The Wizards or Istari in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction were powerful angelic beings, Maiar, who took the form of Men to intervene in the affairs of Middle-earth in the Third Age, after catastrophically violent direct interventions by the Valar, and indeed by the one god Eru Ilúvatar, in the earlier ages.
Wizards like Gandalf were immortal Maiar, but took the form of Men.
Christopher Lee played Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as "a powerfully haunted and vindictive figure".
In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, Man and Men denote humans, whether male or female, in contrast to Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and other humanoid races.
Men are described as the second or younger people, created after the Elves, and differing from them in being mortal. Along with Ents and Dwarves, these are the "free peoples" of Middle-earth, differing from the enslaved peoples such as Orcs.
Tolkien modelled the Rohirrim, the Riders of Rohan, on the Anglo-Saxons (here in an 11th-century illustration).
The Variags of Khand are named for the Varangians, medieval Germanic mercenaries. Painting by Viktor Vasnetsov
A sword fit for a hero: Andúril, "Flame of the West" is forged anew, "for Aragorn son of Arathorn was going to war upon the marches of Mordor".
