Middle-earth Mysteries - The Blue Wizards 

The blue wizards and the Eastern parts of ME are some of the most interesting parts of Tolkein's work IMO. I've kind of become obsessed with Middle Eastern/ Asian wizards venturing into unexplored deserts and jungles with mysterious people. Add in some speculation like the existence of one of the escaped balrogs, the other dwarven clans or dark elves in those areas and you've got an awesome fanfiction that conceptually beats Rings of Power in almost every aspect.

8:26 is one of my favorite pictures of the blue wizards. It would make sense though. 1. At the war of the last alliance there could have been more people to fight with Sauron but was hindered because the blue wizards. 2. Alatar and Pallando could be their Maiar names and Morinehtar and Romestamo was their given names (like Olorin as Gandalf, mithrandir, etc.)

If a series about the Eastern lands is ever made, the travels and long successes of the Blue Wizards is such a wonderfully rich tale that can be told.

I’ve always been captivated by the Blue Wizards and the East in general. In my personal head canon I chose to merge the different versions of the Blue Wizards. I chose to believe that they ventured into the East and South eventually forming armies and kingdoms to fight Sauron, however they grew too prideful to simply let that power go. It’s possible they fought till the end of the Third Age against Sauron, but perhaps not entirely for the good of the world. This way the lines of their failure match with those of their success.

*Imagine Tolkien living twice as long and being able to flesh out Rhûn and Harad and further Southeast...*

Tolkien Untangled brought up the possibility with Radagast that perhaps he was not refused the chance to go back to Valinor, but that as he was sent by Yavana and had a natural proclivity toward flora and fauna, perhaps his duty was to look after the natural parts of middle earth, and that his duty did not end with Sauron's fall. It may be similar to the Blue Wizards. If it is as Tolkien said initially, that they served a missionary purpose, then that likely entailed turning men away from Melkor worship as propagated by Sauron. I imagine that task would likely have taken many years after the dark lord himself had fallen, as those who'd profited on the religion and societies Sauron nurtured would likely not have been apt to change just because the he wasn't the god he claimed to be, and many would have heartily clung to it and continued the types of traditions taken up during the dark era for centuries, if not millennia after. The blue wizards may have had a role in the east long after the "official" record ends, possibly into the era where myth would have blended into history, or simply departed for the west in their own way long after the Noldor where there to write of it.

I think if Sauron had killed the Blue Wizards, he would have either rubbed it in the nose of Saruman through the Palantir or the Mouth of Sauron would have mocked the company at the Gate with the information. Similarly, Saruman's speech to Gandalf and company at Orthanc would have mentioned it if Saruman had betrayed the Blue Wizards while he was in the East. All in-universe of course, since Professor Tolkein didn't seem to worry much about the Blue Wizards when working on the LOTR.

Great video about one of my favorite Middle-earth mysteries. In my headcanon, both of Tolkien's ideas were correct - one of the Blue Wizards remained true to his mission and stirred up resistance in the east, while the other one fell and became the founder of a secretive cult that lasted well into the Fourth Age. (Also, poor Radagast - Tolkien seems to have turned against the Brown Wizard; he doesn't even get a seat on the boats back to Valinor!)

I really wish that Tolkien could have lived longer, or someone of his writing caliber and who is intimately familiar with his lore could set a story in the east or south of Middle Earth during the second or third age. If I was in charge of the Tolkien estate, I would hire someone to write that. There's great characters and stories out there, I'm sure of it.

Damn was just thinking it's precisely the right time for a Darth Gandalf video to arrive, neither early nor late.

The Blue Wizards of Middle Earth: Basically an afterthought. Even by Tolkien.

Another great video, thanks. I always wondered whether return to the West was an option available to the other Istari, should they have sought it. I guess that Radagast had gone so completely native that he would never have left ME although I like to imagine Gandalf about to board the White Ship saying to Cirdan “5 more minutes, just give him 5 more minutes”.

I want to believe they each started a family just like Tom Bombadil and took up the names of ordinary Men.

Heres a thought maybe part of their mission was to find Utumno and after the Third age they stayed trying to find the place but never did.

love the content dude.

No, no, no you're all getting it wrong: clearly one of them arrived in Middle-Earth with a meteor at the begginning of the Second Age (source: Amazon said so)

Another great and informative video on one of the most mysterious and compelling mysteries of middle earth; whom were the blue wizards and role in the events of the f the third age.

