The Enigma of Radagast: Revision, Melodrama, and Depth
2007; Mythopoeic Society; Volume: 26; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0146-9339
Autores Tópico(s)Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
ResumoWhere Does Radagast Come From? THE LORD OF THE RINGS is set in Middle-earth, but is coextensive with it. There is much in Middle-Earth that is barely explored in text of The Lord of Rings. What Tolkien called the vast backcloths (Carpenter 90) of his vision have many elements that are brought to immediate surface of his major work. As Anderson Rearick puts it, to subject every element of Middle-earth to critical scrutiny would be exhausting and inconclusive (864). But building-blocks of Middle-earth references remote from main plot give us a sense of intricately designed, panoramic backdrop which is so characteristic of Tolkien's design. Sometimes Tolkien's deployment of these references can give us valuable clues to pivotal decisions Tolkien made in conceiving his work. The wizard Radagast Brown plays a minor role in The Lord of Rings. His plot function is to, unwittingly, decoy Gandalf into being taken captive by Saruman. He is mentioned in text after Book II, chapter 3. But Radagast's role takes on a telling consequence with respect to how Tolkien thought about The Lord of The Rings while he was writing it--and afterwards. Tolkien (Letters 135) forewarned Allen and Unwin, when delivering them manuscript of The Lord of Rings, that manuscript was a sequel to The Hobbit but to The Silmarillion. T. A. Shippey and others have problematized this opposition (cf. Shippey 79 on how both The Hobbit and The Lord of Rings do quite take off until their protagonists leave Rivendell), pointing to many similarities between The Hobbit and its gargantuan successor. But difference, foregrounded by Tolkien himself, still stands. Radagast Brown is a tangible proof of this difference, as, somewhat surprisingly, he ends up so clearly being on Hobbit side of divide. Radagast appears in The Hobbit, as Gandalf's 'cousin' (Hobbit [H] 7:118; a conception that is close to being in line with eventual conceptions of Istari in The Lord of Rings). He is a colleague, a peer of Gandalf. Radagast thus stands as an element ready-to-hand for use in The Lord of Rings way many of other characters in The Hobbit with their specific associations, geographical and otherwise, with Quest of Erebor, do not. In The Hobbit, Gandalf actually leans on Radagast's (local) reputation to get himself, and his dwarvish and hobbit charges, accepted by Beorn. In The Lord of Rings, Radagast plays a key, intermediary role in communications between Gandalf and Saruman. Yet Radagast disappears from The Lord of Rings after Council of Elrond. Searchers from Rivendell travel to his old home at Rhosgobel, but Radagast is not there (LotR II:3 267). In all wrappings-up that occur at end of The Lord of Rings his case is solved. Nor is it addressed in any of Appendices. The most obvious explanation of what happened to Radagast is that Radagast is fallen, that he had (Unfinished Tales [UT] 390) become enamored of birds and beasts of Middle-earth to extent that he had forgotten his mission among its people. This is implied in poem quoted in essay on Istari (UT 395) which states that only one returned to Valinor of original five, this obviously being Gandalf. On this reading, Radagast would be no more eligible for returning to Valinor than Saruman. Yet this would tug at credibility, as it would mean that Radagast was already fallen by Council of Elrond. What would be implied here is a decisive lapse, or even a Sarumanesque lust for power. Radagast's lapse is a slow surrendering of any larger concerns to Radagast's immediate task of tending to birds and beasts. But this is hardly visible in The Lord of Rings. Radagast warns Gandalf of Nazgul. Vincent Ferre points out that Radagast is first Wizard, at least in histoire of events of The Lord of Rings, to call Nazgul for what they are, even if tardily (Ferre 189). …
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