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	<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&amp;feedformat=atom&amp;user=Iluvatar</id>
	<title>Tolkien Gateway - User contributions [en]</title>
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	<updated>2026-06-04T19:19:39Z</updated>
	<subtitle>User contributions</subtitle>
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		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Hyarion&amp;diff=44709</id>
		<title>User talk:Hyarion</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Hyarion&amp;diff=44709"/>
		<updated>2007-06-13T01:54:27Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: /* The Hobbit Screenplay */&lt;/p&gt;
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* [[User_talk:Hyarion/Archive 1|2005]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[User_talk:Hyarion/Archive 2|2006]]&lt;br /&gt;
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== Spam ==&lt;br /&gt;
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Hey Hyarion,&lt;br /&gt;
I have found a problem in copying and pasting.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I was copying a paragraph on the Dwarves of the Iron Hills article and it brought up a questionaire instead of my paste.  So I thought I would let you know of that and see if you could fix it.&lt;br /&gt;
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Your wiking friend --[[User:Dwarf Lord|Dwarf Lord]] 01:09, 21 February 2007 (EST)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:Hm, just to make sure I&#039;m following; instead of pasting the text you had copied it pasted some questionnaire? Unfortunately (or fortunately) there is no way for any kind of spam to get into TG that way, my only guess is you accidently had something else copied during or after you attempted to copy the text. Sorry I couldn&#039;t be of more help, but I can assure you it&#039;s not related to TG. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 01:30, 21 February 2007 (EST)&lt;br /&gt;
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I thunk your right.  My brother gets those off the web and sends them to his friends so he may be the culprate. Thanks --[[User:Dwarf Lord|Dwarf Lord]] 13:02, 21 February 2007 (EST)&lt;br /&gt;
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== Simpson&#039;s Spoof ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I saw that the other night and I knew that it was going to be put up, awesome! One little problem, not really important, it was not UPS they were waging war with, it was a fictional group called the American Shipping Service, or A.S.S.(not to be confused with the human ass). I&#039;m sure you knew that, I&#039;m just splitting hairs. --[[User:Quidon88|Quidon88]] 15:13, 13 March 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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:Ya I liked it too :) I was going to put American Shipping Service but figured UPS was more simple and to the point. Do you think having an article on The Simpsons here with all the references to Tolkien/Lord of the Rings would be going too far? If I can find more references I think it may be worth it. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 15:20, 13 March 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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:Dude, that was an awesome clip! --[[User:Dwarf Lord|Dwarf Lord]] 19:54, 14 March 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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:I think any show like that, Family Guy, Simpsons, Futurama, etc. should have an article. I don&#039;t know if you&#039;ve ever heard of it, but there was a sitcom on Fox called That &#039;70s Show, and the sole reason I watched week after week was for the Star Wars references. Its not going to far at all, any reference Tolkien&#039;s masterpiece deserves a place on Tolkien Gateway, in my opinion.Info wise, I can help with that, but I&#039;ll leave the uploading of video to more experienced editors.--[[User:Quidon88|Quidon88]] 23:38, 14 March 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::I&#039;ve gone ahead and created an article for [[The Simpsons]], embedding the YouTube videos is easy, there&#039;s also a tag for Google Video: &amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;&amp;lt;googlevideo&amp;gt;8119893978710705002&amp;lt;/googlevideo&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;. Uploading our own video isn&#039;t quite complete yet, but you can see it in action [[Forum:Video_Player|here]]. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 00:13, 15 March 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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==Recent Vandalism==&lt;br /&gt;
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I believe you missed the vandalism on the article [[Dragons]].  I can&#039;t easily revert edits, and I&#039;m not sure if that&#039;s a privelige with administrators where you can just press a button and it is reverted or what.  Anyway, how do these vandals work, deleting all beyond a certain point?  They aren&#039;t all different people, are they? --[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 17:05, 17 April 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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:I hadn&#039;t missed it, just had yet to get to it :) I&#039;ve been busy in the chat giving away all the prizes and chatting with all the guest speakers, where you should be! Admins have a revert button, yes, but it&#039;s pretty simple for a regular user to revert as well, just click the history tab, click the link directly before the vandalism happened, and then click edit, save. The only reason these bots are getting through the filter is because they aren&#039;t adding external links so it&#039;s hard to catch them. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 17:09, 17 April 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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== Cluttered Edain pages ==&lt;br /&gt;
