Perhaps my memory has gone fuzzy, as it’s been some years since I read the Lord of the Rings books. So my question is based mostly on what I’ve seen in the movies. I can recall Gandalf performing acts resembling spellcasting only three times:
1- blowing a “smoke ship” while enjoying some pipeweed with Frodo
2- making a glowing shield thingy while bellowing “You shall not pass!” at the balrog
3 - firing his 1920s-style death ray to drive the dragons away from the Rohan soldiers
Wait, make that 4 - telekinetic combat with Saruman in the first movie.
So it seems to me that Gandalf performs relatively little actual magic, considering his widespread fame as a powerful wizard. Have I missed something? He seems to possess an extraordinary ability to rally people to action, but other than that and the minor spellcasting listed above, what kind of wizard is he, exactly?
One of my favorite bits of Gandalf magic from the books that was left out of the movies is when he causes the trees to burst into flame at the top of the hill outside the Moria gate when the Fellowship is fighting the Wolves in FOTR.
Gandalf’s fireworks must involve some magic; from Tolkien’s description, the dragon effect is not something you could produce with ordinary (our-world) fireworks.
In Moria, when they are attacked, Gandalf tells the others to move on while he stays behind; this is one of the few places where Gandalf overtly uses RPG-style magic:
Gandalf frequently uses his staff to produce artificial light. Magic.
Gandalf fights the Rightwraiths at Weathertop. Frodo and company sees a strange sort of fireworks display from afar, and later, at Rivendell, learns that this was Gandalf whipping up his magic powers. This was not included in the film, in particular because its order of events is quite different from the book.
Gandalf fights the Balrog. This in itself implies tremendous superhuman powers. The Balrog isn’t just any old monster, it’s one of the supernatural creations of Morgoth, who was Sauron’s boss in the old days and a bona fide god, before he was vanquished and cast into the Void by his peers. Gandalf does kill off the Balrog, but his own body is killed in the process.
At the Ford of Bruinen outside Rivendell, it is Elrond who marshals the river into a great flood that washes away the Ringwraiths, but Gandalf adds:
At Isengard, Gandalf breaks Saruman’s staff by magical means:
As for your points, #1 and #4 are only in the films. I’m not sure about #3, the “glowing shield thingy” in Moria that you mention. Gandalf uses his staff to sunder the bridge. He doesn’t create a “shield”.
Gandalf certainly is a very powerful man, or rather, demigod; he is one of the Maiar, the order of angel-like beings to which Sauron and the other wizards also belong. In fact, Tolkien at one point suggested that if anyone could fight Sauron “mano a mano”, Gandalf might do it, if in possession of the ring.
Gandalf is one of the Istari, a secret group of Maiar disguised as old men who have been sent to Middle Earth to help out with the Sauron business; Saruman is considered the head of this order, and the wizard Radagast also figures in the book. They are not permitted to wield the full extent of their powers while in Middle Earth, which explains Gandalf’s somewhat minimalistic wizardy. I can dig up the references in The Silmarillion and/or in Unfinished Tales if you like.
I know someone can put this into better words than I can. If Gandalf used all his magic all the time, then the stories wouldn’t be that interesting, would they? In The Hobbit, if Gandalf stayed with the dwarves and saved them from the spiders and the woodelves and killed the dragon and never let anyone else do anything, what kind of teacher would he be? He allowed Bilbo to find his courage and show others just how smart he was. He allowed Bard to become king. He gave help when needed but did not do everything for others, much like a parent with children. As Granny Weatherwax said, you can’t help much with magic, but you can with skin.
As for your question, he is muy caliente. Rrrrrrowwwrrr.
In Tolkien’s world, “wizard” come to encompass loremaster (knowledge of the past and history) and wonder-worker.
Magic in Middle-Earth is not as visual as magic in RPGs. One of example would be Saurman. Throughout the whole book he threw no balls of fire, or call down any lightning bolt at all. For the head of the Istari, he seems to do very little wonder. When the ents attacked, all he did was to set in motion some machinery.
Gandalf is the only one who can stand up to the Nazgul. Remember during the siege at Minas Tirith and Pelennor Field, that everyone fled in fear of the Nazgul, Gandalf is one of the few who dared to stand up to the Nazgul. It suggests some form of inner contest of will and power.
One notable passage about magic is when Sam said to Galadriel that he wished to see some elf-magic. When Galadriel brought the hobbits to the Mirror of Galadriel, she mentioned that it might be the elf-magic which Sam wanted to see, but she don’t understand what he meant by ‘magic’, for it is also a term used to describe the dark arts practised by Sauron.
One of the greatest ability of Gandalf is to inspire hope and courage within the hearts of men, which is partly due to the Elven Ring he wore (I forgot which one it is, but it is the Elven Ring of Fire). This is noticable, at least during in the movie, how he is about to prevent his men from fleeing.
One of the important thing to remember is that Gandalf is “a servant of the secret fire, the flame of Arnor”. He may be able to command the very element of fire and light without any secondary medium like ‘magic’. But that’s my own views.
Gandalf is an Ainur, a being who sprang fully formed from the mind of The Creator, and existed before the making of the world or even the creation of time. So was the Balrog. So was Morgoth, and Sauron, and Saruman. And Radaghast. All the Ainur actually took part in the creation of the world.
The Powers chose 5 of their own kind to become Istari, or “wizards” and sent them to middle-earth in the 3rd age to combat the evils of Sauron. But they were not to meet force with force. Their mission was to encourage and persuade the foes of Sauron to act.
So Gandalf was quite powerful, but while incarnated as a “wizard” he was constrained from revealing or using his true strength, except in very specific circumstances. His body was mortal and could suffer harm and death; he grew tired and hungry and lonely and all the baggage that went with having a mortal body.
After his physical body died after slaying the Balrog’s body, he got an “upgrade” and also permission to act a bit more “forcefully” when necessary. He even commented after his return as Gandalf the White that no foe save Sauron could harm him now. But he still was constrained from challenging Sauron directly.
Also, don’t forget that Gandalf is wearing one of the three Elven Rings of Power, which were subject to the One Ring but not tainted by it. Narya, the Ring of Fire, gave Gandalf the ability to “rekindle hearts in a world that grows chill,” which is why he can inspire people to great feats of courage and resistance in the face of seemingly-overwhelming evil. It may also help him make fireworks
This article mentions the classic D&D answer, which was that Gandalf iwas a 5th level magic user, and attempts to answer the question from a 3rd edition d20-based D&D perspective.
I could not find the original Bill Seligman Dragon Magazine article reproduced on the Web. I would be interested in reading it.
Its worse than that: The Balrog was not created by Sauron, but rather it was one of the Maiar much as Sauron. Less powerful than the Dark Lord, and much less skilled in Lore, but nevertheless one of Gandalf’s own brothers. This was no monster - this was a demigod every bit Gandalf’s equal.
I’ve always found it interesting that Tolkien created a race (the Ainur) who, when viewed from a Judeo/Christian perspective were prettly clearly equivalent to angels, but also took on the roles of gods similar to those in the Greek and Norse pantheons. Pretty clever mythological rationalization as well as very entertaining.
Well, as I understand it, JRRT never meant to supplant the creations stories in the Bible, but rather to describe the creation from another (albeit mythical) perspective. He apparently envisioned the events detailed in Genesis, etc. as occuring “back east”.
