Editing Gandalf (section)

== Analysis ==

=== Guide ===

Gandalf's role and importance was substantially increased in the conception of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', and in a letter of 1954, Tolkien refers to Gandalf as an "[[angel]] incarnate".<ref name="letters 156" group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#156 to R. Murray, SJ, November 1954 }}</ref> In the same letter Tolkien states he was given the form of an old man in order to limit his powers on Earth. Both in 1965 and 1971 Tolkien again refers to Gandalf as an angelic being.<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#268 to Miss A.P. Northey, January 1965 }}</ref><ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#325 to R. Green, July 1971 }}</ref>

In a 1946 letter, Tolkien stated that he thought of Gandalf as an "Odinic wanderer".<ref name="letters 107" group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#107 to [[Allen & Unwin]], December 1946 }}</ref> Other commentators have similarly compared Gandalf to the [[Norse mythology|Norse god]] [[Odin]] in his "Wanderer" guise—an old man with one eye, a long white beard, a wide brimmed hat, and a staff,<ref name="Jøn 1997">{{cite thesis |last=Jøn |first=A. Asbjørn |date=1997 |title=An investigation of the Teutonic god Óðinn; and a study of his relationship to J. R.R. Tolkien's character, Gandalf |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287195966 |publisher=[[University of New England (United States)|University of New England]] }}</ref><ref name="Burns 2005">{{cite book |first=Marjorie |last=Burns |author-link=Marjorie Burns |title=Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth |title-link=Perilous Realms |year=2005 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |isbn=0-8020-3806-9 |pages=95–101}}</ref> or likened him to [[Merlin]] of [[Matter of Britain#Arthurian cycle|Arthurian legend]] or the [[Jungian archetypes|Jungian archetype]] of the "[[wise old man]]".<ref>{{cite book | last=Lobdell | first=Jared |author-link=Jared Lobdell | title=A Tolkien Compass | publisher=[[Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court Publishing]] | date=1975 | isbn=0-87548-303-8 | page=[https://archive.org/details/tolkiencompass00lobd/page/33 33] | url=https://archive.org/details/tolkiencompass00lobd/page/33 }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;" 
|+ [[Marjorie Burns]]'s comparison of Gandalf and the Norse god Odin<ref name="Burns 2005"/>
|-
! Attribute !! Gandalf !! [[Odin]]
|-
| Accoutrements || "battered hat"<br/>cloak<br/>"thorny staff" || Epithet: "Long-hood"<br/>blue cloak<br/>a staff
|-
| Beard || "the grey", "old man" || Epithet: "Greybeard"
|-
| Appearance || the Istari (Wizards) "in simple guise,<br/>as it were of Men already old<br/>in years but hale in body,<br/>travellers and wanderers"<br/>as Tolkien wrote "a figure of<br/>'the Odinic wanderer'"<ref group=T>{{harvnb|Carpenter|2023|loc=#119 to Allen & Unwin, February 1949 }}</ref> || Epithets: "Wayweary",<br/>"Wayfarer", "Wanderer"
|-
| Power || with his staff || Epithet: "Bearer of the [Magic] Wand"
|-
| [[Eagle (Middle-earth)|Eagles]] || rescued repeatedly<br/>by eagles in ''The Hobbit''<br/>and ''Lord of the Rings'' || Associated with eagles;<br/>escapes from [[Jotunheim]]<br/>back to [[Asgard]] as an eagle
|}

In ''[[The Annotated Hobbit]]'', [[Douglas A. Anderson|Douglas Anderson]] likens Gandalf's role to the ''[[Rübezahl]]'' mountain spirit of German folktales. He states that the figure can appear as "a guide, a messenger, or a farmer", often depicted as "a bearded man with a staff".{{sfn|Tolkien|1937|pp=148–149}}

<gallery mode="packed" widths=150px heights=220px>
File:Georg von Rosen - Oden som vandringsman, 1886 (Odin, the Wanderer).jpg|''[[Odin]], the Wanderer'' by [[Georg von Rosen]], 1886<ref name="Jøn 1997"/> 
File:Rubezahl - deutsche Volksmarchen 1903 (142146889) Bearded Guide with Staff.jpg|The ''[[Rübezahl]]'' as a bearded guide with staff, in a 1903 illustration{{sfn|Tolkien|1937|pp=148–149}}
File:GANDALF.jpg|Gandalf, by 'Nidoart', 2013
</gallery>

