Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for all of Season 1 of The Rings of Power.As we learn from The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) in the season finale of The Rings of Power, the word Istar means “wise one” or “wizard”. There are many clues indicating who exactly this wizard is. To understand what the identity of The Stranger might be, it’s important to look into the deeper lore that Tolkien wrote about their arrival in Middle-earth. Tolkien explains how the Istari were five wizards sent to Middle-earth by the Valar as emissaries to help people in their fight against Sauron. There are differing accounts as to when the Istari arrived in Middle-earth, but the most recent version Tolkien spoke about fits far better with the timeline unfolding in the show than the original.
The Blue Wizards Arrived First
The first Istari sent to Middle-earth to fight against Sauron are the two blue wizards named Alatar and Pallando. Alatar had been chosen by the Valar Orome, the hunter. Alatar didn’t want to go alone, though, so he asked his friend Pallando to join him. They arrive in Middle-earth on the western shore and wandered toward the eastern lands of Arda in the Second Age. During their travels, they became known as the Blue Wizards because of the sea-blue robes they wore. Tolkien also gave them newer names that he said the humans of Middle-earth bestowed on them, calling Alatar Morinehtar, which means “Darkness-slayer”, and naming Pallando Rómestámo, which stands for “East-helper”. Since their purpose was to help the people of middle earth fight Sauron, they began by trying to find where he was hiding. All the information they gathered at first led them east beyond the Southlands where a weakened Sauron was rumored to be actively building support from the Easterners.
Once Alatar and Pallando arrived in the eastern land of Rhûn, they began searching for Sauron’s hiding spot. This region had been historically loyal to Morgoth, whom they had known as Melkor. They worshiped Melkor because they feared his power, and those that loyally followed their Dark Lord commands soon found themselves in positions of power. After Morgoth’s defeat, though, it seemed that Sauron was working to recruit those followers to his cause as he remained in hiding. The blue wizards traveled the eastern regions of middle earth for centuries searching for Sauron. They aided many of the Easterners who rebelled against the forces of Sauron, but despite doing a lot of good otherwise, they never found Sauron in hiding. It’s likely he was always just a few steps ahead of the wizards with the help of his followers.
Building a Massive Rebellion in the East
Building a rebellion was another task that the Blue Wizards were responsible for. As they traveled and searched for Sauron, they also had to support those Easterners who “had rebelled from Melkor-worship”, according to Tolkien. They would encourage those who still worshiped him or Sauron to join the rebellion. Tolkien stated that they must’ve had an enormous influence on the Second and Third Ages, because of their success in weakening Sauron’s forces. They traveled mostly in the eastern lands of Rhûn and Khand searching for Sauron and disrupting his armies by radicalizing them. Their efforts made a significant difference in the final battle against Sauron in the third age because, without their support in building a rebellion, the Easterners would have dramatically outnumbered the Western forces, and Sauron could have won.
What Does This Mean For the Show?
So far, in The Rings of Power, we have only met one Istar and all we know to call him is The Stranger. In Tolkien’s lore, because Alatar was the first one chosen to travel Middle-earth to circumvent Sauron’s plans in the second age, this is the most likely identity of The Stranger. The greater indication that he’s Alatar the Blue Wizard is because he’s tasked to search the eastern lands to find Sauron in hiding, and the Hermit's Hat constellation The Stranger has been obsessed with is in the eastern lands. We learn where this constellation is when the Ascetic (Kali Kopae), the Nomad (Edith Poor) and the Dweller (Bridie Sisson) tell The Stranger that he needs to follow them to the East while they believe he’s Sauron. If The Stranger is indeed Alatar the Blue, viewers may have another wizard joining him in a future season of the show. Since Alatar asks Pallando to come with him right away, there’s a chance that this wizard could have arrived in Middle-earth at the same time, but just fell from the sky in a distant land. With multiple seasons left, it’s possible we may yet see the second Blue Wizard join the fight to stop Sauron in the east.
Tolkien’s Alternate Timeline of the Istari
In the original telling of the Istari’s arrival to Middle-earth, Tolkien had all five wizards arriving at the same time, in the middle of the Third Age just before the last battle against Sauron. They still traveled to the east, but just to fight Sauron’s forces, not to organize a rebellion or find Sauron in hiding. If you disregard Tolkien’s revamping of the two Blue wizard’s stories, then The Stranger could end up being any one of these five wizards. There are a lot of connections between The Stranger and the mannerisms and dialogue of Gandalf (Ian McKellan). When he whispered to the moth while Saruman (Christopher Lee) has him trapped on top of his tower in The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf's affinity for insects is reflected in the show with the lightning bugs as well as when he turns Sauron’s sorcerers into moths. He also repeats the line, “When in doubt, follow your nose,” when he doesn’t know which way to go, which is the same thing Gandalf says to Frodo (Elijah Wood) in the Mines of Moria. These connections are flimsy though, as all five of these beings are Istari and would have much of the same knowledge and feelings as the next. To bring Gandalf into The Rings of Power would drastically alter Tolkien’s origin story for the character, which could work, but it would make far more sense if the show runners made The Stranger one of the Blue wizards.