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Bit of a newbie suggestion concerning a merger but i&#039;ve checked the Wiki &#039;how to&#039; article and it doesnt cover it. There&#039;s an awful lot of pages in the Edain category which deal with much the same thing, pages like [[Three Houses of the Edain]]; [[House of Beor]]; [[First House of the Edain]]; [[People of Hador]] and many others, both to do with specific houses, characters after whom houses are named, and various specific terms (as in the case of some of the above). I would suggest some serious merging of all of these articles to form a more complete and coherent resource of imformation. Is that something i can do myself and simply havnt found out how or does it take more &#039;powers&#039; to mark something up for merging? Dr Death&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:You hit the nail on the head with adding the merge notices, although it might be easier if you simply add &amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;{{merge|Title of article}}&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt; this grabs what is located at Template:Merge and includes it automatically while inserting the variable. I think now we just need to figure out which title is the most common and place the article there. Keep up the great work! --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 11:59, 19 April 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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&amp;gt;&amp;gt; I beleive that the most obvious terms of use (and thus the name page titles) should be the &#039;House of...Beor/Haleth/Hador&#039;, though there is a strong case for the House of Haleth to be called the Haladin. The [[Three Houses of the Edain]] page should simply be a portion of the [[Edain]] page and it&#039;s that which i will endeavour to do when i have the time.&lt;br /&gt;
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== Change to Main Page ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Hello Hyarion!&lt;br /&gt;
Just wondered about adding a link to the Category index from the main page. As a new user I&#039;ve found catergory list in the special pages great, but there doesn&#039;t seem to be a link on the main page. Findegil&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:I think that&#039;s a good idea and if you like that page you might also like [[Index of categories]]. It has to be updated manually so it&#039;s missing a lot but hopefully we&#039;ll be able to create a nice tree-like structure for even easier navigation. I&#039;ll try and find a spot for it down by the A-Z list or something. Oh and you can sign your comments by clicking the signature button second from the right just above this textbox. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 12:11, 22 April 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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Thanks --[[User:Findegil|Findegil]] 13:45, 26 April 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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==Chat isn&#039;t working for me==&lt;br /&gt;
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Well, I&#039;m back, as you&#039;ve probably noticed.  I was hoping to communicate with you on Chat, but for the past three days I haven&#039;t been able to access it through the java links provided.  My browser keeps on saying &amp;quot;page not found&amp;quot;, etc.  I&#039;m not sure if it&#039;s my problem or that of the Chat itself. --[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 11:38, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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:By the way, was the issue of redirects ever cleared up?  Several editors are really leaping at the chance to redirect a lot of pages. --[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 11:41, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::Just cleaning up, Narfil. I apologise if i seem to be taking a liberty but i&#039;m using my best judgement in every redirect i make. [[User:Dr Death|Dr Death]] 12:46, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::Welcome back Narfil! The Java clients will be down for a while, I&#039;ll try and get them working this weekend, but your best bet is to get a real IRC client like [http://www.silverex.org/download/ XChat] and connect to irc.tolkiengateway.net. I don&#039;t think we&#039;ve come to a conclusion regarding redirects, but for now we should probably lay off converting anything into redirects as right now I think those who oppose yours and my views don&#039;t fully see the whole dictionary aspect and how much redirection would hurt that goal. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 13:37, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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:::I&#039;m not sure if you saw what I posted at the forum, but in short I said that I believed that it should only be converted into a redirect if it contains no more information that &amp;quot;this was another name for&amp;quot;, etc.  Of course, it might be an interesting idea if for such things (minor names) we could have references on that page to where that particular name was used.  Might be good if we could decide on a standard version of LotR/Sil/HoME, so we could add page numbers. --[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 14:28, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::::Ya I saw what you posted and I entirely agree. Everything about Gandalf should all be in the Gandalf article, however we can expand on his titles, when they were used, how they were derived, (by Tolkien as well as in-universe), etc. in Mithrandir, Olorin, etc. References is an issue I hope to tackle this summer, I&#039;d like everything to be based on paragraph seeing as this wouldn&#039;t change. And I&#039;ll create a website which will allow people to easily lookup and convert the paragraphs into their respected page numbers and visa versa. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 14:57, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::: Well to add a face to &#039;those who...