Maybe the reason there was diversion between tribes of Easterlings and Haradrim was because some worshipped Sauron and some worshipped the Blue Wizards. Maybe the reason the reason they managed to survive was the Blue Wizards enchanted their weapons to be greater than weapons of who served Sauron on condition they never attack the Western lands. Whilst this might sound silly remember the Barrow daggers that were made with magic spells that allowed them to hurt wraiths. Maybe there were some who worshipped Sauron and some worshipped a Blue Wizard in Rhun and some who worshipped Sauron in the South and some who worshipped a Blue Wizard in Harad. This would make sense as Sauron's slaves were brought from tribute lands and not all of these could have come from Gondor and Dale. Some must have been people who opposed Sauron in the East and South. Maybe the reason they did not return to Valinor was like Radagast they came to love Middle-Earth more and following the fall of Sauron they helped bring peace to Rhun and Harad, as Elessar and Eomer can't have managed to bring peace to all the Easterlings and Haradrim with so few solders. Maybe they united their followers and with aid from Gondor, Rohan and Dale they were able to unite the people of Rhun and Harad and bring peace to Middle-Earth and then enjoy the peace they had worked so hard for for 4500 years!

Would still like to see you cover the Druedain. The only person I know who has a cooler name than Darkness Slayer is Dr. Loki Skylizard. Yes, that is his real name. Look him up.

Fantastic video and informative, even after watching what seems like a million other takes from a million other Tolkien youtubers. That Nature of Middle-Earth bit was particularly interesting. In my head cannon I think both Blue Wizards were able to cause Sauron lots of trouble by coordinating a bunch of little rebellions of native men, some remnants of faithful Numenoreans, a chunk of the Dwarves and a few dwindling but old and powerful Avari. Still, as Nietzsche made cliche when you gaze too long into the abyss it also gazes into you and the Blue Wizards didn’t have quite the luxury of being able to hold firm to their morals like Gandalf did. Perhaps they had to tacitly encourage or at least overlook worship of false gods, at bare minimum they would not have been able to rely on memory of the Valar as Gandalf could in more enlightened lands. So in the end they do indeed cause Sauron great trouble but lose track of their reasons for resisting in the first place and perhaps, with time, even forget their original callings altogether.

Damn I missed the video on the day it came out , better late than never. Thanks for the video on these two

Yesss finally blue wizards video thanks for the content 🙃

East is probably the most interesting part of the legendarium. Blue wizards, Avari, 4 Clans of the dwarves, Easterlings, Khand, Rhun, Saurons forces, possibly dragons and many other unmentioned wonders but sadly East is also the part of the legendarium we got least amount of information about…

Well, that's all of the Middle Earth Mysteries watched. I'm hoping that you can dig up some more tantalising tales in future. ❤😊❤

I personally favor the idea that the Blue Wizards did arrive in the 2nd Age and did have a fair amount of success in opposing Sauron's plans in the East and the South but eventually fell to him sometime in the latter part of the 3rd Age. This freed up Sauron to focus entirely on NW Middle-Earth but greatly reduced the forces he could bring to bear by the time of the War of the Ring.

What if Saruman revealed the blue wizards to Sauron, being the reason they failed?

To me it's interesting how the blue wizards. Outlasted both Morgoth and Sauron. In magical cults or cults even tho the dark lords had way more influence over those people. Guess a contradictory quote or he changed his mind.

wellwellwellllll, it's time for another one to immerse myself again into the middle earth mysteries.... bkeep going Darth broo, btw first ;)

Oh dear! Darkness has been slain and it will be a lot more difficult to get a good night's sleep.

They were undercover agitators, white-anting Sauron. :-)

Another great video! I have another unrelated question that for me remains a mystery. Here it is: the Dunedains are supposed to be watching over the Shire, but where were they during the events leading up to the scouring of the shire? They seemed to have abandoned it completely, in a very short period of time.

One thing I don't understand is why were they both blue. The other three wizards were color coded and also referred to by their colors. So what's the point of having two blue wizards, especially when you send them both to the East and South instead of having like one blue wizard in the West and one on the other side of Mordor. Were they perhaps different shades of blue? Were they even both blue? What if one was more like greenish blue and was supposed to be a Green Wizard, but there was some kind of a mix-up at some point?

