Gandalf

Olórin

Before the Sun and Moon, Gandalf was Olórin, one of the Maiar, the lesser spirits who came into the world with the Valar and served them. The Silmarillion places him in Lórien, the gardens of Irmo, but says that he went often to the house of Nienna, who grieves for the hurts of the world, and learned from her pity and patience.¹

Wisest of the Maiar was Olórin.

He loved the Elves and walked among them unseen, or in the form of one of them, and they did not know where the fair visions and wise thoughts he put into their hearts came from. Those two habits, influence rather than command and pity before judgement, are the whole of his later character.¹

The Istari

When a thousand years of the Third Age had passed and a shadow began to fall on Greenwood the Great, the Valar sent emissaries to Middle-earth. Unfinished Tales records the council at which they were chosen. Saruman and Radagast went at the Valar's bidding, but Olórin, asked to go, said that he was too weak for such a task and that he feared Sauron. Manwë answered that this was all the more reason why he should go.^3,2

They came in the shape of Men, old in seeming but vigorous, and aged only slowly. They were forbidden to match Sauron's power with power of their own, or to rule Elves and Men by force and fear: their task was to counsel and to rouse, not to dominate. Gandalf came last and seemed the least of them, less tall than the others and more aged.^3,2

Yet Círdan, who met him on landing at the Grey Havens, judged him the greatest of them in spirit, and gave him the ring he had kept since the Second Age: Narya, one of the Three. Saruman learned of the gift later and resented it.^3,2

For this is the Ring of Fire, and with it you may rekindle hearts in a world that grows chill.

Gandalf himself summed up his travels to Faramir: he went everywhere but the East.⁹

Olórin I was in my youth in the West that is forgotten, in the South Incánus, in the North Gandalf; to the East I go not.

The Grey Pilgrim

For two thousand years he had no fixed home. He was known among the Elves as Mithrandir, the Grey Pilgrim, and was a friend to Hobbits, famous in the Shire for his fireworks and a friend of the Old Took, long before any of the Wise thought hobbits important.^12,13,9

In 2063 he went into Dol Guldur, the fortress in southern Mirkwood of a sorcerer called the Necromancer. The Necromancer fled into the East, and the Watchful Peace followed, nearly four hundred years of quiet. When the shadow returned in 2460, the White Council of the Wise was formed three years later, with Saruman at its head; Galadriel had wanted Gandalf.^3,14

In 2850 Gandalf entered Dol Guldur a second time, in secret, and confirmed what he had feared: the Necromancer was Sauron. In its dungeons he found Thráin, father of Thorin Oakenshield, who gave him the map and key of the Lonely Mountain before he died. Gandalf urged the Council to attack; Saruman overruled him, already seeking the One Ring for himself.^3,15,14

The Quest of Erebor

The Hobbit shows the Quest of Erebor from Bilbo's side; Unfinished Tales gives Gandalf's reasons. He feared that Sauron, returning, would use the dragon Smaug against the North and against Rivendell. When he met Thorin by chance in Bree in 2941, he saw a way to remove the dragon and restore a strong kingdom under the Mountain.^16,15

His choice of Bilbo, a respectable hobbit who had never had an adventure, puzzled the Dwarves and has puzzled readers since. Gandalf's own account is that he wanted stealth rather than strength, and that he saw something in Bilbo that Bilbo did not yet see in himself.^16,12

He left the company at the edge of Mirkwood. While Bilbo and the Dwarves reached the Mountain, the White Council at last attacked Dol Guldur and drove Sauron out, though only because he was ready to go to Mordor. Gandalf returned in time for the Battle of Five Armies.^17,18,19,3

The long watch

After Bilbo's party in 3001 Gandalf suspected what the magic ring was. He set the Rangers to watch the Shire, and from 3009 he and Aragorn hunted for Gollum. In 3017 he found Isildur's scroll in the archives of Minas Tirith, and with Aragorn's captive Gollum he learned the rest. In April 3018 he came to Bag End and tested the Ring in Frodo's fire.^20,21,3

