The Istari
the Wizards; the emissaries of the Valar to Middle-earth
Definition
The Istari — “the Wizards” — are the emissaries of the Valar sent to Middle-earth in the later ages to counsel and resist the Shadow: — “five of the Maiar” — the Quenta’s note: — they. The fullest account is the essay “The Istari” in Unfinished Tales.
The Five
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Gandalf (Olórin, Mithrandir) — the Grey Pilgrim, of the loremasters.
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Saruman (Curumo) — the White, the head of the order, who fell.
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Radagast (Aiwendil) — the Brown, the friend of birds and beasts.
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The two Blue Wizards (Alatar and Pallando in the tradition) — the “Blue”, sent into the East, of whom little is known. Each was, with memory veiled and power limited; their task: to stir the hearts of the free against Sauron, not to wield power themselves (the difference that undid Saruman).
The Valar’s Purpose
The sending belongs to the deep history of the ages: after the failure of Númenor and the taking of the Ring by Isildur, the counsels in Valinor (in which Olórin — whose dwelling was with Irmo and whose tutelage under Nienna gave him pity — was chosen, against his own reluctance) set the “messengers” upon their long road. The Istari are thus the “valar-in-proxy” of the Third Age, the continuation of the intervening love that Ulmo had once shown the exiles.
Significance
The Istari (though their great deeds belong to the Third Age,) are the end-point of the mythology’s great arc of emisssary-mediation — the pattern (Ainur walking among the Children) that began with Melian, and their fealty in “the shape of old men” is the Valar’s final, self-effacing gift to the mortal world.