Were the Staves of Wizards Important? Middle-earth Explained & Artifacts of Arda

Foreign he raised his hand and spoke slowly in a clear cold voice Saruman your staff is broken there was a crack and the staff split us under in saruman’s hand and the head of it fell down at Gandalf’s feet go said Gandalf hey everyone joyston here and I hope you

All are doing well wherever you are in Middle Earth today we are taking a look at the staves of the Wizards to be honest before recording I’ve had to look multiple times if it was staffs or staves but I’m pretty sure it stays so that’s what we’ll go with we’re going to

Be taking a look at their histories and their usefulness throughout that history some helpful articles and videos are in the description and cards so please check those out before we get started I’d like to give a shout out to the kickstarter called a very hobbit adventure by Joel Trumbo he’s attempting

To build five Hobbit Hole playhouses for children at a school that’s nearby him ultimately this is a little Shyer for children to learn grow build friendships and memories and experience some tolkenian nature I went ahead and donated a bit myself as they are about halfway towards their 5 000 goal as of

Recording this video please check it out and consider donating there’s a link in the description for it my friends thank you all so much for joining me today let’s begin our tale before we look at their functions and potential abilities let’s look at the history of the staves

Themselves or at least what we know of them it seems that upon arriving in Middle Earth just as each wizard took on the appearance of an elderly man to mask the power of the Maya underneath each seemingly also bore a staff from valinor potentially they did not have these

Staves yet and acquired them during their time in Middle Earth but from all available evidence and artwork it seems that they did arrive with their staves already in hand now according to the lore no one went through quite so many staves as Gandalf the Gray and Gandalf the White for all

The others while they did have staves kept them as far as We Know the blue Wizards disappeared into the East radagast likely kept his with him in the wild and then at his home of ruskabel and I could see radagast having likely the most naturalistic and rustic

Of the staves of the Wizards since he himself was such a servant of nature while Saruman seems to have kept one staff which was black and heavy and in many ways seem to have matched the Tower of orthank in its appearance Gandalf however likely had at least two or three

Staves during his time in Middle Earth since much of what he did was fraught with Peril now I say two or three staves for during his later travels he would be captured by Saruman at Isengard and I wonder if Saruman would let him keep his staff as a prisoner Atop The Pinnacle or

If he would take it from Gandalf if he would take it I must imagine that Gandalf was given another staff at Rivendell but either way Gandalf would keep his old or new staff until it burst asunder when he destroyed the bridge of Casa Doom he would be given his final staff one

Made of Ash wood at lothlorian from the elves that he would carry his Gandalf the White even back into the uttermost West during his time his Gandalf the light he would also famously keep it as a walking stick in the golden Hall of meadowceld and break saruman’s staff

After the wizard of Many Colors did not give it up to Gandalf now in most lore videos I do not stray much into movie lore territory unless I’m explicitly talking about the films from the outset but in this case there is much more importance placed on the staves in the

Movies at large and Gandalf goes through many more of them so let’s take a look in the Peter Jackson Hobbit and Lord of the Rings films Gandalf seemingly uses at least five staves as his first was destroyed at dual goldor his second was given by radagast that he used until

Being captured by Saruman his third was from Rivendell and it was lost in the fight with the balrog and his fourth was from lothlorian and he used it until it was destroyed by the witch King at menisthirith while his final staff is an almost exact replacement of his previous

Staff I must say that I really love his staff designs in the movies especially that final staff design which acts as a parallel against Saruman staff in many aesthetic ways and it even seems to match the Trees of Lorien and I’ve always thought that it seems like the Tower of excelian

However I mentioned this to say that Gandalf never went long in either books or movies without some sort of Staff yet there were many more instances of Staff destruction in the movies than there were in the books it’s much more dramatic in that way but he always made

Sure that he had another staff when he could get another one now we do see Gandalf use lightning on his sword without the use of his staff against the balrog but beyond that I do not believe we really see him use much magic if any at all without a staff in

The films and so let’s turn our attention back to the books and more specifically to the roles functions and purposes of the staves themselves starting with the most simplistic of ideas and working our way towards more detailed ones we do know that at a baseline if the staves had no purpose

Symbolic or practical the Wizards would simply just not have them or worry about getting them back or at least not all of them would some would make the argument that the staves are purely symbolic and while I would agree that the staves are symbolic to a degree I also think they play

Functional roles as well just as every wizard takes on the figure of an old man even though it is likely for one such a saturdaymon a younger more fit agile and strong form probably would have been more helpful to him he still maintains such an elderly figure and he still

Carried a staff until it was broken as well thus I think it is a symbol for a wizard even if it might be used as a walking stick as well it is part of their personas and part of their order as the Wizards Saruman even accused

Gandalf of wanting the rods of the five wizards probably indicating that he wanted to be a tyrant over them which of course was not true yet there is a power that’s also channeled therein as well Gandalf shattered his staff with his power on the bridge of Kaza Doom when he walked

Into the golden Hall of medicine he found it crucial enough to take it with him and he used it to direct light into the hall and to Aid Theoden but again there are other instances of him not needing the staff to manifest power he did not need it for when he used light

To save fodmir from the nazcool and in the same quote from Gandalf when he demanded the key to orthank he also demanded that Saruman give up his staff when Saruman did not do this Gandalf then expelled him from the order of wizards and broke his staff clearly

There is of course a great deal of symbolism here but also I think that shows that there’s a level of functionality too for after this Saruman was Far weaker he opted to try to use a dagger on Frodo during the scouring of the Shire rather than you know like

Casting a fireball or something at him therefore were the staves of the Wizards important I would say yes they absolutely were without question they were obviously the symbols of the Wizards for their staves were of special magnificence and importance not just common walking sticks but beyond that

They were also helpful in directing the powers of the Wizards whatever those Powers were in the soft magic system within the legendarium yet the staves themselves were likely useless in the hands of others for they were hardly the source of the powers of the Wizards as they

Were all of them Mayar and Gandalf even did some incredible Feats like taking down a balrog without his staff while a sword Bears its own sharpness it is in the wielder that the skill is drawn from it is similar in this case yet I would still put more emphasis on

The wizard than on his staff even so they were still used in the execution of great magic at multiple points in the story so I must conclude that that most they were necessary but not sufficient in the carrying out of said spells and at the least they were

Simply directors or conduits of Wizardry and Mayar Magic still very useful and very needed in being the most powerful wizard one could be perhaps in becoming Wizards these Mayar took on multiple qualities outside of the properties they already had as Mayar and the need for staves to carry out

Some of their power was one of them but what do you all think were the staves of the Wizards important let me know your thoughts about all of this in the comments below and so my friends we come to the end of our tale from this tale we

See that it is important to become skillful for the skill of any Bearer is more important and powerful than the qualities of any implement thank you all so much for watching I hope you all enjoyed this video if you did please be sure to hit that like

Button and share this with a friend what are your thoughts on all of this let me know in the comments below I really like that staves are associated with Wizards and the Lord of the Rings it has made the two Bound in ways that we see throughout much of media culture today

It’s cool to see what sort of impact it had I also like the mysterious nature of the magic of Middle Earth and I think that this topic just really plays into that another shout out to that Kickstarter I hope they reach their goal if you’d like to support the Channel

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