&#039; i think it&#039;s worth pointing out that even dictionaries have &#039;see: X&#039; under some entries, redirection just cuts out the middleman. While i whole heartedly agree that full exploration should be given to every name and its entymology (for gods sake dont get me wrong on that) i still beleive that it should be done under a central article to what it applies so as to fascilitate a greater resource of information regarding the subject. If you really want to get pedantic wikis are online *encyclopedias* rather than dictionaries and so should provide the greatest and most comprehensive amount of information without having to piddle about with technicalities. I say this as much from the standpoint of a user as an editor. By all means have sections within a main article and redirect to those sections but there are too many technicalities (a recent new page for &#039;*The* War of Wrath&#039; rather than just &#039;War of Wrath&#039; prooves my point adequately as to how easily people can get mixed up). [[User:Dr Death|Dr Death]] 08:54, 9 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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:::: And I can see the benefit to that which is why I&#039;m not 100% decided on the issue either. However let us take [[Aragorn]] for example, where would the history behind the name be located at, Aragorn I or Aragorn II? Same goes for [[Boromir]], [[Minas Tirith]], and many more articles. Instead of having to replicate the information on the name on each article, Aragorn is a nice example of how the definition could be at the disambiguation article which links to articles with that name. &lt;br /&gt;
::::When we get more editors we will be able to vote on matters like this, it is just hard now with so few as we don&#039;t want to be swayed in the wrong direction by a one/two votes, which is why I guess we&#039;ll just have to focus on other matters until we all agree on something. Thanks for all your input and help by the way! &lt;br /&gt;
::::Looking back, I think we both have the same idea, but the issue is which article is the &amp;quot;central article&amp;quot;. Wikipedia, (and I think yourself?) would vote for Aragorn since it is the most popular and obvious. I tend to sway towards staying neutral and treating even the minor characters with equality, as one might say that just because Tolkien&#039;s stories focused more one one character, doesn&#039;t make them more important. This is obviously going to force the majority of users to make an extra click, but I&#039;m just a perfectionist like that :) --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 19:35, 9 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::::: In the case of disambiguation pages i am in utter and complete agreement with you. Considering that Tolkien Gateway is more specialist than wikipedia we should treat all subjects with identical names with complete equality (so long as we make it clear which is which) and if we include a translation of the name there for both cases then so much the better, since that page does have to exist. In those cases it may be worth giving a &#039;quick translation&#039; though in the character box if someone does go specific (so you dont have to go to [[Aragorn]] if you just want to know out of interest what [[Aragorn II]]&#039;s name translates as). &lt;br /&gt;
::::: The situations i am opposed to though are those when a name or term for any subject (which does tend to be characters but others suffer as well) which specifically refers to that one subject and has no context outside it (Mithrandir only ever refers to Gandalf in the writings of Tolkien) is given a whole page all to itself just because strictly speaking it could (rather than does) refer to something else (such as the case of Mithrandir- there may be another referred to as &#039;Grey Pilgrim&#039; out there but Tolkien never mentioned them). In those cases i beleive that entymology should be given to every such term but in a section the article of the sole subject it refers to rather than as an independant page.&lt;br /&gt;
::::: In the case of titles or tags which could refer to multiple things (say [[The Nine]], [[King under the Mountain]] etc. I beleive that they should be disambiguation pages with a little information on the term itself (much like occurs in the case of two characters called the same thing ([[Aragorn]] using the common example).) &lt;br /&gt;
::::: I beleive our notions are how to do things are closer than you think. The matter just seems to have been overlooked (that isnt meant as an insult, just a comment). However i&#039;m going to make it my business to really sort it out so as to provide the clearest possible way to find information on this site. [[User:Dr Death|Dr Death]] 08:12, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::::::A quick translation wouldn&#039;t be a bad idea in the infobox, though I do think we&#039;ll run into an issue when there is a translation multiple languages, such as a Mannish word has a translation in Black Speech, Quenya, Sindarin, etc. On all of the articles we are definitely trying to add Etymology sections however, which should also prove fairly quick in providing the meaning and history behind a name (both in-Arda and out-of-Arda).&lt;br /&gt;
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::::::I&#039;m glad we both agree on the disambig articles, and I can definitely see the benefit for an article such as Mithrandir to be a redirect. But here is the conflict: Articles such as those found in [[:Category:Quenya_words]]. If we agree that these articles of Quenya words are worth having, then we can deduce that the difference between an article such as [[Astar]] and [[Mithrandir]] is that Mithrandir is attributed to someone/something. To me that is like giving less importance to a &amp;quot;more important&amp;quot; article. I guess I&#039;m trying to just look at it from the perspective of a language expert using the wiki as a dictionary reference. Heh, sorry, I can be rather stubborn at times :) Thanks for bringing this up and hopefully we can set a standard for it as a lot of the wiki is not as standardized as I would like. