Posted: August 02, 2000 at 00:32:04: by Mordomin
: Gandalf seemed to be a little "spacey" when he first came upon A-G-L, though he was back to his old self by the end of the chapter, ready to heal Theoden and rouse Rohan.
: But he's spent most of his time since his "resurrection" either recuperating (in Lothlorien, a place noted for altered states of consciousness) or somehow engaged in disembodied combat with Sauron (as the "Voice" that contested Sauron's eye when Frodo wore the Ring on Amon-Hen).I would have said "disoriented" or possibly even "eccentric". But I see your point and agree with it, so why quibble over semantics. :) : So after all that, Gandalf needed some grounding, and where would he find a more appropriately earthy place than Fangorn? I don't think he had any purpose more than that, settle down, see what was what and who was where and rejoin the game as best he could.
: (And he needed "wheels" or "hooves" to be more precise, so maybe he was in the Rohan neighborhood so as to hook up with Shadowfax, and everything else that happened was a consequence of that need!) Well, here I diverge from you, as I believe got his "grounding" took place in Lorien. Certainly he learned "what was what and who was where" from Galadriel, not Treebeard. Perhaps something she told him caused him to head out from Lorien before he was quite "grounded". But in any case, he did need wheels, er hooves, er Shadowfax. If he had just needed 'hooves' he could have just taken the Balrog's, since he wasn't needin' 'em anymore, LOL. : Meeting A-G-L in Fangorn was a fortunate coincidence, as he seems to say, (he didn't know Sam had gone with Frodo, for all he knew Aragorn could have accompanied an unfallen Boromir to Minas Tirith or even be scouting the road to Mordor) : Before he was sufficiently grounded I doubt Gandalf could have roused the Ents: that was purely fortuitous, a result of M&P's innocent giving of news, not of calculation: I don't think Ents are susceptible of being manipulated, and, not having been roused in all of Gandalf's time on this shore, he might not have known it was possible (he says Saruman had neglected to take the ents into account, but not whether he had or not). In any event, Treebeard only hints that he may have seen Gandalf, not that he spoke with him. Well, as to "Ents not being susceptible to manipulation", I think you are forgetting Saruman talking his way out of Orthanc. : If Gandalf had any reason to be in the neighborhood it was to hook up with Shadowfax and then on to Rohan. That's a good reason. But maybe it wasn't his only reason.
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