I ett brev som skrivits under skrivandet av The Unfinished Tales , där Tolkien först namngav Alatar och Pallando, även kallad Morinehtar och Romestámo, skrev han om dem:
Men i The Middle Earths folk , som skrivits av Tolkien under de senaste åren av hans liv, sa han att de blåa trollkarlarna hade lyckats vända konfliktvattnen i öst under andra och tredje åren. Om det här är en översyn av vad han tidigare skrev, eller om de ursprungligen var framgångsrika och sedan föll, är det inte känt.I think they went as emissaries to distant regions, East and South, far out of Numenorean range: missionaries to enemy-occupied lands, as it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders or beginners of secret cults and 'magic' traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.
Citatet från Medelvärldens folk är följande:
The other two are only known to (have) exist(ed) [sic] by Saruman, Gandalf, and Radagast, and Saruman in his wrath mentioning five was letting out a piece of private information.
The 'other two' came much earlier, at the same time probably as Glorfindel, when matters became very dangerous in the Second Age. Glorfindel was sent to aid Elrond and was (though not yet said) pre-eminent in the war in Eriador. But the other two Istari were sent for a different purpose. Morinehtar and Rómestámo. Darkness-slayer and East-helper. Their task was to circumvent Sauron: to bring help to the few tribes of Men that had rebelled from Melkor-worship, to stir up rebellion ... and after his first fall to search out his hiding (in which they failed) and to cause [? dissension and disarray] among the dark East ... They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East ... who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have ... outnumbered the West.