Editing Gandalf (section)

===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]]
|}