"The White Rider" - Ben's Thoughts

So Gandalf is back. Let's get right down to it -- as a child, and still today, I was always vaguely unsettled by Gandalf the White. I believe that Tolkien writes him subtly differently than he did Gandalf the Grey, which is for the best and to be expected. But there was always something about him that was, well, a bit OFF to me about the character afterwards, like there was someone else entirely swimming around inside Gandalf's skin.

And I think the text, to some degree, supports this feeling on my part. Aragorn and company are completely unable to recognize Gandalf prior to the reveal of his face. I know they are not expecting to see someone who is dead, but his gait, his stance, and even his voice are not recognized. Tolkien doesn't quite come out and say it, but it's pretty clear that a spell of some kind has been laid to prevent them from attacking or doing much of anything while the wizard approaches. And then, once Legolas and Aragorn name him (Legolas, of course, with the Elvish "Mithrandir!") Gandalf's voice "was the voice of their old friend and guide." Heavily implied, of course, is the fact that prior to that point, it had not been the same at all!

Of course at this point in our lives our perception of Gandalf the White is hopelessly muddled up with Jackson's version -- the noble, calm, and reassuring Gandalf the White that laughs helplessly while Merry and Pippin jump on Frodo's bed. This Gandalf, however, is one that inspires both joy and fear, and who proclaims himself the second most dangerous (not powerful, but dangerous) being in Middle-earth. This is a Gandalf who does not even remember his own name until Aragorn and Legolas tell him. ("'As for my name!'" Gandalf says to himself before he is unmasked, laughing at the joke none of the others get: he can't tell them because he does not remember.) In some alternate universe, Tolkien takes Gandalf down a darker path and he becomes the Big Evil of a LOTR sequel.

We'll see if my subtle sense of "squick" at Gandalf's new incarnation carries forward as I read. I mention it here because it brought home for me the sense of disappointment that I always felt as a child towards this new Gandalf -- this is a different character than the one we grew to love in The Hobbit and "Fellowship." As he says: "'I have forgotten much that I thought I knew' [in other words, incorrect or false perceptions he had picked up as Gandalf the Grey] 'and learned again much that I had forgotten' [reclaiming knowledge from his true incarnation of a god-like Maia]".

The description of the battle between Gandalf and the Balrog is suitably epic and frustratingly opaque. The description, as ever, is marvelous: "His fire was quenched, but now he was a thing of slime, stronger than a strangling snake." "Thunder they heard, and lightning, they said, smote upon Celebdil, and leaped back broken into tongues of fire. . . . A great smoke rose about us, vapour and steam. Ice fell like rain." It's probably good that Tolkien didn't dwell too long on this fight, because it's only tangential to the story; the Balrog is a relic of Morgoth's evil that really has little place in LOTR; I know I wrote about this back in "Fellowship," but it's unclear whether the Balrog would have even followed Sauron's commands at all had he summoned it or sought to use it in the war. It's perhaps telling that Sauron did not have the Balrog at his command; I find it unlikely that he wouldn't have perceived its precense in Moria when he can perceive other Maia, Gandalf in particular, so keenly. If he knew it was there, he would have tried to use it if he could. The fact that he didn't speaks volumes. Sauron's power is much diminished from that of past ages.

That's about it from this chapter. There are some curious discrepancies regarding the age of Treebeard versus the Elves: Gandalf refers to Treebeard as "the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-earth." Well, we know that Galadriel came from Valinor in the first Age; Cirdan at the Havens as well is an ancient Elf; so is Treebeard really older than Galadriel? Perhaps Galadriel was born in Valinor after the Ents' awakening in Middle-earth. Interesting food for thought. Other tidbits include marginal characterization of Gimli as a debbie downer and all-around pessimist, but also as the most pragmatic member of the team when he recommends "axe-ing first, axe-ing questions later" when the wizard appears and Our Heroes think it's Saruman. Gandalf punctures the balloon of competence that is the reader's perception of Saruman, as well, when he basically writes him off as having already lost this war, and saying that "I look into his mind and I see his doubt."

Good chapter, good setup for the rest of Book III, but Gandalf is kinda weird and scary. That's all I've got.