October 9, 2002

Big Jump in Reasoning
Brett C.

I have to honestly say that I don't understand where people got the idea that Gandalf jumped off in in any way deliberatley let go of the Bridge in Moria. In the book he is clearly dragged in by the demon's whip, as Annatar said. Even if there were any ambiguity in the test, which there is not, when he relates the tale to Aragorn and co. later in Fangorn he says of the Balrog during their fall "His fire was about me. I was burned." So the demon would have been pretty close to the wizard during the fall, with the flaming whip still coiled around Gandalf during the plunge.

In the movie, the whip lashes once around Gandalf's legs to overbalance him, then detaches. You can see it slither away, and when Gandalf drops it is clearly not still holding him. But that does not men he let go deliberatley. If you look at the bridge you can see that when he falls and catches himself the wizard's legs would be hanging in free space, below the lowest point of the stone, and he is essentially supporting his entire weight by the tips of his fingers. Anyone will tell you that in that position it's pretty hard for someone to pull themselves up, even if they haven't just wrestled and rampaging fire-spirit. I'm more than 19 and a half centuries younger than Gandalf and I'm not sure I could do it. He makes and effort, but ultimately lacks the strength to do more than hold on for the time it takes to tell the others to fly, then his strength gives out and he drops.

But maybe the easiest way to end this uncertainty is to get a hold of the movie script, which I belive was mentioned as being available for download some months ago. Or maybe visiting Sir Ian's website 'The Grey Book' and just ask him.

Hey, Annatar. Why don't you have an official website yet? The Black Tome, the Black Gate? MTV?