Radagast in The Hobbit Film (SPOILERS)

[Rhod the Red]

Well, as I pointed out earlier, the location of Radagasts' residence was hardly conducive to regular washes. I don't recall even in the movie a slight glimpse of a stream, etc, unless I missed it.

Nor Toklein addressing these kinds of lifestyle issues. He focused on the story events and themes, not these lifestyle decisions . So it relatively a speculative issue. Did he CHOOSE to leave that poop on his face, or have difficulty regularly washing?

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Rhod the Red

'... So it relatively a speculative issue. Did he CHOOSE to leave that poop on his face, or have difficulty regularly washing?'

I would say he either chose to, or maybe was so out of his mind that he wasn't aware of bird droppings running down to his shoulders in his hair, despite that he seems aware that he kept birds under his hat.

Or maybe you have some other reason? Not washing because he doesn't have easy access to water doesn't cut it in my opinion, as...


A) I doubt Tolkien's maps intend to show every source of water in the lands depicted, never mind the collection of rain.

B) One doesn't necessarily need water to wipe excrement off of one's head. White's Merlyn didn't.

[Lalwendë]

I'm probably closer to Radagast in terms of experiencing rural filth than most others here ever will be. And I'm old enough to remember the 1970s when it was normal to only have a bath once a week, whether you had an indoor bathroom or not. I also worked on my brother's travelling shop and we went to the really isolated farms on Saturdays. At one old farm, a couple had moved the bed into the 'kitchen', which was just a room with a range, a sink and a load of hens running round and pooing on the table/chairs/everything. The filth was spectacular.

As for poo, one day I was wearing my nice new brown M&S anorak while messing with my nan's hens and as usual carrying them round under my arm, ending up with my pockets full of dung. One of the jobs my boatmen ancestors did in the 1800s was load their barges with 'nightsoil' to spread all over the fields and grow taters and carrots in. Yum!

Has nobody heard of the saying "Muck for luck?" It's a way of laughing off the highly likely chance that you will get pooed on by a pigeon/seagull in the UK. If you're sat on the graveyard wall and enjoying a bag of chips and get divebombed you don't go screaming like a girl for antiseptic wipes, you just let it dry and then pick it off later. No sense in letting your chips go cold.

All of which is my way of explaining that rural filth was very much a part of life not many years ago, and a lot of us aren't even now that bothered by it, so it's not something I have to suspend disbelief on one little bit to accept that anyone living in the middle ages or the wildwood might get covered in guano and muck.

[Galin]

... so it's not something I have to suspend disbelief on one little bit to accept that anyone living in the middle ages or the wildwood might get covered in guano and muck.

Are you going to argue that any of your scenarios (in post 47) are really equivalent to what we have with Jackson's character? No doubt if you have birds living under your hat you might get bird droppings on your head... so you wipe the droppings off your head when they occur, water or no; and especially that much.

I haven't seen anyone complain that Radagast is generally unclean, it's the over the top treatment of Peter Jackson's 'Radagast' that appears to be the objection.

[Galin]

Originally Posted by Galin

Not washing because he doesn't have easy access to water doesn't cut it in my opinion, as...

By the way I apologize for not writing the more obvious and thus better 'doesn't wash' instead of 'doesn't cut it'.

Drat.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Galin

By the way I apologize for not writing the more obvious and thus better 'doesn't wash' instead of 'doesn't cut it'.

Drat.

I often get staircase wit myself - it's annoying

Originally Posted by Galin

Are you going to argue that any of your scenarios (in post 47) are really equivalent to what we have with Jackson's character? No doubt if you have birds living under your hat you might get bird droppings on your head... so you wipe the droppings off your head when they occur, water or no; and especially that much.

I haven't seen anyone complain that Radagast is generally unclean, it's the over the top treatment of Peter Jackson's 'Radagast' that appears to be the objection.

What I'm saying is it wasn't that odd at all to me. I've seen enough muck on and around country folk. Which is exactly what Radagast is - he has nobody to impress but presumably a lot of animals taking up his time. He's eccentric, a loner, and most of all, he's busy - he's not going to stop in his rush to meet up with Gandalf and wipe up birdpoo off his head.

Might be an age and cultural thing though as to whether people find it a step too far or are accepting that someone might be that care less.

[Galin]

White's Merlyn kept dead mice and worms under his skull cap, and looked like something had been nesting in his hair... but even he makes note of the pyjamas for wiping bird droppings off the wizard's head.

Which would take but a few moments, for even a busy Istar, I would think.