The Tolkien scholar Charles W. Nelson described Gandalf as a "guide who .. assists a major character on a journey or quest .. to unusual and distant places". He noted that in both ''The Fellowship of the Ring'' and ''The Hobbit'', Tolkien presents Gandalf in these terms. Immediately after the [[Council of Elrond]], Gandalf tells the [[Fellowship of the Ring (characters)|Fellowship]]:<ref name="Nelson 2002">{{cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Charles W. |title=From Gollum to Gandalf: The Guide Figures in J. R. R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" |journal=[[Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts]] |date=2002 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=47–61 |jstor=43308562}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Someone said that intelligence would be needed in the party. He was right. I think I shall come with you.<ref name="Nelson 2002"/>}}

Nelson notes the similarity between this and [[Thorin Oakenshield|Thorin]]'s statement in ''The Hobbit'':<ref name="Nelson 2002"/>

{{blockquote|We shall soon .. start on our long journey, a journey from which some of us, or perhaps all of us (except our friend and counsellor, the ingenious wizard Gandalf) may never return.<ref name="Nelson 2002"/>}}

[[File:Dante and Virgil on the ice of lake Leucocytes.jpg|thumb|Earlier guide figure: [[Virgil]] guides [[Dante]] around the lowest circle of hell in [[Dante]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]''.<ref name="Nelson 2002"/> Painting by [[Gustave Doré]] ]]

Nelson gives as examples of the guide figure the [[Cumaean Sibyl]] who assisted [[Aeneas]] on his journey through the underworld in [[Virgil]]'s tale ''[[The Aeneid]]'', and then the figure of Virgil in [[Dante]]'s ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]'', directing, encouraging, and physically assisting Dante as he travels through hell. In English literature, Nelson notes, [[Thomas Malory]]'s ''[[Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' has the wizard Merlin teaching and directing [[King Arthur|Arthur]] to begin his journeys. Given these precedents, Nelson remarks, it was unsurprising that Tolkien should make use of a guide figure, endowing him, like these predecessors, with power, wisdom, experience, and practical knowledge, and "aware[ness] of [his] own limitations and [his] ranking in the order of the great".<ref name="Nelson 2002"/> Other characters who act as wise and good guides include [[Tom Bombadil]], [[Elrond]], [[Aragorn]], [[Galadriel]]—who he calls perhaps the most powerful of the guide figures—and briefly also [[Faramir]].<ref name="Nelson 2002"/>

Nelson writes that there is equally historical precedent for wicked guides, such as [[Edmund Spenser]]'s "evil palmers" in ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'', and suggests that [[Gollum]] functions as an evil guide, contrasted with Gandalf, in ''Lord of the Rings''. He notes that both Gollum and Gandalf are servants of The One, [[Eru Ilúvatar]], in the struggle against the forces of darkness, and "ironically" all of them, good and bad, are necessary to the success of the quest. He comments, too, that despite Gandalf's evident power, and the moment when he faces the [[Nazgûl|Lord of the Nazgûl]], he stays in the role of guide throughout, "never directly confront[ing] his enemies with his raw power."<ref name="Nelson 2002"/>

===Christ-figure===

{{further|Christianity in Middle-earth}}

The critic Anne C. Petty, writing about "[[Allegory]]" in the ''[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia]]'', discusses Gandalf's death and reappearance in [[Christianity|Christian]] terms. She cites Michael W. Maher, [[Society of Jesus|S.J.]]: "who could not think of Gandalf's descent into the pits of Moria and his return clothed in white as a death-[[resurrection]] motif?"<ref name="Petty 2013">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Petty |first=Anne C. |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael D. C. Drout |title=Allegory |encyclopedia=[[J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia|J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment]] |year=2013 |orig-year=2007 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-86511-1 |pages=6–7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Maher |first=Michael W. |editor-last=Chance |editor-first=Jane |editor-link=Jane Chance |chapter='A land without stain': medieval images of Mary and their use in the characterization of Galadriel |title=Tolkien the Medievalist |date=2003 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=225 |isbn=9780415289443}}</ref> She at once notes, however, that "such a narrow [allegorical] interpretation" limits the reader's imagination by demanding a single meaning for each character and event.<ref name="Petty 2013"/> Other scholars and theologians have likened Gandalf's return as a "gleaming white" figure to the [[Transfiguration of Jesus|transfiguration of Christ]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Chance |first=Jane |author-link=Jane Chance |title=Tolkien's Art |title-link=Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England' |date=1980 |orig-year=1979 |publisher=[[Papermac]] |isbn=978-0-333-29034-7 |page=42}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rutledge |first=Fleming |author-link=Fleming Rutledge |title=The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien's Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings |year=2004 |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] |isbn=978-0-80282-497-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FRiViwMylSUC |pages=157–159 |access-date=23 May 2022 |archive-date=20 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820125037/https://books.google.com/books?id=FRiViwMylSUC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Stucky>{{cite journal |last=Stucky |first=Mark |title=Middle Earth's Messianic Mythology Remixed: Gandalf's Death and Resurrection in Novel and Film |journal=[[Journal of Religion and Popular Culture]] |year=2006 |volume=13 |issue=Summer |page=3 |doi=10.3138/jrpc.13.1.003 |url=https://www.cinemaspirit.info/JRPC_archive/JRPC_06_MS_Middle_Earth_Messiah.pdf |access-date=10 June 2022 |archive-date=16 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616051939/https://www.cinemaspirit.info/JRPC_archive/JRPC_06_MS_Middle_Earth_Messiah.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