When Frodo wished that none of this had happened in his time, Gandalf's answer became the most quoted line in the book.²⁰

So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

When Frodo said it was a pity Bilbo had not killed Gollum, Gandalf answered with the argument for mercy on which the whole ending depends.²⁰

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

Frodo offered him the Ring and he refused it in fear, knowing it would reach him through his pity. He left the Shire in midsummer, meaning to return before Frodo set out. At Bree he left Frodo a letter that the innkeeper Butterbur forgot to send.^20,22

The trap at Orthanc

Radagast, unknowingly carrying Saruman's message, sent Gandalf to Isengard. There Saruman revealed his treachery, proposed an alliance with the rising power, or else the taking of the Ring for themselves, and when Gandalf refused, imprisoned him on the pinnacle of Orthanc on 10 July 3018.^21,8

He escaped on 18 September on the back of Gwaihir the Windlord, crossed Rohan, and tamed Shadowfax. He reached the Shire too late, found Frodo gone, and fought the Nazgûl on Weathertop on 3 October, days before Frodo was stabbed there. At the Ford of Bruinen, when Elrond loosed the flood on the Black Riders, Gandalf added the shapes of great white horses in its crest.^21,8,23

The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

At the Council of Elrond Gandalf joined the Fellowship as its guide. When Caradhras turned them back he led them into Moria, read the riddle of its West-gate, and brought them through the dark to the bridge at the eastern end. There, on 15 January 3019, the Balrog, Durin's Bane, overtook them, and Gandalf turned on the bridge to hold it.^21,24,25,8

I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.

He broke the bridge beneath the Balrog, but its whip caught his knees and dragged him over the edge. His last words to the Fellowship were a command.²⁵

Fly, you fools!

They fell together a very long way, through fire and into deep water, and fought through the roots of the mountain until the Balrog fled up the Endless Stair to the peak of Zirakzigil. There, in the Battle of the Peak, Gandalf threw down his enemy and died himself on 25 January.^6,8

Gandalf the White

His body lay on the peak, and his spirit passed out of thought and time. Then he was sent back.^6,8

Naked I was sent back – for a brief time, until my task is done.

Gwaihir found him on 17 February and carried him to Lórien, where he was healed and clothed in white. He met Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli in Fangorn on 1 March, and they took him at first for Saruman.^6,8

Yes, I am white now. Indeed I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have been.

Tolkien was clear that the death was real. The return was not the Valar's doing: Gandalf had passed beyond their authority, and what sent him back was greater than they. He came back with more power, and in a sense took Saruman's place as head of the Istari.^26,6,27

Gandalf really ‘died’, and was changed: for that seems to me the only real cheating, to represent anything that can be called ‘death’ as making no difference.

The White Rider

At Edoras on 2 March he broke Gríma Wormtongue's hold on King Théoden, who had called him Stormcrow and whom Gríma had named Láthspell, “Ill-news”. Théoden rode to war again, and gave him Shadowfax.^7,8

Gandalf did not fight at Helm's Deep. He left the king's host on the road and rode away alone to gather Erkenbrand's scattered riders, and on the morning of 4 March he came over the hill with them as the siege broke, while the trees that the Ents had sent destroyed the fleeing Orcs.^28,8

At Isengard he called Saruman out of Orthanc, offered him freedom, and when Saruman refused, cast him from the order of Wizards and broke his staff. Wormtongue threw the palantír of Orthanc down at them; Pippin looked into it that night, and Gandalf rode with him to Minas Tirith, arriving on 9 March.^27,29,8

In the siege of Gondor he led the defence while Denethor despaired. He rode out to drive off the Nazgûl when Faramir's men retreated, and when the Witch-king broke the city gate with the ram Grond on 15 March, Gandalf sat alone on Shadowfax in the gateway to bar his way. At that moment a cock crowed, and the horns of Rohan answered.^30,8

