Deep down in Moria, the big G faces the big B and utters something about ‘the secret fire’ and ‘the flame of Arnor.’ What’s all this, then?
He’s name-dropping, trying to warn the balrog that he’s down with Illuvatar, the boss of the universe.
Illuvatar, huh? I met Richard Kind once.
I always got the impression that he was telling the big B, “Fire? Pshah - I own you, buddy.”
Now, that “shadow” bit seemed to be a different story.
FTR, it was the flame of Anor. Anor = the sun.
It’s something mystic or magical. The balrog has a dark fire (the flame of Udun, from memory) while Gandalf has a white fire (the flame of Anor.) Kind of like, an angel facing a devil, or the fires of heaven against the dark fires of hell.
“Flame of Anor” = “the (purging and purifying) light of the Sun” The phrasing makes reference to the origin of the sun from the last fruit of one of the Two Trees created by the Valar to give light to the world.
“Secret fire” = Tolkien’s metaphor for the Holy Spirit (this is in his letters)
Gandalf is literally two steps below God, and this is where he’s revealing himself as such. For more detail on this than we could possibly go into here, read The Silmarillion, especially the first parts (the Ainulindule and the Valaquenta).
And “anor” is “sun”, but what Gandalf says is “arnor”. I can’t remember the exact translation, but it’s a bit more significant than just the Sun.