Blue Wizards

The Blue Wizards were two members of the order of the Istari (the Wizards) who came into Middle-earth in the Third Age. Clad in sea-blue, they journeyed into the far East and South and passed out of the knowledge of the West, so that little was recorded of their deeds.

The order of Wizards

The Istari were Maiar, spirits of the order of the Ainur, sent over the Sea in the guise of old men to oppose Sauron and to stir the peoples of Middle-earth to resistance. Five came in all: Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown, and the two Blue Wizards, called the Ithryn Luin.

Names and journey

The names of the two Blue Wizards were given in some of Tolkien's writings as Alatar and Pallando. They were associated with the Vala Oromë. Unlike the other three Istari, who remained in the western lands, the Blue Wizards travelled into the East and South of Middle-earth, into the regions that bordered the realms under Sauron's sway, and did not return.

Uncertain fate

Because they passed beyond the bounds of the recorded histories of the West, the fate of the Blue Wizards was never certainly known. In one account, Tolkien suggested they failed in their mission and may have founded magic cults or fallen to corruption. In a later note, however, he proposed a more hopeful reading: that they went into the East specifically to weaken Sauron's power in those regions, stirring resistance among the peoples there and so hindering the full strength that the East and South might otherwise have brought against the West in the War of the Ring. Their tale remained one of the unresolved mysteries of the legendarium.