<Tr> <Th> Race </Th> <Td> Maiar </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Book (s) </Th> <Td> The Hobbit 1937 (mentioned only) The Fellowship of the Ring 1954 The Silmarillion 1977 Unfinished Tales 1980 </Td> </Tr> <P> Radagast the Brown is a fictional character in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle - earth legendarium . He is one of the Istari, also known as "Wizards", who were sent by the angelic Valar to aid the Elves and Men of Middle - earth in their struggle against the Dark Lord Sauron . Radagast appears in The Lord of the Rings and Unfinished Tales, and is mentioned in The Hobbit and The Silmarillion . </P> <P> Unfinished Tales explains that Radagast, like the other Wizards, came from Valinor around the year 1000 of the Third Age of Middle - earth and was one of the Maiar . His original name was Aiwendil, meaning bird - friend in Tolkien's invented language of Quenya . The Vala Yavanna forced the wizard Saruman to accept Radagast as a companion, which, Tolkien says, may have been one of the reasons Saruman was contemptuous of him, to the point of scornfully calling him "simple" and "a fool". However, he was an ally and confidant of Gandalf, who describes him in The Hobbit as his "cousin". He was also friends with the skin - changer Beorn, who deemed him to be "not a bad fellow as wizards go" and also said to Gandalf that he "used to see him (Radagast) now and again". </P>

Who is the brown wizard in the hobbit