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Aiwendil
Servant of Yavanna
Istar Radagast the Brown

with cloak
with cloak and staff
without accessories

I have been working on Aiwendil for so long, I was beginning to think my Muse would never want to finish him. Aiwendil ("lover of birds") is the Maia who was chosen by Yavanna to go to Middle-earth as one of the Istari -- although why she "begged" Curumo (aka Saruman) to take him along when Curumo seemingly couldn't stand him will remain forevermore a mystery -- especially since Tolkien said at one point that Saruman arrived alone. Go figure. In any case, poor Aiwendil, who became Radagast the Brown as a wizard in Middle-earth, didn't get much respect all around. Saruman considered him a simpleton and a fool, Tolkien only gave him a few lines (that were reported by Gandalf during the Council of Elrond; he never even got to be seen "on stage"), and the movie wrote him out completely. He also apparently went a little dotty during his time in Middle-earth, since it was not stated that he was killed during the War of the Ring, yet he didn't go back to Valinor with Gandalf at the beginning of the Fourth Age. Seems he liked Middle-earth so well, he "went native" and decided to stay -- sounds a little like Tom Bombadil to me (y'know, I keep thinking that merry old Tom would make an excellent NPC replacement for the Mime....)

This outfit represents how I would envision Aiwendil, the Maia in Valinor, rather than Radagast, the Istar in Middle-earth, since he obviously isn't embodied as an old Man. For a while, I wondered why he had been so very difficult to finish, but I eventually hit upon the reason: it's hard to make a wizard dressed all in brown that won't somehow come across looking like a very peculiar monk. I had to go out of my way to make sure the head of his staff -- which was intended to look like a stylized bird -- didn't come out too cross-like, and instead, it wound up looking a little like a fleur-de-lis. An improvement over the religious symbolism, I suppose, and not inappropriate, since as Radagast, Aiwendil was noted for his great knowledge in herb lore.