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 09:34, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::::::: Well i mentioned briefly on the forum the difference between words in their pure form and in the form found in names. In names which usually consist of forms of at least two words of a different language. For example [[Gondor]] in its purest form would be Gondhdôr but is mutated to a far simpler form. I make no claim to be a linguistic expert but considering pretty much all names in middle earth whether they apply to a person or place are rendered into some form of elvish rather than &#039;The Queen&#039;s English&#039; to provide two entries for each: one for the word and another for what it refers to, seems to be all too much of a muchness (and would only be balanced by providing redirects to the subject matter for the word&#039;s translation in english). Far better to present the component words in their purest forms on their own page and provide the examples of use there while providing a &#039;quick translation&#039; on the page of what the hybrid words refer to (naturally linking to its componant parts). To me this sounds only like good sense, but i may be wrong. What do you think? [[User:Dr Death|Dr Death]] 10:50, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::::::::I&#039;ve gone ahead and thrown together a crude example at [[Mithrandir]]. A lot more could still be added to this article, and it just seems like we would be cramming a lot of information into Gandalf if we had to have similar sections for every single name Gandalf had. Anyway, I think both of us have our own, valid, opinions on the matter and we might as well just wait for a few more editors to voice their opinion until we can get a good majority before placing a final vote. Thanks for your input! --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 11:49, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::::::::: Yes, fair enoughski. Your article on Mithrandir is certainly a preferable format to what was there whem i redirected it to Gandalf but i cant help but feel it could have been summed up in a single short paragraph. Just to cobble together an example-&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;&#039;Mithrandir&#039;&#039;&#039; (pronounced &amp;quot;Meethra&#039;ndeerr&amp;quot;) [[Sindarin]] for &#039;Grey-Pilgrim/Wanderer&#039; (Olorin in [[Quenya]]: see above/below) used widely among the [[Elves]] &amp;lt;ref&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Mithrandir, Mithrandir sang the Elves, O Pilgrim Grey! For so they loved to call him.&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
– [[The Fellowship of the Ring]], [[The Mirror of Galadriel]] &amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; &lt;br /&gt;
, [[Gondorians]] &amp;lt;ref&amp;gt; &amp;quot;May you bring good councel to Denethor in his need, and to us all, Mithrandir!&#039; [[Ingold]] cried.&amp;quot; &amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; and [[Dúnedain]] &amp;lt;ref&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Dark indeed is the hour,&#039; said the old man, &#039;and at such times you are wont to come Mithrandir.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
- [[The Return of the King]], [[Minas Tirith (chapter)]] &amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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::::::::: So as you can see while the coding is pretty fiendish it can be done. But as you say, the deciding vote will be cast when there are more voters to make it. Until then we&#039;ll just have to tread carefully around each others edits :). [[User:Dr Death|Dr Death]] 13:21, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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::::::::::I would agree my example was rather stretched out and yours flows much better. This brings up yet another issue, we need a good template for our Elvish word articles, pronunciation mp3 link in the corner, image of the word in [[Tengwar]], standard headers/sections/etc. I think this discussion could go on forever so I better stop as we both have made some good points, I think in a few more months we should be able to make a final decision as TG grows. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 14:19, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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== The Hobbit Screenplay ==&lt;br /&gt;
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I&#039;m just stopping by to ask about [[the Hobbit screenplay]], I&#039;m contributing to it. First, I would want to ask you, is it still active? Second, I want to ask you, can you read my additions and make suggestions on the thing I just wrote. Third, when the time comes, give the script to Peter Jackson or whatever responsible director and he/she and his/her colleague(s) will to whatever they want to it. =)&lt;br /&gt;
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The book is really cool in my opinion, and I don&#039;t want some children&#039;s movie like Eragon or something like the 1980&#039;s adaption released in honor of this great book. =)&lt;br /&gt;
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Hope it isn&#039;t that much to ask! =)&lt;br /&gt;
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--[[User:Iluvatar|Iluvatar]] 21:53, 12 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Hyarion&amp;diff=44708</id>
		<title>User talk:Hyarion</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Hyarion&amp;diff=44708"/>
		<updated>2007-06-13T01:53:44Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: The Hobbit Screenplay&lt;/p&gt;
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== Spam ==&lt;br /&gt;
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Hey Hyarion,&lt;br /&gt;
I have found a problem in copying and pasting.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I was copying a paragraph on the Dwarves of the Iron Hills article and it brought up a questionaire instead of my paste.  So I thought I would let you know of that and see if you could fix it.&lt;br /&gt;
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Your wiking friend --[[User:Dwarf Lord|Dwarf Lord]] 01:09, 21 February 2007 (EST)&lt;br /&gt;
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:Hm, just to make sure I&#039;m following; instead of pasting the text you had copied it pasted some questionnaire? Unfortunately (or fortunately) there is no way for any kind of spam to get into TG that way, my only guess is you accidently had something else copied during or after you attempted to copy the text. Sorry I couldn&#039;t be of more help, but I can assure you it&#039;s not related to TG. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 01:30, 21 February 2007 (EST)&lt;br /&gt;