6:40 that passage makes the most sense for the RoP having the istari in it i just really hope its one of the blue wizards and not Gandalf lol

I think the revisions to the Blue Wizards as originally conceived in 1954 reflect Tolkien's evolving concept of race. He was probably uncomfortable with his earlier depiction of the East and South as monolithic evil peoples, which reflected his Edwardian upringing, where the enemies of Christian Europe had been for centuries the Ottoman Empire and the Moroccan sultanates and Barbary pirates. But in the late 1960s, as his own racial views had changed along with those of many people of his generation, Tolkien may have decided that was too simplistic and altered the story of the Blue Wizards to have them succeed in their missions, showing diversity and an ability to change among the peoples who had been long under the Shadow.

It always seemed to me that these two backstories for the Blue Wizards were not necessarily all that contradictory, other than in dates and names. Taking the later version, we are told that the Blue Wizards arriving in the Second Age, helping many peoples in the South and East to rise up against Sauron, greatly reducing the forces available to him in both the Second and Third Ages. They later hunt Sauron after his downfall sometime into the Third Age, a task at which they eventually fail. Taking the earlier version of events, suppose that in the Third Age, they began to stray from their appointed task, eventually forming their own magical cults and traditions. Does this conflict with the former? Not really. In fact, it helps explain why the Blue Wizards did not find Sauron despite an impressive head start on the other Istari. Even if they started to set themselves up as wizard-kings rather than merely helpers, they could still have acted as significant obstacles for Sauron. Rather than falling completely into evil as Saruman did, the Blue Wizards might have ended up falling somewhere in between him and Radagast. If one looked at figures like for example the Three Sages and Five Emperors from the mythical period of Chinese prehistory, credited with inventing things like silk, writing, and traditional medicine, and passing them on to later generations, that might be the sort of figures that the Blue Wizards became in memory. Half-mythical progenitors of occult traditions and civilisations, credited with great magical secrets and learning which they passed on. This would fit with the idea both of creating power blocs in opposition to Sauron, and also mystical traditions. One reason I find the ideal of an eventual fall plausible is because Tolkien repeatedly emphasised the challenges the Istari faced in staying true to their mission. They were only able to retain a few faint memories of Valinor so long as they remained true, and their long wanderings were exhausting to both their bodies and souls. (And though immortal, their bodies did age, just very slowly.) If this was so challenging that out of Gandalf, Saruman and Radagast, only Gandalf managed to stay true to the path after two thousand years. So how much more challenging must it have been for the Blue Wizards, who would have had to endure nearly five thousand years in the bodies of men, constantly wandering? It's also just neat to imagine these magical traditions and cults persisting into the Fourth Age as Tolkien suggests in his letter. Perhaps even the Blue Wizards themselves, now impossibly wizened sorcerer-kings, who would eventually be slain by misfortune or some wandering hero; one of the last frayed links to a vanished world.

First 😤, love your channel keep up the awesome work!!!

This is what the Amazon tv series should have been about the blue wizards raising a resistance in the east and gathering news of Sauron

i love the blue wizards and the land if the east because i can make my own legendarium😊

“Return to valinor”….does that mean literally, as Gandalf does, or does that include dying? Cause it sounds like the fate of the other 4(besides Gandalf)r sort of grouped together, but that can mean a LOT, since saurumons fate of being DENIED return to the west is pretty severe, and I would truly hope just trying and helping, but just not being completely successful in their task, wouldn’t result in them being punished horrifically as saurumon was!!!!

I'd like to think one of them was lost in time and became Merlin

Did the inland sea of helcar become the land of Mordor?

On and on about the Blue Wizards. Tolkien wrote next to nothing about them - yet people keep talking about them ad nauseum. 🙄

One of the five Blue Wizards' story is found in the Chinese Creation Epic "The Legend of Zu Mountain" - Fairies and Maias included there. The movie version is fairly historically accurate.

I have a major complaint about your videos that I can't seem to ignore. And I hope you don't think I'm rude when voicing this criticism, but it must be said, and that is your videos are, in fact, too short. I want more content. I am simply not satisfied with a mere 7/8 min. MORE.

I always like to think they eventually failed and were meant to be the villains of the abandoned sequel