...being reminded of that actually made me feel better.

(I keep wanting to add 'O Tim'...sorry.)

Gandalf was based on Odin

Wild speculation ... after Radagast's death, Gandalf takes up Radagast's staff, thus explaining the difference between TH and LOTR

but all it actually says is "Radagast was not there". It doesn't say that he couldn't be found. It doesn't actually say anyone looked for him. I don't know about shops or fags but I would imagine him out walking and communing with nature rather a lot (rather than sitting in waiting for the doorbell perhaps).

LR

Many had gone east and south; and some of these had crossed the Mountains and entered Mirkwood, while others had climbed the pass at the source of the Gladden River, and had come down into Wilderland and over the Gladden Fields and so at length had reached the old home of Radagast at Rhosbobel. Radagast was not there; and they had returned over the high pass that was called the Dimrill Stair.

To return to the original thrust Tolkien certainly didn't go out of his way to explain Radagast's absence from the rest of the events of LOTR or his subsequent fate. This doesn't seem to have caused any uproar historically.

Either way, I doubt Raddy gets killed off . . . I think . . . no, bad way to put it . . . . . . . . . I have faith in the PJ and the writing team that they will not kill of a canon character . . . that's partof the reason they create new characters . . . some of them act as cannon fodder . . . pun not intended, but noted . . .and I can't think of any character located somewhere in Tolkien's writtings that they killed off, unless that is what Prof. Tolkien did to them.

My Opinion only . . .

Rhosghobel is mentioned as one of several specific locations. Perhaps they were borrowing sugar at each of those instead.

The purpose of the scouting is made perfectly plain in the following paragraph.

They stopped at Rhosghobel. Radagast wasn't there. The rest is supposition.

LR

It simply implies that while the scouts scoured Mirkwood for signs of the Black Riders, they stopped by Rhosgobel, likely with the intention of asking if he, or his animal friends, had seen anything.mas he wasn't there, and there were likely no signs of him nearby, the implication is that he is gone, or missing, from that area. But as he seems to be a well-travelled wizard, there is no indication that him not being at Rhosgobel, or in and around Mirkwood, constitutes 'missing.'

The primary objective of the scouts was to find information about the Black Riders, not to find Radagast. He was likely just one potential informant among many.

But as he seems to be a well-travelled wizard, there is no indication that him not being at Rhosgobel, or in and around Mirkwood, constitutes 'missing.'

Calling in on Radagast is clearly implied. Setting up camp for weeks on end or setting about searching for such a well travelled chap to the degree that the reader should believe he has gone missing is, to mind mind not. This latter was the context of the term "searching" in the conversation here.

LR