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What Do We Know about 🧙Wizard's Staffs? How Do They Channel Power?

Ent

Pondering Ponderings Ponderings
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Previously we discussed the Rings, specifically the One Ring, and what hand they may have been worn on.
Let's discuss Staffs. What do we know about them? How exactly do they channel power? What is that power's source?
From what I can find:

Of Gandalf's Staff:
1. We only know it is called a 'thorny staff' in Sam's poem.
2. It is just called a 'rugged staff' when he returns as the White.
3. It seems apparently very little different than the staff he had as 'the Grey', as no one ever remarks "what a marvelous staff you have there, Gandalf.' (In fact, Gandalf himself looked so much the same few recognized any difference. Even Saruman did not, until Gandalf advised him of it just before he broke Saruman's staff.)
4. Light came 'from its tip'.

Of Saruman's Staff:
1. We know it was "a thick black staff" when Gandalf broke it at Orthanc.
2. We know the 'head of it fell at Gandalf's feet' implying something about the head of staffs perhaps, but nothing concrete.
3. There is no reference to any other color of Saruman's staff before he fashioned himself 'Saruman of many colours'... only his robe is mentioned.

Of the other Wizards:
1. I find no direct reference to Radagast having a staff with him at any point.
2. However, Saruman mentions "the staffs of all 5 wizards" when he's about to be beaten up by Gandalf... so we know they all had them.

PJ, lacking a certain integrity to text and creativity in movie, gave Saruman a white staff (oops..!), and both Gandalf and Saruman a Gem, Gandalf stuffing his in the top when needed, Saruman's an integral part of the staff's structure. But this is all unfounded.

SO... what else do we know about staffs I'm missing, and how/why do we think they were such remarkable things in the hands of Wizards?
(At one point we see a reference to 'the staff Gandalf wielded' so clearly in more places than one we do see it as their focal 'weapon'. How and why?)

If there's nothing I'm missing then there we have it... it's part of the Great Halls of Speculation.

Thank you.
 
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There is probably some historical or mythological significance to the wizards using 'staffs'. Maybe as a symbol of authority, like a sceptre. A smaller 'magic wand' would not have the same effect.

But what first came to mind for me was something a bit funny. A staff or stave is also the word for the lines on which musical notes are written.

And the power of the Ainur is expressed in song (the Music of the Ainur, Sauron's battle with Finrod, the power of the half-Maia Lúthien's singing voice...).
So do the wizards use their staffs to 'write down and order the notes of their song'? They cannot use the full range of their power in Middle-earth, after all. Perhaps it's limited by their staff. And with the staff broken, they become unable to channel their power at all.
 
Interesting.
I’m going to research all other books for any mention of staffs as well… see what i can unearth.
 
Oh yes, it was most definitely a weapon. Also THE symbol of the wizards' power, else the breaking of Saruman's staff, and its head 'landing at Gandalf's feet,' would have been meaningless events.

But... how do they channel power. They seem to be just big sticks.

One addition... we also know Gandalf's 2nd staff was an ash-staff.
 
One addition... we also know Gandalf's 2nd staff was an ash-staff.
Physically, at least, ash wood is lightweight and shock-resistant.

The etymology of the word 'ash', according to Wikipedia:
The tree's common English name, "ash", traces back to the Old English æsc, which relates to the Proto-Indo-European for the tree, while the generic name originated in Latin from a Proto-Indo-European word for birch. Both words are also used to mean "spear" in their respective languages, as the wood is good for shafts.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraxinus

So I suppose Gandalf's ash-staff could be called a 'spear-staff', which is even more weapon-like.

But... how do they channel power. They seem to be just big sticks.
And Palantíri were just big glass balls, how could they let people see so far? ;)
 
Interesting about Ash -
"Ash wood (fraxinus) is strong, dense, lighter in colour than oak and smooth to the touch. It takes gluing, stains and polishes well, making it popular for woodworking projects. Less prized than oak and more physically appealing than beechwood, Ash is a great middle-ground for many tasks."

And so was Gandalf.

I'm also probing the events on Celebdil, where Gandalf battled with the Balrog. "Thunder they heard, and lightning, they said, smote upon Celebdil, and leapt back broken into tongues of fire." I am assuming the 'lightning,' white as it would have been, to be Gandalf in action, while the 'leaping back broken into tongues of fire' may be the Balrog... many assumptions reign in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien...

So I think clearly Gandalf "needs" no staff to employ his power. Else he would have faced the Balrog with but a sword.

There is also Frodo seeing the figure in Galadriel's mirror... cloathed in white and with a white staff (ash is very light), reminding Frodo of Gandalf but perhaps could be Sauron. So who was he seeing? Gandalf the White yet to come? Or Saruman, with a white staff later turned black? Speculation. (But I have an opinion on the matter.)

