What The Other Wizards Were Doing During The Lord Of The Rings

There are five Wizards in "The Lord of the Rings," all told. These aren't your traditional run-of-the-mill sorcerers and magic wielders, though. Tolkien's uppercase "W" Wizards refer to a quintet of angelic individuals who are sent to Middle-earth wrapped in old-man bodies to assist the Free Peoples in the fight against the Dark Lord Sauron. That said, where are these five guys when the fighting breaks out in "The Lord of the Rings" story? We know Gandalf gets the job done. Saruman infamously doesn't. But the other three? It turns out that what they're doing during the story is different depending on which version of the story you read. Tolkien doesn't give us much to go on, and some of his writing is contradictory.

Here's what we do know: The Wizard Radagast the Brown is around and even pops in for a minute in the books. But he doesn't do much and is MIA when the you-know-what hits the fan. As for the two Blue Wizards, we know they're off in the East of Middle-earth, but whether they're helping or hurting Sauron's cause is a bit harder to tell.

In contrast, there's Gandalf, who does everything in his power to fulfill his mission (including literally losing his body and needing to get a new one). And then there's Saruman, who completely rejects his mission, opting to ally himself with Sauron. Then, of course, he betrays the Dark Lord, leading to a fate worse than death for the miserable Wizard. As for the details around the other three? Let's dig into the breadcrumbs and see what else Tolkien left us to identify what exactly they're up to when the War of the Ring takes place.

Tracing Radagast the Brown during "The Lord of the Rings" is both simple and frustrating. The Brown Wizard doesn't show up at all in Peter Jackson's iconic trilogy, but in the books we get a little cameo. He's the one Saruman sends to hunt down Gandalf and tell him to come to Isengard (right before he captures the Grey Wizard).

That doesn't mean Radagast is evil, though. Gandalf says in the book that he doesn't suspect Radagast of foul play. Instead, he thinks the simple and trusting Wizard was duped by Saruman. Okay, so far so good. But if Radagast is good, doesn't he keep helping Gandalf, then? Not exactly.

Before the members of the Fellowship of the Ring set out from Rivendell on their quest, Elrond sends scouts ahead of them. Part of their report is that some of them "at length had reached the old home of Radagast at Rhosgobel. Radagast was not there." Again, this doesn't tell us much, other than that Radagast isn't in the spotlight during the War of the Ring. So where is he then?

In the book "Unfinished Tales," Tolkien makes the uncomfortable statement, "Indeed, of all the Istari, one [Gandalf] only remained faithful ... for Radagast, the fourth, became enamoured of the many beasts and birds that dwelt in Middle-earth, and forsook Elves and Men, and spent his days among the wild creatures." "The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion" summarizes the implied failure here with two words: Radagast appears to have been "neglectful and easygoing." Most likely, he's protecting the birds and beasts he loves, but this puts him, at best, in the shadow of Gandalf's bigger feats. At worst, it makes him as delinquent in his duty as a blatant traitor, like Saruman. In either case, he's off doing heaven knows what when he's needed most.

As for the other two Wizards, these are Tolkien's famously enigmatic "Blue Wizards." These guys head into the East of Middle-earth thousands of years before "The Lord of the Rings," and that remains their base of operations during the War of the Ring. Like Radagast, the "where" here isn't too hard. But the question of what they're doing in the East is much more complicated.

Early in his writing, Tolkien envisioned these two Wizards as Saruman-like traitors. He says in "Unfinished Tales" that they never return from the East and may have even become servants of Sauron. In a letter in 1958, he summarized these early thoughts by saying, "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." (This is a thread "The Rings of Power's" Dark Wizard in the East seems to be following.)

However, later in life, Tolkien rehabilitated his Blue Wizards. In the book "The Peoples of Middle-earth," the author explains in a late-life switcheroo that the Blues were actually critical in stopping Sauron in the East of Middle-earth and "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." The two takes are contradictory, and in either case, we don't get any details about the specifics the Blues were put to. But if you've got to take a side, we're going to go with that later version and assume that the Blue Wizards were busy in the East doing badass stuff to resist Sauron while the main War of the Ring played out in the West.