The Five Guardians - Gandalf's First Age Adventure 

It's a small miracle Christopher Tolkien ever published the 1977 Silmarillion.

"the restaurant five guys is a reference to the 5 guardians" Now I want to go there and order a "Saruman Special", I just hope the bag doesn't crumble as badly as Isengard's walls did when the ents get really angry..

This channel is criminally underrated.

Might have been cool to have the Maiar Arien & Tirion among the guardians, giving them a history of watching over Middle-earth before they took on the Sun and Moon

0:35 Always good to get reacquainted with the alternate names for the Blue Wizards: Alatar and Pallando; then 0:53 Morinetta and Ramestamo 1:01 to 1:06 cc 1:07 to 1:23 Saruman selected by Aule; Gandalf chosen by Manwe and Varda; and Radagast tapped by Yavanna; and 'in this original version, the Blue Wizards were selected by Orome. 3:37 to 4:23 Tolkien devised three new timelines, which he never actually used... Tolkien's 1959 revision introduced the five wizards as 'The Five Guardians', plus one more: Melian the Maia, making six. 5:40 to 5:59 Melian leads the Five Guardians, who now have different identities: Tarindor (Saruman); Olorin (Gandalf); Ravendil (Radagast); and Pallisando and Hymenar. 7:16 Wonderful photograph of Tolkien As for the Five Guys franchise? I KNEW IT!!

Have you ever looked into how the War for the Sake of the Elves took around 100 years, the War of Wrath took around 42 years, the War of the Last Alliance took around 12 years (seven for the siege), and the War of the Ring only took around a year? Is this part of Tolkien's concept of the slow fading of a more grand past?

Wouldn't surprise me if Olorin, Gandalf's real name, participated in the War of Wrath.

Two suggestions for a future video: 1. Who the “Great cavalry of horsemen” riding out from Minas Morgul with the Witch-King in the book? 2. What were the “Great Beasts” that hauled the battering ram, Grond during the Siege of Gondor?

The Nature of Middle Earth has so much that helps to truly understand the world.

Tolkien in 1959: Now everyone knows that the Istari first came to Middle Earth thousands of years after the fall of Morgoth. But, what this note presupposes is: maybe they didn't?

Could you do a video on when the lore was more connected to British mythology? Like with Tol Erressea and Ireland and all of that Thank you for being one of the few critical Tolkien fans I've seen!

Yet another great video

Thank you for explaining/clearing up so many points!

Awesome uploads thanks for your hard work!

One cool detail about this timeline(s) is that Gandalf would meet Cirdan in the First Age and then in the Third Age it would be much more natural for Cirdan to give him his Ring given that he already him and what he was capable of

Great video. How I'd articulate the weakness (IMO) of this alternate scheme is it takes something away from the Valar's innovative approach to confronting evil and rewarding good in the Third Age. Instead of intervening directly, and causing massive destruction sooner or later, they send relatively limited agents whose primary mission is to help the Free Peoples help themselves. If they'd already done this once before and just made a redux of it in the Third Age, it feels less like an evolution and more like, _"Oh, shoot, I don't know, maybe we could try the Istari thing again..."_

The timeline did probably need to be adjusted because the original timeline doesn’t seem to make sense. In it, the Valar invite the elves to come to Valinor _after_ Melkor has already been defeated and captured! They say they want to keep the elves safe but there’s nothing to keep them safe from anymore lol! Changing it so that the invitation and the great journey happen _before_ the Valar fight and capture Melkor makes a lot more sense.

Love these vids

Fascinating bit of lore, thanks!

More vids about wizards always nice, thank you!

I also heard that there were other battles between Morgoth and the Ainur. Including one where Morgoth sent hordes of shadows to attack the moon itself and he wanted to go personally, but he found he could not assume a massive form that could "swat the Maiar aside" prior. Something cool to think about.

This is an interesting concept in that it removes a certain hubris from the Valar calling the elves to Valinor by making the threat to them imminent and real. As it stands the Valar calling the elves to them after Melkor was chained means that their greatest achievements would always be in the shadow of the Valar's mightier works. And not only are they being protected from a threat that has passed but would eventually position right where Melkor could poison their hearts and set up the 500 years of failure that was Beleriand.

Hi Darth! Some of the Blue Wizard names include Alatar and Pallando, Morinehtar and Romestamo, and Palacendo and Haimenar. But do we have a sense of which name goes to which person? Is Alatar also Morinehtar and Palacendo, or are some of those pairs mixed up?

Melian as Chief of the Istari in the First Age is the best gem found in Nature of Middle earth. I don’t think it takes from what the wizards did in the second and third age because, like you said, this was not Gandalf, this was Olorin in a much more powerful and direct form and would have been awesome to see these 6 working together in full might desperately attempting to find the elves before Morgoth and cleansing the land of evil in the process. Q Curumo, S Curunír,later C Saruman wasn’t always bad and would have love to see his originally good side.

I have a copy of the Nature of Middle Earth, can anyone point out to me which chapter this info is in? :D I have seen soooo many illustrations by Ted Nasmith over the years and I had never seen the one starting at 5:59 and it blew me away I love it! Thanks for the video, love this channel!

I liked this story when I read it in NOME. It gives more heft to this period in the 1st Age. P.S. Maybe the Five Guys are actually the latest guardians sent to protect the world!

You would think Orome, Manwe or Tulkas maiar would be sent to guard the elves real warrior types

Lovely video and all, but I have a quibble about saying the Istari protected the elves in the first age. Sorry if this comes across as pedantic. Is the War for the Sake of the Elves really a part of the First Age? To my mind, the first age begins with the exile of the Noldor. Before that it sort of before history, a historical void. Things do happen in Middle Earth, but nobody is there to record it like the Noldor later do. Both the Sindar and the dwarves likely recorded history about this time. The tragedy of the petty dwarves happen at this time we do know the dwarves built Doriath for King Thingol and his queen, Melian the Maia. But there is no war against Morgroth, Sauron appears to keep a very low profile. There is no sun to regulate time. Some of the light of the trees presumably reach Middle Earth as there is no curvature of the earth to block the light, but it is so very different from what comes later.

Why did the Valar decide to bring the Elves to Valinor after Morgoth had been defeated? Why would the Valar think the Elves still needed protection?

In 1959, Christopher Tolkien should have unplugged his father, turned him off, and let him sit for 5 minutes. This procedure should have been followed every time he started a recon.

Hello

I'm glad they never published this version. It cheapens what the wizards were about, and downplays the danger of Morgoth and Sauron

When I first read this in Nature, it did annoy me a bit.. as I felt it diminished the importance of the 3rd age mission

24 seconds ago and no views? Bro fell off

So basically the Rings of Power bullshit is bullshit