The White Council

Re: Just who can hinder Gandalf?

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: : : : : : Aragorn says to the hobbits at The Prancing Pony that he knows of nothing else except the Nine (and Sauron himself) that could have made Gandalf be late. Just what does this mean? What if he had run into a couple of hundred orcs, who says something like that couldn't have done him in? : : : : : : -Foradan

: : : : : Nice point. My guess (just a guess) is that this functions in the text mainly to foreshadow Saruman's betrayal -- Aragorn doesn't even consider this possibility, for obvious reasons. Neither does he consider whether, say, Galadriel could keep Gandalf trapped in Lorien if she wanted to (could she? I bet she could).

: : : : : In other words, maybe this is not quite meant as a factual statement (after all, a mere pulled hamstring could have shut Gandalf down for days if not weeks), but as the sort of bold statement made quite often in heroic literature, in this case making a nice juxtaposition with Saruman's soon-to-be-revealed treachery.

: : : : : : : : It also works with the earlier version where Gandalf was penned up by the Nazgul in a tower. Dont have Return of the Shadow to double check though. : : : : : Just a thought.

: : : : : -maca

: : : I beleive he was in reference to the known baddies in the area at the TIME, not anywhere in ME

: : I would agree, if it weren't for the further reference to Sauron, who I'm sure Aragorn didn't mean to suggest might be roaming Eriador.

: Or perhaps he is trying not to scare the Hobbits into panic. : Or perhaps Aragorn just isn't that worldly wise - he did not for example know about the Balrog at this point in the story, or Saruman's treachery (as we have seen). : An army of any reasonable size could have held him up - see the Hobbit and the 'party in the trees'. : A volcano, a load of spies, missing his train, all of these things could have made him late (take a detour??), Aragorn is being his usual 'lets use the superlative rather than reason things through' self. : In short, the words that a character says are not a general rule of law.

I seem to recall Gandalf, along with the dwarves and Bilbo, being treed by orcs and wargs at one point on the journey to Erebor and being saved by the Eagles. The book mentioned that he was scared although he tried not to show it. He was ready to go out in a blaze of glory but at the last moment the Eagles showed up. I suppose that maybe he could've saved himself somehow had the dwarves and Bilbo not been with him? "Fifteen birds in five fir trees..."