Friday’s question caused a little confusion, caused in no small part by my inadvertent mistake.
The question was supposed to be: “Name the five wizards, their colors, and their collective name in Elvish.” Originally, I had written “nine”, which of course is wrong.
The answer is Gandalf the Grey (later the White), Saruman the White (later the Many-Colored), Radagast the Brown, and two who were only know as Ithryn Luin, the “Blue Wizards,” and they traveled into the East and were not heard from again. Their collective name is the Istari, an Elvish word meaning “wizard”. Yes, yes, a tricky one. Some of you got it though. Incidentally, there is a very interesting essay on the Istari in “Unfinished Tales”, part of which says that the wizards were Maiar, angelic beings, who came to Middle Earth to battle Sauron. Tolkien writes that the wizards, even though angelic, could fall:
For it is said indeed that being embodied the Istari had need to learn much anew by slow experience, and though they knew whence they came the memory of the Blessed Realm was to them a vision from afar off, for which (so long as they remained true to their mission) they yearned exceedingly. Thus by enduring of free will the pangs of exile and the deceits of Sauron they might redress the evils of that time.
Apart from the potential to fall into evil, that is a very Christ-like reference: Becoming human in all things but sin, He learned “much anew by slow experience” and endured of His own free will the pain of exile and finally of the Cross in order to defeat Satan and “redress the evils of that time.”
Okay, here’s today’s question: “What was Aragorn named by Eomer”? Answer tomorrow.
I know this isn’t fair, since I’m now reading The Two Towers aloud each night to my youngest children.. but here it goes:
Wingfoot.
Why, because he was truly amazed that they companions had come so far in only three nights time. All the way from the falls, where Boromir fell, to the plains of Rohan.
I mean not fair to others, as I just read it last evening…. Not an unfair question.
You would think he would have been more amazed that an unmounted dwarf could keep up!
If anyone deserved a name, it was Gimli son of Gloin!