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Post by Andorinha on Jan 18, 2007 18:25:51 GMT -6
In some of our other studies (Mirkwood) the narrative of The Hobbit has been extremely useful, and it provoked some questions regarding the "white council" that Gandalf was said to have attended while the Dwarves and Bilbo went through the forest to eventually secure the demise of the dragon, Smaug.
So, what is this "white council?" When did Tolkien first use the concept, and how does it change over time as his writings evolved?
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Post by Andorinha on Jan 18, 2007 18:37:45 GMT -6
I'm trying to get as much written up here at TR as I can before this semester's duties force me off the internet, so here's what I've come up with on the quick, as a sort of preliminary investigation into the White Council.
The White Council
The first time we hear of a "white council" in the works of JRRT, is in The Hobbit, written between 1928 and 1937. The earliest versions of the Silmarillion story, the mythology of Tolkien, do not mention much, or anything about the Third Age, so it is no wonder that the white council cannot be found in the indices of any of the HOME volumes that deal with those manuscripts written before the 1940s. The Book of Lost Tales 1 and 2; The Lays of Beleriand; The Shaping of Middle-earth; The Lost Road; Morgoth's Ring; and The War of the Jewels -- have, so far as I can determine, no mention of the White Council. (If anyone finds any such mentionings, please post the citations, I could have overlooked some!)
In The Hobbit, the "white council" is mentioned once, with very little explanation (hardback, regular 1966 version, p. 310; Annotated version, p. 357). "It appeared that Gandalf had been to a great council of the white wizards, masters of lore and good magic; and that they had at last driven the Necromancer from his dark hold in the south of Mirkwood."
Douglas A. Anderson, editor of The Annotated Hobbit, thinks, as do I, that in 1937, JRRT had not yet developed his own thinking very far concerning this council (see Annotated Hobbit, p. 357, note #2). Anderson feels that the "white council" refers only to a group of wizards, good magicians, and had not yet become the White Council that we find in the pages of LotR, where it is a combined group of wizards and powerful Elves.
Between 1938 and 1956, JRRT expanded his mythological material to include, for the first time, a detailed history of the Second and Third Ages of Middle-earth. In these later writings, I think JRRT changed the nature of the white council; changed the identity of The Necromancer (from just being an evil sorcerer, to now being Sauron); and changed the nature of Bilbo's ring -- making Bilbo's simple ring of "invisibilty and luck" into the vastly more powerful and significant One Ring. These alterations helped cement The Hobbit into the overall narration of Middle-earth, and allowed it be read as a "pre-quel" to LotR. After the writing of LotR, Bilbo's journey with the Dwarves was no longer a largely independent "Fairy Tale," heroic-romance. By 1948, The Hobbit was an integrated part of the entire history, with its roots in the Silmarillion, and its branches leading up into the closing events of the last few years of Third Age Middle-earth.
In those texts written for LotR, and in some of his last revisions (dating between 1958 and 1973), JRRT now capitalizes the term "White Council," and it is composed of more than just a group of wizards: "... the Council of the Wise that is called the White Council, and therein were Elrond and Galadriel and Cirdan, and other lords of the Eldar, and with them were Mithrandir and Curunir [Saruman]." The Silmarillion, 1977, p. 300.* In Unfinished Tales, this new definition of "White Council" continues, and is further refined. This second version White Council also shows up in the late material of the HOME volumes 6-9, the "History of The Lord of the Rings;" and then again it is mentioned in the later-written sections of HOME volume XII.
It is interesting to me, to follow the trail that leads from The Hobbit, to follow it back in time to see how the events of Bilbo's journey forced JRRT to alter some of his Silmarillion material; and then follow the trail forward into LotR where JRRT tried to make (by the revisions of 1966) The Hobbit more relevant to and consistent with his later writings. In this sense, the alteration/ expansion of "The White Council" becomes one of the most significant changes that JRRT would make in his original mythology.
____________ *Radagast The Brown is not mentioned here in the 1977 Simarillion, as being a member of the White Council. Is he ever definitely included in that body? I cannot recall... Certainly his role in LotR is not very well developed, but he was one of the Five main Wizards, and was well-disposed to "creatures of goodwill." Beorn in The Hobbit knew Radagast, and had a favourable opinion of him, " 'Yes; not a bad fellow as wizards go, I believe. I used to see him now and again,' said Beorn." (Hobbit, p. 129)
But, Tolkien seems to have considered Radagast, at least by the 1950s, as having been one of the "failed" wizards: "For Radagast the fourth [of the five main Istari], became enamoured of the many beasts and birds that dwelt in Middle-earth, and he forsook Elves and Men, and spent his days among the wild creatures." (Unfinished Tales, p. 390).
'Radagast,' in JRRT's definition = "The tender of beasts," although in another version JRRT simply said the name Radagast had no clear interpretation. ( Unfinished Tales, p. 390, and note#4 p. 401).
Maybe Radagast was not a part of the White Council simply because he did not care to associate much with Elves and Men?
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Post by Stormrider on Jan 19, 2007 7:43:10 GMT -6
I wish Radagast and the two blue wizards had more history in Tolkien's tales. It would have been interesting to see how they failed. I think there was something written somewhere that the blue wizards went out east. Was that in UT? I'm going to take that book to work with me today and look at it at lunchtime to see if I can find an answer.
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