More books will I research later.
 
One addition... we also know Gandalf's 2nd staff was an ash-staff.
Just yesterday, I researched Sam's colorful phrase at Parth Galen, "plain as a pikestaff", and found this interesting historical tidbit:

When the troops of opposing armies both carried the pike, it often grew in a sort of arms race, getting longer in both shaft and head length to give one side's pikemen an edge in combat. The extreme length of such weapons required a strong wood such as well-seasoned ash for the pole.
 
There have been several discussions here on the wizard staffs, which might be worth searching out.

Looking at the subject from "outside" -- in the course of literary history, that is -- the wizard's staff is the romance version of what, on the mythical plane, is the wonderful Tree of Life. The transformation continues into the High Mimetic mode, where stories are centered on kingship, and the wizard's staff is replaced by the royal banner. We see this happening in the shift to Aragorn's quest, which begins, significantly, after the breaking of the staff of Saruman.

No matter what form it takes, tree, staff, or banner, it's always a life-giving symbol of affirmation or renewal.
 
Interesting about Ash -
"Ash wood (fraxinus) is strong, dense, lighter in colour than oak and smooth to the touch. It takes gluing, stains and polishes well, making it popular for woodworking projects. Less prized than oak and more physically appealing than beechwood, Ash is a great middle-ground for many tasks."
Ash is the wood of choice for making baseball bats in the U.S. It's quite sturdy and doesn't break easily... although baseball bats do break on occasion.
If you can look up the video of Bo Jackson breaking a bat over his knee after striking out, it's impressive. Broke a bat. Over his knee. But Bo Jackson was an impressive athlete.
 
PJ, lacking a certain integrity to text and creativity in movie, gave Saruman a white staff (oops..!), and both Gandalf and Saruman a Gem, Gandalf stuffing his in the top when needed, Saruman's an integral part of the staff's structure. But this is all unfounded.
Saruman's staff is black in the films:
1700618385062.jpeg
 
Interesting discussion.

In another form of fictional fantasy, The Elder Scrolls, staffs and or staves did have potent magic capabilities but you had to have been touched by magic yourself to wield one. No slack jawed yokel could just pick one up and start slinging fireballs. So maybe staffs in Middle-earth were conduits to focus one's "magic" in a more careful, condensed form, though I am sure Gandalf and Saruman and the like really had no need for one, but hey, it's only a good thing *to* have one.

CL
 
Saruman's staff is black in the films:
View attachment 27329
Definitely fits in very well with the Orthanc design.
Saruman was very fashionable. Which also suits his ego. Well, that's especially true for the movie, of course, but I think this was done quite well.
The breaking of Saruman's staff was probably largely a symbolic measure in the movie. Or was it more than that?

The traditional belief that a real wizard must also have a magic wand seems to apply to Tolkien in general.
The only question is, what added value does such a wand offer? How is it created or magically enhanced?
In the worst case: is it just a walking aid for old men? Or, at best, is it like a weaker kind of the One Ring - just for wizards - that somehow channels and amplifies their power? If so, to what extent?
Did they bring them from Aman? Or can they also be carved in Middle-earth?
 
Continuing the long pondering on staffs, textually, we have no idea where ANY of the original staffs come from, or how they were/are made.
The wizards simply always have them.
The most supportable conclusion textually for Gandalf's 2nd staff is when he was 'returned as the White,' he was returned with his corresponding staff of authority. And most likely, his arraignment as well.

Ent notes someone on Reddit proclaiming Radaghast gave him his first staff... LOL. Nowhere is this textually noted.

Noteworthy, too, is the "head" of Saruman's staff - the Head of the Wizards and 'white council' - falls "at Gandalf's feet" when Gandalf, granted power and authority to do so, breaks it - the clear and final declaration Saruman's position has been taken from him - the authority Gandalf was invested with as part of his return.

No, no - Gandalf was not 'attired' and 'staffed up' in Lorien as many think and say. (We must be careful with the phrase he was returned 'naked' - it does not mean what we think it does.) Tolkien's meanings here are much, much deeper.

This may be lending itself to a bit of an essay here soon... it's only taken Ent 2 1/2 years to start coalescing it more fully.

Added note:
Actually, Tolkien deals with this whole sequence of extended events in a way he also demonstrates as a pattern across characters, in many different circumstances, with many different outcomes, but through a sequence of revelation demonstrating yet more of his exceptional - even uncanny - writing skillset.
Hum. Another essay to add to the list.

More pondering needed first, but this is remarkable.
 
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