About Radagast the Brown

Many years ago, I started writing a story as part of an assignment for a college literature class. It's turned into a giant project, and here is just a snippet. Zealous fans of Lord of the Rings will recognize the character in focus here. Right now I am writing the portion of the story that details the history of the four "Wayfaring Orders" -- the ascetic religious sects of that world (called Adamah). I am posting this here in order to receive constructive feedback, either positive or negative. I have reached a point in the writing where I need some input and dialogue in order to stimulate the creative juices. I'm especially interested in critiques concerning the style and the story-telling, since those are the aspects of my writing that I feel need the most work right now. This small segment tells a story on its own, and it's often more helpful for me to receive feedback on a small part which I can then apply to the whole.

The four Wayfaring Orders are descended from Radagast the Brown, one of the three ancient Istari wizards from across the Sea. Other Istari are mentioned in the written legend of that distant land, but long ago they went far into the East and passed beyond the realm of written history. In those legends it is recorded that Radagast was "a friend of all beasts and birds," and for that reason was regarded somewhat of a lunatic, although a very lovable one. Sometime during the fourth age of that world, Men had become so numerous that Radagast wearied of their presence. Therefore, he took to building his own boat and foolishly sailed west in search of the Undying Lands across the Great Sea. After fifty-three days on the rolling main, his broken vessel washed up on the shores of the land of Adamah. Surmising he had reached his intended destination (as he had never read the Mythic Scrolls and hence did not know that the Undying Lands were unreachable from his world except through death), Radagast offered thanks and praise for six nights and six days and then traipsed off into the wilderness to build a home for himself.

No word of him was heard for the next eleven centuries, when pilgrims clad in long brown tunics began to emerge from the forest begging for bread and proclaiming the virtues of poverty, simplicity, and charity. The Men of our world gave them alms out of pity, and every so often they would convince others to join their numbers either through marriage or fraternal initiation. They traveled in cells throughout the land, never more than two or three dozen in a place at any one time. Calling God their Father and the earth their Mother, they built houses of worship in every city, town and village in Adamah. When asked why they all dressed alike, they replied that they wore "the brown habit of Radagast, in perpetual memorial of his love for all living things." These are the Mendicants, the oldest of the four orders, commonly called the "Brown Friars" by the peoples of the world.

Concerning Radagast himself, there is no written record of his life after he shipwrecked on the shores of our world. However, the Mendicants' folklore includes a story that, after disappearing into the forests of Adamah, Radagast came across a gypsy troop that lived in the treetops. He found them a peculiar and likeable people, so he cast his lot among them. By and by he fell in love with one of the women who danced at their festivals and took her to wife. Together, they spent the rest of their days in happiness.