Radagast revisited

[yovargas]

There was literally not one single thing about Radagast I didn't find annoying.

[JewelSong]

DP

[JewelSong]

Here is the text from Chapter Three of "The Once and Future King" (One of my all-time favorite books.)

--->

He was dressed in a flowing gown with fur tippets which had the signs of the zodiac embroidered over it, with various cabalistic signs, such as triangles with eyes in them, queer crosses, leaves of trees, bones of birds and animals, and a planetarium whose stars shone like bits of looking- glass with the sun on them. He had a pointed hat like a dunce’s cap, or like the headgear worn by ladies of that time, except that the ladies were accustomed to have a bit of veil floating from the top of it. He also had a wand of lignum vitae, which he had laid down in the grass beside him, and a pair of horn- rimmed spectacles like those of King Pellinore. They were unusual spectacles, being without ear pieces, but shaped rather like scissors or like the antennae of the tarantula wasp. “Excuse me, sir,” said the Wart, “but can you tell me the way to Sir Ector’s castle, if you don’t mind?” The aged gentleman put down his bucket and looked at him.
“Your name would be the Wart.”
“Yes, sir, please, sir.” “My name,” said the old man, “is Merlyn.”
“How do you do?” “How do.”

When these formalities had been concluded, the Wart had leisure to look at him more closely. The magician was staring at him with a kind of unwinking and benevolent curiosity which made him feel that it would not be at all rude to stare back, no ruder than it would be to stare at one of his guardian’s cows who happened to be thinking about his personality as she leaned her head over a gate.

Merlyn had a long white beard and long white moustaches which hung down on either side of it. Close inspection showed that he was far from clean. It was not that he had dirty finger- nails, or anything like that, but some large bird seemed to have been nesting in his hair. The Wart was familiar with the nests of Spar- hark and Gos, the crazy conglomerations of sticks and oddments which had been taken over from squirrels or crows, and he knew how the twigs and the tree foot were splashed with white mutes, old bones, muddy feathers and castings. This was the impression which he got from Merlyn. The old man was streaked with droppings over his shoulders, among the stars and triangles of his gown, and a large spider was slowly lowering itself from the tip of his hat, as he gazed and slowly blinked at the little boy in front of him. He had a worried expression, as though he were trying to remember some name which began with Chol but which was pronounced in quite a different way, possibly Menzies or was it Dalziel? His mild blue eyes, very big and round under the tarantula spectacles, gradually filmed and clouded over as he gazed at the boy, and then he turned his head away with a resigned expression, as though it was all too much for him after all.

It seems obvious to me that the depiction of Radagast was inspired by this. Whether you you care for Radagast's character in the movies or not, I think that it is clear that the way he was portrayed was not just some weird affectation or pulled out of PJ's...um...imagination, but based on TH White's Merlyn.


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[sauronsfinger]

regarding Merlin - I felt the character was portrayed wonderfully in CAMELOT and was a visual treat. The character had dignity and a sense majesty and a power about him and was part of the forest. And I agree that there is a strong possibility that this was the influence for the visual of Radagast in the trilogy. For me - it was like someone trying to paint a new version of a great classic painting and ending up with a crayola coloring book travesty.

[Alatar]

Well, its not like there was any "classic painting" of Radagast. He's practically the least described character in the books. I'm sure you, like many of us, had your own personal vision or impression of Radagast, but its not like we had much to go on.