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Dates
Immortal. Radagast came to Middle-earth c.III 1000, and remained there at least until III 3018; his final fate is unknown.
Race
Division
Order
Pronunciation
ra'dagast
Meaning
Adûnaic for 'tender of beasts'1
Other names
Titles

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About this entry:

  • Updated 12 April 1998
  • Updates planned: 4

Radagast

The Brown Wizard

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The third, with Gandalf and Saruman, of the three Wizards who remained in the northwest of Middle-earth; he formerly dwelt at Rhosgobel on the borders of Mirkwood.


Notes

1

In Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, Christopher Tolkien indicates that his father intended to change this derivation and bring Radagast in line with the other wizard-names Gandalf and Saruman, by associating it with the old language of the Men of the Vales of Anduin. No alternative meaning is provided (indeed, Tolkien stated that the name was 'not now clearly interpretable'). One possible source (a somewhat unfounded conjecture) would be Old English rudugást, 'brown spirit' (rudu strictly means 'red' or 'red-brown' - it is the source of the modern word 'ruddy').

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