rómestámo:* What's come over you!? You were called "Slayer of Darkness", not "Ally of Darkness"!
Radagast did
NOT
neglect his duty.
yea, i think people confuse the text of how Gandalf was the only one to return as him being the only one successful. radagast was hand picked by Yavanna because she wanted someone to take care of the nature in the world (she felt like the Valar were neglecting them because they were only focused on hunting sauron). You can argue radagast is the reason the ents were so helpful, why the eagles were so willing to help the dwarfs, or why Mirkwood never fully fell into darkness.
If I understand correctly, Radagast wouldn't even have been there until he was ordered to protect the plants and animals.
Justice for Radagast!
Yeah such a great job he did defending Fanghorn.
I believe the essay on the Istari explicitly states that Gandalf alone held to his duty.
The east of middle earth always interested me
Tolkien was a masterful storyteller. For everything he explained, he inserted something left unexplained. Saruman's speech to Gandalf could easily have been "When you have the rods of the 3 wizards," and we would have understood that. But Tolkien makes this "the rods of the 5 wizards," and immediately new vistas are opened in our imagination. We realize that no matter what we're reading now, it's just a part of something bigger.
I started writing a few years back and my jaw drops from every one of these videos. His worlds are just insane, true genius. The level of connection between everything and its all just amazing. Nothing seems random at all.
The Blue Wizards have always reminded me of Cyril and Methodius from Bulgarian history.
The East and South in the Second and Third Ages must have been very important places. There are huge gaps of time where Sauron is back in power, and yet he is mysteriously not active in the west. My guess is that he's focused on expanding his influence across these vast lands. I wish Tolkien lived long enough to give us a proper Red Book of the East equivalent.
We might one day get that once the Tolkien IP goes public and a Tolkien caliber figure emerges to write about the tales of struggle, tragedy and heroism of the east and south.
How do you feel about the figures that are writing stories with Tolkiens IP so far? The writers of Rings of Power, Shadow of Mordor/War, War in the North, the Hobbit movies? I think Lord of the Rings Online initially did some quality work with the IP but even they fell off once they went beyond the settings in the book.
@@happymradrian The only expanded legendarium work I know of that mostly stands up as decent supplementary content is a fair bit of the MERP stuff from the 90's-2000's.
Even that content is mostly good in that it serves as a decent skeleton for world building, and to contextualize the scale of Arda.
No writer of Tolkien's level will write quality material in that universe until the IP goes public. Commercial projects will always feel shallow since time and business constraints prevent the kind of writing and endless revisions needed to create LOTR quality stories.
Tolkien caliber. In the immortal words of a certain English writer of the same caliber: Aye, there's the rub.
@@happymradrianrings of power.
awful.
If that does happen it will almost certainly be politically controlled to the point of it being unrecognisable as a middle earth tale
There needs to be more videos like this on the Blue Wizards. Trying to figure out what exactly they did in the East. Its always been such a mystery. Great video.
Yours is the most thought out video on the Blue Wizards , very detailed compared to many others.
I've always thought that if Tolkien had continued to pursue his sequel novel to the LOTR, The New Shadow, that maybe the Blue Wizards would have returned to the West to help King Eldarrion and his men defeat this new enemy that threatened Middle Earth.
Or...maybe one of the Blue Wizards would have fell into the use of dark magic and was seduced by the worship of Melkor. Maybe this Blue Wizard would have welcomed the diminshed spirit of Sauron and helped him possess a weak-minded Easterling or Orc, and together they would create a dark cult army to invade the West, teaming up with the remaining Orcs. This Blue Wizard would embrace Melkor's darkness, and he would become a Black Wizard, while the other Blue Wizard would flee to the West to warn Eldarrion to prepare for war, and help stand against the Melkor cult army.