He turned from the battle to save Faramir from his father's pyre, and later argued for the desperate march to the Black Gate to draw Sauron's eye away from Frodo. There he refused the terms of the Mouth of Sauron, and took back from him Frodo's mithril coat, Sam's sword and an Elven cloak, the tokens meant to break their hope.^31,32,33

When the Ring was destroyed he flew to Mount Doom on Gwaihir to bring Frodo and Sam out of the fire.³⁴

His task done

At Aragorn's coronation on 1 May 3019, Frodo brought the crown and Gandalf set it on the king's head. Afterwards he took Aragorn up Mount Mindolluin and showed him a sapling of the White Tree growing among the snows.^35,8

He rode back with the hobbits as far as Bree, then left them to visit Tom Bombadil. He told them that they would have to deal with whatever they found at home themselves.³⁶

I am not coming to the Shire. You must settle its affairs yourselves; that is what you have been trained for.

On 29 September 3021, when Elrond and Galadriel came to the Grey Havens with Bilbo and Frodo, Gandalf was waiting beside Círdan. For the first time he wore Narya openly, and the stone on it was red as fire. He sailed into the West with them.^4,8

How Tolkien made him

The name comes from the Völuspá, an Old Norse poem whose list of dwarves includes Gandálfr, where Tolkien also found Thorin and his companions. In the earliest drafts of The Hobbit the wizard was called Bladorthin and Gandalf was the name of the chief dwarf.^37,38

Tolkien kept a postcard of a painting later identified as Josef Madlener's, Der Berggeist (“the mountain spirit”): an old man with a white beard and broad-brimmed hat, sitting under a pine with a fawn. He wrote on its cover that it was the origin of Gandalf.³⁹

Interpretation Gandalf's nature as an angelic spirit came later than the character. In The Hobbit he is simply a wizard; the Maia Olórin emerges in the legendarium written around and after The Lord of the Rings, which is why the Silmarillion account and Unfinished Tales say more about what he was than the novels ever do.^1,2

Timeline

1. T.A. c. 1000The Istari arrive. Círdan gives Narya to Gandalf.³
2. T.A. 2063Gandalf enters Dol Guldur; the Necromancer flees. The Watchful Peace begins.³
3. T.A. 2463The White Council is formed.³
4. T.A. 2850Gandalf discovers that the Necromancer is Sauron, and finds Thráin.³
5. T.A. 2941The Quest of Erebor. Sauron is driven from Dol Guldur.³
6. T.A. 3001Bilbo's party. Gandalf begins to suspect the Ring.³
7. T.A. 3009–3017Gandalf and Aragorn hunt Gollum at intervals.³
8. T.A. 3017Gandalf reads Isildur's scroll in Minas Tirith.³
9. T.A. 3018, AprilAt Bag End, Gandalf tests the Ring in fire.⁸
10. T.A. 3018, 10 July–18 Sept.Imprisoned in Orthanc; escapes on Gwaihir.⁸
11. T.A. 3018, 3 Oct.Attacked by the Nazgûl on Weathertop.⁸
12. T.A. 3019, 15 Jan.Falls from the Bridge of Khazad-dûm with the Balrog.⁸
13. T.A. 3019, 25 Jan.Casts down the Balrog on Zirakzigil, and dies.⁸
14. T.A. 3019, 14–15 Feb.Returns to life.⁸
15. T.A. 3019, 2 Mar.Heals Théoden at Edoras.⁸
16. T.A. 3019, 15 Mar.Bars the Witch-king at the broken Gate of Minas Tirith.⁸
17. T.A. 3019, 1 MayCrowns Aragorn King Elessar.⁸
18. T.A. 3021, 29 Sept.Sails from the Grey Havens.⁸

Names

Questions readers ask

Was Gandalf an angel?

In Tolkien's terms, yes. The Maiar are spirits who existed before the world and entered it to serve the Valar. Unfinished Tales is careful that the Istari's bodies were real, not feigned: they could hunger and thirst, tire and fear, and be slain.^1,2

Why didn't Gandalf simply overpower Sauron's servants?

