The Deeds of Radagast the Brown

Joe Pugh

The purpose of this essay is to propose a logical account of the likely doings of Radagast the Brown during the War of the Ring. This will be done based on the text of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Simarillion, and the essay on the Istari found in Unfinished Tales, all written by Professor Tolkien. To begin with, Radagast was one of the five Chiefs of the Istari who were sent from the West to Middle Earth in the Third Age when Sauron began to take shape again. He was a lover of beasts and birds and dwelt, at least in the last centuries of the Third Age, in Rhosgobel near the Southwestern borders of Mirkwood. Whether Rhosgobel was a town of Men or simply the name of a region is unclear, but Robert Fosters A Guide to Middle Earth indicates that the name is of Sindarin origin. Furthermore, Radagast is said in The Silmarillion to have Forsook Elves and Men, and dwelt with the wild creatures. Therefore it may be concluded as likely that Rhosgobel was a fairly uninhabited region. It would not be correct, however, to label Radagast as a complete hermit, for in The Hobbit, Beorn the Skin-Changer, is quoted as saying that he used to see him now and again, and that he considered him to be not a bad fellow. Considering the animals that Beorn himself cared for, and the love he bore his horses, it would seem likely that he had a genuine friendship with Radagast. We may also be tempted to speculate further indeed. Beorn had the ability to transform himself into a great bear, even though there is no reference in the Lord of the Rings nor The Silmarillion about men being naturally gifted with such an ability. Might it not be that Radagast, who, according to Gandalf, was a master of shapes, had gifted his friend with this ability? Also it seems likely that he was known by others of the Woodmen who

themselves dwelt on the borders of Mirkwood. Surely they would have obtained his aid when their own animals were ill or injured. Some critics have taken the statement that, when his conversation with Gandalf was completed in The Fellowship of the Ring that he rode off as if the Nine were after him, taken together with his complete absence from the text afterward, as evidence of faint heartedness on his part. This view would seem to suggest that he simply went into hiding until the fall of the Barad Dur. I believe that to be nave, and in contradiction with the broader evidence. Leaving his home in Valinor to contest the will of Sauron was not a task for cowards, yet he appears to have gone willingly enough. But a far stronger proof of his courage lies incontestably in his choice of dwelling, which was clearly near the south-western borders of Mirkwood. This region was dauntingly close to Dol Guldur. If Radagast had shunned danger, would not Eregion or Lindon have provided a safer dwelling? Little is said of Mirkwood Forest, except in The Hobbit, but in The Silmarillion it is said that the name of that forest of old was Greenwood the Great, and it was the habitation of many beasts and birds of bright song. It seems likely that Radagast, whose Quenya name was Aiwendil (lover of birds), being aggrieved by the damage caused by Dol Guldur to the Forest, dwelled nearby to aid the birds and beasts who suffered from the evil there. Furthermore, we cannot conclude it possible that, after his conversation with Gandalf, Radagast encountered the Nazgul and was slain by them. If he had been then he (presumably) could not have sent Gwaihir the Windlord to Orthanc as requested by Gandalf. At that time, at least, he seems to have been near his home since the eagles nested on the Eastern borders of the Misty Mountains. And yet when the messengers from Elrond in November of that year visited his dwelling in Rhosgobel, he was not at home. It seems most probable, therefore, that Radagast stayed with the Beornings or the Woodmen that Winter, both for his own protection and their assistance. The only thing known about that region during that time is that on February 26, when Frodo sat at the top of Amon Hen and looked in that direction, the land of the Beornings was aflame, and that Under the boughs of Mirkwood there was deadly strife of Elves and Men and fell beasts. After the War of the Ring, we are again left to speculate. I think it likely though, that when a force of elves led by Celeborn stormed Dol Guldur and he chose to dwell in the newly renamed East Lorien, that Radagast, if he was not in the battle itself, also chose to dwell there to restore the Forest to its original beauty. His help surely would have been welcomed by the elves, for although the Ring of Adamant would no longer have had the power to cleanse the Forest, there is no indication that Radagasts own powers had diminished, not being themselves bound to the Ring. There is a hint, in Unfinished Tales, of Radagasts fate into the Fourth Age. In the essay on the Istari, Tolkien is quoted as saying in a poem, Of the Five that came from a far countryOnly one returned. This one seems to be Gandalf, who was as far as we know the only one to return into the West. From this it would seem that Radagast, who forsook Elves and Men to dwell with the birds and beasts, remained with them. Perhaps he even became one of them finally, in much the same way as Treebeard said of certain Ents, that they became tree-ish and lost their mobility. Here we catch a glimpse of the fate Galadriel foretold for those elves who would choose never to return into the West. As she told

Frodo, they would dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and be forgotten. Such it appears was the fate Tolkien assigned to Radagast the Brown.