[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

I seem to remember another recent thread that touched on this, but a quick search yielded negative results.

I suppose you mean this one.

Originally Posted by Inziladun

Gandalf says repeatedly that the Third Age was "his" age, and that he was the "enemy of Sauron". Since the Istari were all in the same boat, so to speak, as far as their ultimate purpose for being in Middle-earth, I would think that none of them had any business remaining behind after Sauron's fall. Staying in in the mortal lands was dangerous, for themselves and ME's less powerful denizens. There would, I think, be too much of a tendency to abuse their powers, especially after Gandalf's leaving.
I rather think Radagast, and the Blues Brothers as well were ultimately "depowered" and their bodies (which were mortal) taken away from them by their superiors. The alternative, leaving such uniquely powerful beings to their own devices after their "official" assignment was over, would seem to be a needless risk.

Hm, I don't know, that seems a somewhat drastic measure to me. Maybe for Jake and Elwood, in the version of their story where they became corrupted and started secret magic cults rather than working against Sauron from within his territory in the South and East - but even then, I guess the Valar could have left it to Men to deal with them somehow; after all Sauron himself had been overcome mainly by mortals (with a little help from Gandalf and the Elves, and maybe one or two nudges of divine providence), and I don't think either of them were in Sauron's class.

As for Radagast, I could imagine that since he had forgotten about his original mission, as you say, the Valar decided to forget about him in turn and leave him where he was, if he was content to remain there. I don't see him becoming much of a danger to anybody - I mean, he hadn't been taking enough interest in the affairs of Men to interfere with them for a long time, and that wasn't likely to change significantly in the foreseeable future, rather the contrary (except maybe if they threatened his beloved animals). morm expressed it very well in that other thread I linked to:

Originally Posted by mormegil

Radagast, in my opinion, would become more mortal like in his apathy, he wouldn't cross the ocean to Valinor as he is dwindling and dimishing in his knowledge and prior greatness. I think he would remain in Middle-earth a mere shadow of what he became continually tending to his micro-environment without concerning himself with the goings on of the world around him. He wouldn't die but wouldn't grow.

Who knows, maybe he ended up as the archetype of all the spirits of the wood that haunt European folk mythology, something remotely like our German Rübezahl or I don't know what would be the English equivalent - a guardian of nature, generally benign but with a bit of a trickster personality and a nasty temper if you cut down trees or shoot deer too deep in the forest.


EDIT: x-ed with Form, who seems to be thinking in a similar direction in the last paragraph.