XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: jcb@inf.ed.ac.uk   
      
   On 2014-10-08, taxalot  wrote:   
   > 	Which begs the question : what the hell were the Istari doing during   
   > all this time ? Being sent to Middle Earth to defeat Sauron and then   
   > stumbling randomly on him centuries later, and acting completely shocked ?   
      
   I think part of the explanation lies in their incarnation. When Olórin   
   said he wasn't up to the job, and feared Sauron, he was a normal Maia,   
   and knew such things. But when the Istari were incarnated, they appear   
   to have lost a lot of their native power and knowledge. It's   
   completely unclear how, why, and to what extent this happened.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)