By this time, Aragorn is dead, all of the members of the Fellowship are gone, the number of elves has been greatly diminished, and the dwarves are busy taking back Moria and diggin in their mines. So it would be almost solely up to the Men of the West to defeat this New Shadow, although I would think we would still see a handful of elves and dwarves participate in combat, or help in some other way. And it wouldn't be a true sequel to the LOTR without a hobbit or two, so maybe a descendent of Samwise or Merry could help in some way, maybe as a burgler or a spy.
It's just a thought.
Very nice thought.
Write it. Make a million
Yeah. write this tale bud. DO IT!.
I'll be first in line to buy a copy!
Ignite the fires of Tolkien's works for a new generation!
If they made a series it better be animated
Tolkien didn't want to follow up on "The New Shadow" because it was going to degenerate into a "thriller", without any of the mystery and magic of The Hobbit, LOTR or the Silmarillion. The era of the Rings was over, and I think he was wise not to try a follow up. He would simply be repeating plot points with lesser heroes and villians populating a lesser landscape.
The Dwarves would not be interested in the affairs of men, nor would the last remaining Elves (in Mirkwood?). The Hobbits would have been insulated by Aragorn's edict not allowing men in the Shire, and would have bad memories of men from the Scouring of the Shire...so they wouldn't be anxious for contact. Ents were dying out, and had bad impressions of men who cut their trees down anyway.
It would end up Men vs Evil Men/Wizards?, something that would resemble more a Conan The Barbarian story. You could do that angle, but without the Rings, Middle Earth is a lesser place.
Always thought they deserved more honor and respect
Depens on if they failed in their respective missions and were corrupted or suceeded in some fashion
What would be most interesting is if they had a measure of success AND failure.@@ikar312
Excellent exploration. I enjoy your videos very much.
Thank you
I love the blue wizards 👍 I often imagine Rómestámo working with the Dwarven Ironfist Clan, subverting the Dark east in a guerrilla campaign 😃
Love hearing the deep dives of Realms Unraveled!
I just found your channel today and the life of the Eldar is coming back to me. 🥰 Seriously though, absolutely beautiful, intelligent, impressive, educational, fun...omg sir I have adjectives for days, and you got my sub less than a minute in. I've seen a few other TLOTR video channels and they are great, but... I'm an artist and I am in love with the art, the lettering and your voice. The length of these is also in the perfect range, IMO at least. Thank You for the best Tolkien representation on YT. Love from Seattle 💖🧝🏼♀️🧙🏼♀️✨🔮🪄
Enjoying these vids!
Also: unrelated, but your voice would be absolutely perfect for the Hitchhiker’s Guide.
I just loved it ❤
I don't think the Blue Wizards died, otherwise, their spirits would have gone to the Halls of Mandos.
Who says they didn't go to the Halls of Mandos?
Great video!
Saruman's gift of voice would have been a powerful weapon in the East, while Saruman remained true to his mission.
Something tellls me the Professor had a less than friendly view of the Golden Dawn.
I hope you read my comment 🥹 and take it into account 🙏🙏🙏. I was recently reading the Silmarilion (for the thousands time) and realized something while reading it I hadn't realized before. I always felt like the discord of Melkor and everything he did was against the wishes of Eru, but now I realized that everything Melkor did was meant to be, it was always Eru's intent that these things happen, even the maring of Arda. On the one hand, he created perfect beings that were supposed to live in bliss, but at some point realized that would be boring, and these beings would have no true identities. So he created Humans to be more like Melkor while Elves were created to be more like the Valar. Its why humans live so short lives and get to leave Arda and go to heaven, its their "gift" as a sort of apology in some way. The Valar were meant to rule Valinor with the Elves while Melkor was meant to rule Middle Earth with men. Melkor was given the greatest power, but was only one, and had a part of all the powers of the Ainur, what he also had was free will, but was given no actual role in the music and was allowed to do as he pleased, unlike the Valar who had no such free will and only lived to serve Eru, they had no choice in their part of the music, and only did as Eru told them to do. It would be cool if you did a video on this very subject, and how the whole point of Melkor and Men being the way they were is that they have free will. While the elves are immortal and perfect, they dont have a will of their own if not for Melkor, (Feanor and the Noldor wouldn't have done the things they did and stray away if not for Melkor) and can never leave Arda until its end like the Valar. Men are mortal, and are imperfect, but they have a will of their own, and get to leave Arda after death, like Melkor. I think its no secret that Humans get to go to heaven, while the Elves stay on Earth. Humans get to shape their own future, like Melkor, while Elves only do what Eru intended them to do, like the Valar. Its why the future of Men was not shown to the Ainur, while the future of the Elves was very clear.
