Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Season 3, Episode 3.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” answered a question many longtime lovers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work have asked — whatever happened to those Blue Wizards?
The third episode of the third season of Prime Video’s prequel series tackled the issue head-on and revealed that one of the Blue Wizards was even in the previous season. Gandalf wants to know how to deal with The Dark Wizard rallying power in Rhûn and finds answers that could shock some fans.
Here is how the show revealed what was going on with the Blue Wizards and why they are important to Gandalf.
Who are the Blue Wizards?
The Blue Wizards are shrouded in a bit of mystery because they’re only loosely mentioned in Tolkien’s other work about Middle-earth “The Silmarillion,” “Unfinished Tales,” and “The Peoples of Middle-earth.”
Their names were Alatar and Pallando and they were two of the five Istari who came to Middle-earth. The others were Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast and while their stories were covered in “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” the two Blue Wizards were much less written about. All that was really known about them was that they were dispatched to the southern and eastern parts of Middle-earth. Aside from that, not much was written about — including whether or not they were successful in their personal missions while Gandalf, Saruman and Radagast looked over the west. The consensus was that they either failed or gave up.
“The Rings of Power” Reveals the Blue Wizards’ Fates
In the third episode of the season, Gandalf leaves Tom Bombadil’s hut frustrated for a lack of answers about how to stop The Dark Wizard’s plans to amass an army to send West. While looking for dinner he finds himself speaking directly to The Secret Fire, who gives him a lore dump to end all lore dump that includes what happened to the Blue Wizards sent to Middle-earth.
The Fire — or is it really Eru Ilúvatar? — explains that Gandalf was but one of five wizards sent to Middle-earth to help them. Gandalf tells the fire that another of their order, The Dark Wizard, fell into shadow and that’s when the fire drops some knowledge bound to rock the fanbase.
The Dark Wizard is in fact the Blue Wizard Pallando. The Fire explains that Pallando found he wanted more power so he betrayed and murdered his partner wizard — that would be Alatar — “in an act so evil it laid all of Rhûn to waste.” Gandalf wonders how he could possibly defeat a wizard who had already killed another and turn to the dark. The flame says his task is not to destroy The Dark Wizard, but to save him because only together could they stop Rhûn’s armies from joining Sauron.
The reveal seems to confirm what many longtime Tolkien readers assumed – that the wizards failed in their protections of the parts of Middle-earth they were assigned and in this case turned on one another.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” releases new episodes Wednesdays on Prime Video.
