Blue 🧙Wizard theories

Ah, but speculate on how much worse it would have been, if not for the Blue Wizards! Those guys showing up was due in part to wishing to get out of their sphere of influence and making them lose more men. They were filled with fear at the thought of heading west, since that's where capitalized Wizards come from, but they still bravely attempted it. *sniff* They had a good run, but oh well. Their righteous cause remains unfulfilled.

Maybe they merged together and acted as one, but with two guises; one as a man, the other as a bear . Hey, Beorn was friends with both Radagast and Gandalf. Shape-shifting is certainly odd behavior for one of the Second Born; no?

I think that could be a real possibility. After all, Beorn was one of the most mysterious figures, second only to Bombadil and his wife. I was wondering if we could use these Wizards to explain away Bombadil, but unfortunately we know that the Ring didn't affect him at all (and from Saruman and Gandalf we know that the Istari were not immune to the power of the Ring).

Burzum said:

Any speculations on how they might have played a "pivotal role" in defeating Sauron? Maybe they just weakened the forces of the Easterlings. But well... the wainriders, who appeared far after the Blue Wizards have arrived, hardly seem weakened at all.

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That's a point that raises another: the Wikipedia article (as it reads now) might inadvertently paint the picture that the text in which the Blue Wizards have success was Tolkien's latest word on the matter, but we don't really know that for sure. In another version, one that appears to be dated around the same time, JRRT refers generally to the Istari and writes: 'Now these Maiar were sent by the Valar at a crucial moment in the history of Middle-earth to enhance the resistance of the Elves of the West, waning in power, and of the uncorrupted Men of the West, greatly outnumbered by those of the East and South.'


Here the West is greatly outnumbered (though the South is included in any event) and the implication appears to be that the Istari came at generally the same time.

Tolkien had already published that the Istari appeared in Middle-earth in the Third Age. Granted, that doesn't mean they necessarily all came together on the same boat, but this idea that the Blue Wizards came earlier (and had success) has them arriving much earlier -- up to 1841 years before the end of the Second Age even -- and adding another (around) one thousand (for the Third Age) leaves roughly 2,841 years between the coming of the Blue Wizards and the 'appearance' of the Istari in Middle-earth. Hmmm.