I hope admin gets to read my comment and maybe consider making a video on the subject of Melkor and Men being made for one another ✌️
In time, the world will end and the Elves, along with Humans and the Ainur (including Melkor I believe) will get to make a new song for a new world, where this time these beings will get to live in bliss, while at the same time having a will of their own. But before this perfect world can come into being, this one has to run it's course.
When you think about it, The Lord of the Rings is kind of the same stories as The Silmarilion, but with Humans instead of Elves. The dominion of the Elves ended when Melkor was set free and the trees were destroyed, the coming of Melkor to Middle Earth coincides with the awakening of Men and the beginning of their dominion. In less than 600 years Beleriand was destroyed, and Numenor was risen. Numenor being the human version of Valinor.
One more thing I want to add, is that this is the reason why the Valar didnt interfere much with Sauron, because they simply didn't know what to do, everything happening in middle earth after the destruction of the trees is not really in the song, so they don't understand it, they don't really know how to go about it, and it is Eru's will that they stay in Valinor where they are meant to dwell. The Noldor and the Sindar were never really meant to live in Middle Earth, that was reserved for the humans, but Melkor changed the theme of the music. An so some things that were meant to be happened, while some that weren't happened as well.
I like to believe that Eru had already created Arda with everything according to plan, but since everything happened exactly as he'd imagine, it must've felt void and soulless. So he recreates the world, but this time he adds Melkor and the race of Men, which in turn bring into being other things,Iike Dwarves for example.
The blueses are mentioned in the Hobbit as well as a throw away line, unless that was a movie line, I can't remember, it's been years since I read the Hobbit.
They aren't mentioned by name in the Hobbit film because they didn't have the rights to use them, I understand
@@richardaproche The line is when Bilbo asks "Are there others like you?" and Gandalf answers about Saruman and Radaghast, then says "and there's the two blueses. You know, I've quite forgotten their names."
Love your videos plz keep them coming, Is there any chance on finding out what happened to the sons of elrond, and alson sarumans ring he created what was its power if any and di it pass away with him.
Amazon should have made their show about these guys instead.
Or Simarrillion
I’ve watched damn near every LOTR video on RUclips, have read all the books multiple times and watch the directors cut trilogy every year…I say that only so you know I’m a fan when I say these are fucking awesome. More! Longer!(if it’s possible, I’m not telling you how to work)
The Blue Wizards and the South and East are super fascinating. I love that Tolkien left it more open ended that their missions were a success and didn't fall.
I hope for a multi-season TV series about the blues and their adventures. To try and synthesize Tolkien mentioning that they both failed and succeeded, maybe one of them could still take a role of a fallen dark sorcerer, perhaps an antihero with an "ends justifies the means" type character, while the other stays true to his mission and succeeds. The show could even end with Aragorn's travels through the region.
Don´t forget that Gandalf had the ring of fire, one of the tree elfs rings.
Hello sir. I am also from Dorset (in a way) we hunt down the coast from swanage. Wish you had more and longer videos. Instant sub
Hello I was in Swanage just a few months ago! Thanks for the sub much appreciated 🙂
I wonder if they were going to be a part of The New Shadow, with Tolkien’s reimagining about their fate being more tied to his abandonment of that story… Could be interesting, at any rate.
I am still of the opinion that Saruman sold out the Blue Wizards in exchange for his life and servitude to Sauron.
