Five Wizards, or Istari, are named in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth writings.
The five are Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast, Alatar, and Pallando. They are Maiar spirits sent to Middle-earth in the Third Age to oppose Sauron, but they arrive in the forms of old men and are expected to guide its peoples rather than dominate them by force.
The best-known members are Gandalf the Grey and Saruman the White. Radagast is associated with animals and the natural world, while Alatar and Pallando travel into the East and are given little detail in the published narrative. The two eastern Wizards are sometimes called the Blue Wizards.
Readers sometimes count only the three Wizards prominent in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. That count omits the two Blue Wizards, whose names and mission are discussed in Tolkien’s wider writings and later editorial publications.