Yavanna's Chosen

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

Good point. Radagast is the ultimate gardern (or is gardener the right word for waht he did, maybe caretaker, gamekeeper/warden, or even ranger (in the sense we tend to use it today not in the Tolkein sense). Radagast may have gone astray failed in the Ishari Mission, but I wonder if he had his own mission from Yavanna herself, and if he did in that mission he may has suceeded spectacuarly. Whatever faults Tolkein Himeslf may have found in Radagast, it seems, from within the context of the story Ganadalf found none, or if he did he accepted them. He never came to Radagast and tried to exort him to force the beasts of the wood to join the free peoples (Radagast may or may not have done things to help the Allicance, but if he did, it appears he did so on his own onus and by his own free will). Unilke Saruman, Gandalf seems to have a very high opion of Radagast (even going so far as I recall, in the Hobbit of mentioning him to Beorn as a way to introduce himself (or am I just remembering the BBC Radio show). Most important of all Gandalf in a certain sense, ultimately leaves all of ME in Radagast's hands. He makes no effort to try and convice Radagast to return with him to the west (assuming for the moment that Radagast actually could) still less to try and force him to, which in his Gandalf the White aspect (and likey de facto current head of the Istari) he just might have the authority to do. Gandald trusts Radagast enough to leave him as the ONLY wizard in ME, unchecked unapposed and (within the confines of his human body) unhindered in any way (Radagast my not be anywhere as strong as Gandalf or Saruman but he is still a wizard) . Given who Gandalf is, that is saying a lot.

No, no, no, I actually see this thing from a completely different point of view.

First (starting from the end): I believe Radagast could not return. He didn't fulfil his mission, and it was not Gandalf's authority to tell him to come or stay.

Second: Gandalf did not force people to do anything. Radagast was still doing something, good (birds helping etc.). Gandalf thought that Saruman, also, until Gandalf learned about his treachery, was doing something to help. Each of the Wizards had their own agenda, so to say (this is where I see the primal failure of Saruman as the Head of the Order, by the way - not that he should have forced others to do as he wished, but his task as the First of the Order was certainly to oversee the others and facilitate some communication between them, not just that everybody roams freely without not caring at all about others. I am not speaking of any big coordinated machinations here, but if Saruman fulfilled his part, I believe he would have prevented Radagast from crawling away among his animals and lazing around instead of trying to do his task. That said, in my opinion it was not really Gandalf's position to "discipline" Radagast - it was mainly Saruman's responsibility, Gandalf, of all people, tried hard to fulfil HIS tasks, and he really did not have time to stand over Radagast all the time shouting at him about what he should have been doing. I can assume Gandalf would have reminded Radagast of his tasks when they happened to see each other once in a while, but he did not have time nor authority to oversee him all the time.) As for "unlike Saruman, Gandalf seemed to have high opinion of Radagast", well, I don't think it was that way. First, it is not hard to have better opinion on Radagast than Saruman did. Second, Gandalf is just not the type of person who would dump another, despite whatever shortcomings the person had. Look at how he kept asking Saruman over and over again, after his fall, to come back and offered him mercy. Radagast was honest, that was what Gandalf praised about him, but it tells nothing about his work.

Third: Gandalf coming to "force Radagast to make the beasts join the Free People", I think that is not really the thing that would happen. First, once again, it was not Gandalf who had the authority, only Saruman could have done that. Actually, I can well imagine Saruman doing that, if it came down to it - that is, if Saruman decided that some stupid animals could be of any use in war. But anyway, the task was not to make the animals "join the Free People", but to, as Gandalf did it with the people, make them resist Sauron. The Istari's mission was all about that - and it is very largely spoken of in the Unfinished Tales - not uniting the Free People (and animals) and making them attack the Dark Lord, but giving them hope, supporting their resistence, giving them the strength to fight Sauron on their own. It was Saruman who fell into the trap of this "power solution", I am quite inclined to believe that even if he remained true to the cause of the Free People, he would have overthrown Sauron by force. Which means, once again, failing his mission. That was not the Wizards' task.