That’s a really cool theory
Saruman was looking to rival Sauron up until the events of The Two Towers. I think it's more likely that he did not mention the Blue Wizards as he was hoping they would weaken and distract Sauron and allow Saruman to look for the ring and build his own strength.
Maybe. But I like to think they where a mix of the three we are familiar with. More interested in their own affairs like radagagst and sought positions of influence like saurman but ultimately helped the people resist the tyranny of Sauron like gandalf
I feel like if the Blue wizards were evil they would have been Involved in the war of the ring
Rember, Saruman did put the Blues down when speaking to Elrond at an early White Council, and Galadriel expressed distrust of his leadership after that meeting.
In Tolkien's revised final tale of the Blue Wizards, one might think that they achieve not Gandalf-like success, but a different kind of success. If the criterion of success is returning to Valinor like Gandalf, how fair is this for the Blue Wizards? As Tolkien said, this story is a product of the northern, elven perspective.
The Blue Wizards are Harut and Marut - making a school of magic 😆
I would LOVE to see a series about the Two Blue Wizards and their Eastern allies making things difficult for Sauron, ultimately aiding in his downfall (though not known at the time.) Can some film-makers with more than a piddling ounce of sense make this series? Please?
I like JRR’s reimagining of the blue wizards, their efforts led, maybe not directly, but indirectly to slowing down Sauron’s influence enough for the east to not overpower the west. We must reserve the blue wizards had a way more corrupted people to work with unlike Gandalf.
I thought the Blue Wizards one in the East and one in the South, helped beat Sauron by having men in the East battle against other men who served Sauron. While the one in the South likely had men abstain in joining Sauron. Both Blue Wizards decided to stay and help the men they come to care for establish and grow with their knowledge.
The one in the East help individuals learn magic and tame dragons. (Like East Asian countries China, Korea and Japan)
The one in the South help learn tropical agricultural growth, travel and spices. Possibly the entwives relocated there. (Like South Asian countries (India and Pakistan) or South East countries (Philippines, Thailand or Vietnam )
My headcanon is that Pallando was enticed by the shadow and became an "Eastern Saruman" (he being the one not chosen by the Valar, even though a Maiar he was maybe not prepared for the journey) and Alatar had to spend his powers containing his former friend, in order to not let the powers of the East become too great, or else they'd engulf the west and Sauron would have an unstopable horde.
Why is Gandalf's hat blue??? A gift from one of the blue wizards perhaps?
I always kind of imagined one of the or both blue wizards would be the main bad guy going forward into the fourth age? Something of a lesser dark Lord.
I’d think that if the blue wizards had been under Sauron’s control, they would have been in command of the easterlings either attacking Gondor or Dale in the war. I’d hazard a guess that they had been destroyed by Sauron and/or the Nazgûl or gone into hiding.
Maybe they didn't return to the West because they wanted to wipe out Melkor and Sauron Worship before they left but it was so old and strong, they were still trying until the Final Battle, when Melkor returned!
One of the greatest mysteries of the ages.
I think it unlikely they had been corrupted by Sauron because as fellow Maiar they would have been too powerful to outright dominate or destroy. Sauron could not dominate the Balrog, for example, also of similar rank. Of course they might have joined him or bargained with him in some way, such as Saruman did. But if they had, I think we would have seen them play a role in the Lord of the Rings. Or, if they came as early as they did in the later telling but still been corrupted or joined him, they might have had a detectable role on Sauron's side in Sauron's battles with Numenor or the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. As it were, the Nazgul, corrupted humans, were the most powerful beings he could muster, far from Maiar in power. I rather like the later telling, that they explain why Sauron's army in the LOTR was still mainly orcs, and not nearly as many men of the south and east as could have been had Melkor worship gone unchecked for nearly the entirety of the Second and Third ages.
Great presentation, well supported by excerpts from Tolkien's work. I've always wanted to know more about the vast eastern lands of Rhun; perhaps the Blue Wizards went there.
