August 28, 2002

Gandalf's Wisdom
Danny

Gandalf knew even before Frodo began his quest that Frodo would not be able to take the last step and actually destroy the ring. Sorry for the double post, but I thought this was interesting enough to post as well.

Again in Shadow of the Past Gandalf tells Frodo to destroy the ring. Even far from Sauron's power, in the safety of his home, when the news of the Ring's threat to him and the world was impressed on his mind with the power of a shocking and deadly revelation at the moment it was revealed, Frodo couldn't even throw the ring into his fire. Gandalf wasn't surprised, but knew that it would happen.

The fear of the future, fear of what must be done, and the power of the shocking revelation in my mind would have rendered Frodo as frightened and anxious to destroy the ring as at any other moment in the journey. If in those circumstances, Frodo was unable to risk any harm to the Ring, Gandalf surely knew that in the heart of Sauron's realm, where even Galadriel's phial was overwhelmed by the dark power, Frodo would be even less capable of resisting the will of the ring.

So why take the risk, and take the journey? Gandalf knew that Frodo was meant to have the ring. He knew, as was pointed out, how the song of Illuvitar would unfold, and he was wise enough to trust in that. At this point, he didn't know who would bear the ring to its destruction, though I think he suspected all along that it would end up being Frodo.

So my point is that some have said that Gandalf failed, and trusted wrongly in Frodo. I disagree. He saw even at the begining that the Ring's power would look after itself, but he also pointed out in the same conversation that there were two powers at work. He was wise to recognize that and to have the guts to trust the other power at work to play its part.

So Gandalf knew that Frodo, like all mortals was too weak to overcome the evil of the ring without the aid of a divine power (Illuvitar in this case. Perhaps the religous discussion would point out the paralell to Tolkien's beleifs, but that is beside the point.)

I also noticed at the end of the Hobbit, Gandalf asks Bilbo if he really beleived if all the things he did, and the luck he had was for his sole benefit. It seems that Gandalf's wisdom was perhaps in his ability to recognize the Song of Illuvitar in the weavings of the world, and to play his part in harmony with it.