The philosopher [[Peter Kreeft]], like Tolkien a [[Roman Catholic]], observes that there is no one complete, concrete, visible [[Christ]] figure in ''The Lord of the Rings'' comparable to [[Aslan]] in [[C. S. Lewis]]'s [[Chronicles of Narnia]] series. However, Kreeft and Jean Chausse have identified reflections of the figure of Jesus Christ in three [[protagonist]]s of ''The Lord of the Rings'': Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn. While Chausse found "facets of the personality of Jesus" in them, Kreeft wrote that "they exemplify the Old Testament [[threefold office|threefold Messianic symbolism]] of [[prophet]] (Gandalf), [[priest]] (Frodo), and [[king]] (Aragorn)."<ref name="Kreeft 2005"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32FODDQdKLIC&q=Tolkien+Frodo+Christ&pg=PA33 |title=The Ring and the Cross: Christianity and the Lord of the Rings |editor-first=Paul E. |editor-last=Kerry |first=Paul E. |last=Kerry |pages=32–34 |publisher=[[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-61147-065-9 |access-date=31 October 2020 |archive-date=20 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820125038/https://books.google.com/books?id=32FODDQdKLIC&q=Tolkien+Frodo+Christ&pg=PA33 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Schultz |first=Forrest W. |title=Christian Typologies in The Lord of the Rings |url=https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/christian-typologies-in-the-lord-of-the-rings |publisher=[[Chalcedon Foundation|Chalcedon]] |access-date=26 March 2020 |date=1 December 2002 |archive-date=26 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200326091611/https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/christian-typologies-in-the-lord-of-the-rings |url-status=live }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto"
|+ Peter Kreeft's analysis of Christ-figures in ''Lord of the Rings''<ref name="Kreeft 2005">{{cite web |url=http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/pkreeft_christlotr_nov05.asp |title=The Presence of Christ in The Lord of the Rings |first=Peter J. |last=Kreeft |author-link=Peter Kreeft |work=Ignatius Insight |date=November 2005 |access-date=1 April 2020 |archive-date=24 November 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051124173906/http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/pkreeft_christlotr_nov05.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|-
! [[Christ]]-like attribute !! Gandalf !! [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]] !! [[Aragorn]]
|-
| <!--1-->[[Sacrificial]] death,<br/>[[Resurrection of Jesus|resurrection]]
| Dies in [[Moria (Middle-earth)|Moria]],<br/>reborn as Gandalf the White{{efn|Other commentators such as [[Jane Chance]] have compared this transformed reappearance to the [[Transfiguration of Jesus]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Nitzsche |first=Jane Chance |author-link=Jane Chance |title=Tolkien's Art |date=1980 |orig-year=1979 |publisher=[[Papermac]] |isbn=0-333-29034-8 |page=42}}</ref>}}
| Symbolically dies under Morgul-knife,<br/>healed by [[Elrond]]<ref>Also by other commentators, such as {{cite book |last=Mathews |first=Richard |title=Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vSpceyhof4IC&pg=PA69 |year=2016 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-136-78554-2 |page=69 |access-date=1 April 2020 |archive-date=20 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820125037/https://books.google.com/books?id=vSpceyhof4IC&pg=PA69 |url-status=live }}</ref>
| Takes [[Paths of the Dead]],<br/>reappears in [[Gondor]]
|-
| <!--2-->[[Redeemer (Christianity)|Saviour]]
| colspan="3"; style="text-align: center;" | All three help to save [[Middle-earth]] from [[Sauron]]
|-
| <!--3-->Threefold [[Messiah|Messianic]] symbolism
| style="text-align: center;" | [[Prophet]]
| style="text-align: center;" | [[Priest]]
| style="text-align: center;" | [[King]]
|}