My theory that one of the Blue Wizards got so tired of losing against Sauron that he got corrupted to join as Saruman pushes him over the edge which the one who continued to be faithful fought them which is enough to unite all the evil Easterlings and crush the good ones for good. But it was enough for Irú to see that Sauron’s forces in the Northeast wasted too much time to join the main forces that they fall when the Ring is destroyed.
I like to think they were a mix of both. Their purpose being to inspire the East against Sauron but also choosing to stay there & leave behind a mystical cult.
👍👍👍
None neglected their duty .... they did just as Eru had intended from the start
It's to bad Tolkien never wrote any history of the South or eastern lands. That's the entire problem with Blue wizards, and maybe the Istari themselves as there where apparently more than just 5. He states that the first Blue wizard was chosen but that one chose to bring along a friend. How many more friends are there in the order because the number appears much greater than 3 or 4. Regardless of that everything and anything written about the blue wizards is all speculation either by Tolkien himself or anyone later. Because no history exists about those lands. It's sad but I can understand his lack of desire to write about the evils that happened there and being unable to write much good.
Interesting reimagination. But I would let the first version alive.
👍
The musings on the fall of the blue wizards strike me as being of a kind with the discussion of bounders by the old gaffers in the Green Dragon. Not many of the vast hordes of the south and east came to Barad dur. Were there not resistance at home their empires should have been emptied. I would like to know more of them and the unsung heroes of Harad and Rhun. (Here the the Rings of Power failed most dismally, had they insisted on a woke agenda of countering Tolkien's implied racism, they had plenty of opportunity without any need to corrupt the mythos). And I cannot agree that Radagast failed in his mission, he echoes Tom Bombadil, there is more to Middle Earth than the affairs of elves and men. So the blue wizards did not return to Valinor: well neither did Radagast, and he was certainly not disbarred, nor Tom Bombadil.
While I disagree with your framing somewhat, I agree that the rings of power and similar media have this obsession with skin deep diversity. No diversity of culture, or of people, no diversity of history, nothing reimagined, just slap people from different places into the same historical locations. there is no reason why elves and peoples would not be of all colours and creeds necessarily on middle earth but they have different clans, languages, affiliations, etc
They were killed by Sauron shortly after arriving in middle earth
Most of the Istari failed, because they were set an absolute bastard of a task. They were partially stripped of their memories, divested of their knowledge, robbed of their eternality, denied their might and then sent to defeat the greatest of their kin, on a battlefield of his choosing... and only by manipulating mortals and events. And his specialty is... manipulating mortals and events.
Where have I heard this voice before??
How could something Tolkien imagined be a 're-imagining'?
See it by 9:15
wizards of the Crypts, arch enemies of the red wizards of the western coasts
Did they ever get to the Undying Lands
Wait so was saruman alive when the blue wizards were around?
Surely if the two blue wizards came in the form of old men, and subject to the weaknesses of those bodies, they were successful. The remaining three would not be given similar forms two millenia later, if they failed?!
Sick channel
I always thought it was implied they turned like Saruman and was responsible for the evil men of the East
It's probable that the young Gandalf will run into the blue wizards in season 2 of the Amazon series. He and the Hobbit girl were headed east in the season 1 finale.
Too bad the writers don't know how to do a story
‘Brought his friend along’ read to me as ‘lover/partner’ and I think that made them even more interesting! If only Tolkien had written in this day and age, perhaps they would have been a couple outright. :)
This is exactly the kind of thing the Rings of Power can and should explore, so I'm looking forward to that!
Don’t hold your breath, they’ve pretty much ignored what Tolkien wrote. I wasn’t expecting them to touch on everything but changing so much , they should be ashamed
That whole project is creatively corrupt, what you want is someone else who's loyal to the source material to try it.
Rings of Power is trash and not Tolkien at all.
I'm really hoping the Stranger in Rings Of Power is one of the Blue Wizards.
Being an Indian I always thought Tolkein was mildly...mildly racist towards Harad and the East. I just wish he could've explored those parts more
Theres always one karen snowflake with a victim complex and youre apparently it