At “may never return” he began to feel a shriek coming up inside, and very soon it burst out like a whistle of an engine coming out of a tunnel.
In both cases, Tolkien was trying to use a simile that his readers would understand. In neither case was this language used by the characters of the novels, and there was no implication that trains existed in Middle-earth.
Like @Dr.Strangelove I can’t find any other references to trains in any books, including unpublished drafts to the stories. The closest they came was the machinery in the Shire at the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was causing pollution and corrupting Bywater.
“If you had dusted the mantelpiece you would have found this just under
the clock,” said Gandalf, handing Bilbo a note (written, of course, on his
own note-paper).
Also
He was blowing the most enormous smoke-rings, and
wherever he told one to go, it went-up the chimney, or behind the clock on
the mantelpiece, or under the table, or round and round the ceiling; but
wherever it went it was not quick enough to escape Gandalf.
Dwarves didn’t like matches and preferred tinderboxes but did make wonderous mechanical toys I believe. I’ll have to find a quote to support this.
From the Hobbit:
not to speak of the most marvellous and magical toys, the like of which is not to be found in the world now-a-days. So my grandfather’s halls became full of armour and jewels and carvings and cups, and the toy-market of Dale was the wonder of the North.
From the Fellowship:
On this occasion the presents were unusually good. The hobbit-children
were so excited that for a while they almost forgot about eating. There were
toys the like of which they had never seen before, all beautiful and some
obviously magical. Many of them had indeed been ordered a year before, and had come all the way from the Mountain and from Dale, and were of real
dwarf-make.
So no confirmation they were mechanical, but the strong impression they were.
Basically, it’s a history of the Blue Wizards. If we go by The Professor’s later writing (and assuming the producers are forbidden from directly contradicting the published works) I think it’s highly likely that The Stranger is one of the Blue Wizards.
The Hobbits plus the “follow your nose” thing makes me damn near certain that the writers intend for us to think it’s Gandalf. Those were intentional writing decisions, not coincidences.
Yes, there is absolutely no way that a series intended for general audiences who know the LotR movies (and maybe the books) would throw in the Blue Wizards as a mystery. That reveal would excite 1% of the audience and confuse or piss off 99%.
Possibly Gandalf (familiar to general audiences) filling the function of the Blue Wizards in tamping down Sauron’s influence in the East. The East would be a completely new area for the series to create and explore. It would be implied that he eventually wandered back to the West in the Third Age.
That’s the thing. I keep hearing that The Stranger is Gandalf, but he can’t be. Olórin was not sent to Middle Earth as Gandalf until after the Third Age had long started. Tolkien had hinted that the Blue Wizards had come over in The Second Age, and they did go east to Rhûn. He may be one of them.
The Show-runners don’t care too much for known things. So they might have the Stranger be Gandalf or he could easily be either of the Blue Wizards, who of course came by boat together. Considering Gandalf’s close association with the Hobbits, landing among their ancestors does fit.
The last words the Professor wrote on the Blue Wizards is they came over in the 2nd age. Strong possibility Glorfindel also returned in the 2nd age as another messenger/servant to the Valar.
Given that none of the other characters are true to their book history, no reason to expect Gandalf would be. Galadriel should married to Celeborn and ruling in Lindon instead of galivanting around playing warrior-princess.
Agreed, although I’d say it slightly differently. I think they do care a fig. But they care a whole fig orchard for appealing to the masses, and that’s always going to win when strict Tolkien lore comes into conflict with mass appeal.
If it was revealed that the Stranger was a Blue Wizard, 1% of the audience would think it was cool, and 99% would say “a what wizard?”
Add in the quip about following his nose, and it’s 100% sure that the Stranger is Gandalf.
After that “From shadow you came, to shadow I bid you return” sequence with the proto-Nazgul, there’s roughly a 0% chance of that character being anyone other than Gandalf.