Because he was forbidden to. The Istari were sent to counsel and to kindle courage, not to match Sauron's power with power or to rule by fear. When he does reveal his strength it is in defence: on the Bridge, against the Nazgûl over the Pelennor, at the gate of Minas Tirith.^3,2

Interpretation That restraint is the book's argument in miniature: the Ring offers exactly the opposite, the power to do good by compulsion, which is why Gandalf refuses it.²⁰

Who sent him back?

Gandalf says only that he “was sent back”. Tolkien's letter of 1954 explains that his death took him out of the Valar's jurisdiction, and that his return came from beyond them.^6,26

On screen

Where the best-known adaptation departs from the books. Nothing in this section is evidence for the books themselves.

In Jackson's Two Towers, Gandalf arrives at Helm's Deep with Éomer. In the book he brings Erkenbrand, and Éomer is inside the fortress throughout the siege.^40,28

The extended Return of the King shows the Witch-king breaking Gandalf's staff before the gate. In the book the confrontation ends without a blow when the horns of Rohan sound.^41,30

Gandalf's speech to Pippin in the film about the grey rain-curtain and white shores is adapted from the book's last chapter, where it describes what Frodo sees as he sails into the West.^42,4

Sources

Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.

• Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
• Appendices Tolkien's own appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
• Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Tolkien's late writings on the Elder Days, assembled by Christopher Tolkien from his father's papers.
• Tolkien's letters Tolkien explaining his own work. Authoritative on intent, but private and sometimes provisional.
• Drafts Earlier versions Tolkien changed or abandoned. Evidence of how the story grew, not of what is true in it.
• Scholarship Biographers and editors writing about Tolkien.
• Adaptation Films and other adaptations. Never evidence for the books.

1. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, “Valaquenta”, “Of the Maiar”
2. Edited posthumously Unfinished Tales, Part Four, II, “The Istari”
3. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Third Age”
4. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 9, “The Grey Havens”
5. Published story The Hobbit, ch. 3, “A Short Rest”
6. Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 5, “The White Rider”
7. Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 6, “The King of the Golden Hall”
8. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Great Years”
9. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 5, “The Window on the West”
10. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Appendix, “Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names”
11. Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 2, “The Riders of Rohan”
12. Published story The Hobbit, ch. 1, “An Unexpected Party”
13. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 1, “A Long-expected Party”
14. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”
15. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, III, “Durin's Folk”
16. Edited posthumously Unfinished Tales, Part Three, III, “The Quest of Erebor”
17. Published story The Hobbit, ch. 7, “Queer Lodgings”
18. Published story The Hobbit, ch. 17, “The Clouds Burst”
19. Published story The Hobbit, ch. 19, “The Last Stage”
20. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 2, “The Shadow of the Past”
21. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 2, “The Council of Elrond”
22. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 10, “Strider”
23. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 1, “Many Meetings”
24. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 4, “A Journey in the Dark”
25. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 5, “The Bridge of Khazad-dûm”
26. Tolkien's letters Letter 156, to Robert Murray, S.J. (1954)
27. Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 10, “The Voice of Saruman”
28. Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 7, “Helm's Deep”
29. Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 11, “The Palantír”
30. Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 4, “The Siege of Gondor”
31. Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 7, “The Pyre of Denethor”
32. Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 9, “The Last Debate”
33. Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 10, “The Black Gate Opens”
34. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 4, “The Field of Cormallen”
35. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 5, “The Steward and the King”
36. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 7, “Homeward Bound”
37. Drafts The History of The Hobbit, ed. John D. Rateliff, the first phase of the manuscript
38. Scholarship The Annotated Hobbit, ed. Douglas A. Anderson, notes to ch. 1
39. Scholarship Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, the account of the writing of The Hobbit
40. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Two Towers (2002)
41. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Return of the King (2003), extended edition
42. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Return of the King (2003)