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I thunk your right.  My brother gets those off the web and sends them to his friends so he may be the culprate. Thanks --[[User:Dwarf Lord|Dwarf Lord]] 13:02, 21 February 2007 (EST)&lt;br /&gt;
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== Simpson&#039;s Spoof ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I saw that the other night and I knew that it was going to be put up, awesome! One little problem, not really important, it was not UPS they were waging war with, it was a fictional group called the American Shipping Service, or A.S.S.(not to be confused with the human ass). I&#039;m sure you knew that, I&#039;m just splitting hairs. --[[User:Quidon88|Quidon88]] 15:13, 13 March 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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:Ya I liked it too :) I was going to put American Shipping Service but figured UPS was more simple and to the point. Do you think having an article on The Simpsons here with all the references to Tolkien/Lord of the Rings would be going too far? If I can find more references I think it may be worth it. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 15:20, 13 March 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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:Dude, that was an awesome clip! --[[User:Dwarf Lord|Dwarf Lord]] 19:54, 14 March 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
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:I think any show like that, Family Guy, Simpsons, Futurama, etc. should have an article. I don&#039;t know if you&#039;ve ever heard of it, but there was a sitcom on Fox called That &#039;70s Show, and the sole reason I watched week after week was for the Star Wars references. Its not going to far at all, any reference Tolkien&#039;s masterpiece deserves a place on Tolkien Gateway, in my opinion.Info wise, I can help with that, but I&#039;ll leave the uploading of video to more experienced editors.--[[User:Quidon88|Quidon88]] 23:38, 14 March 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::I&#039;ve gone ahead and created an article for [[The Simpsons]], embedding the YouTube videos is easy, there&#039;s also a tag for Google Video: &amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;&amp;lt;googlevideo&amp;gt;8119893978710705002&amp;lt;/googlevideo&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;. Uploading our own video isn&#039;t quite complete yet, but you can see it in action [[Forum:Video_Player|here]]. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 00:13, 15 March 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Recent Vandalism==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I believe you missed the vandalism on the article [[Dragons]].  I can&#039;t easily revert edits, and I&#039;m not sure if that&#039;s a privelige with administrators where you can just press a button and it is reverted or what.  Anyway, how do these vandals work, deleting all beyond a certain point?  They aren&#039;t all different people, are they? --[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 17:05, 17 April 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:I hadn&#039;t missed it, just had yet to get to it :) I&#039;ve been busy in the chat giving away all the prizes and chatting with all the guest speakers, where you should be! Admins have a revert button, yes, but it&#039;s pretty simple for a regular user to revert as well, just click the history tab, click the link directly before the vandalism happened, and then click edit, save. The only reason these bots are getting through the filter is because they aren&#039;t adding external links so it&#039;s hard to catch them. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 17:09, 17 April 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Cluttered Edain pages ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bit of a newbie suggestion concerning a merger but i&#039;ve checked the Wiki &#039;how to&#039; article and it doesnt cover it. There&#039;s an awful lot of pages in the Edain category which deal with much the same thing, pages like [[Three Houses of the Edain]]; [[House of Beor]]; [[First House of the Edain]]; [[People of Hador]] and many others, both to do with specific houses, characters after whom houses are named, and various specific terms (as in the case of some of the above). I would suggest some serious merging of all of these articles to form a more complete and coherent resource of imformation. Is that something i can do myself and simply havnt found out how or does it take more &#039;powers&#039; to mark something up for merging? Dr Death&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:You hit the nail on the head with adding the merge notices, although it might be easier if you simply add &amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;{{merge|Title of article}}&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt; this grabs what is located at Template:Merge and includes it automatically while inserting the variable. I think now we just need to figure out which title is the most common and place the article there. Keep up the great work! --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 11:59, 19 April 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;gt;&amp;gt; I beleive that the most obvious terms of use (and thus the name page titles) should be the &#039;House of...Beor/Haleth/Hador&#039;, though there is a strong case for the House of Haleth to be called the Haladin. The [[Three Houses of the Edain]] page should simply be a portion of the [[Edain]] page and it&#039;s that which i will endeavour to do when i have the time.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Change to Main Page ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Hello Hyarion!&lt;br /&gt;
Just wondered about adding a link to the Category index from the main page. As a new user I&#039;ve found catergory list in the special pages great, but there doesn&#039;t seem to be a link on the main page. Findegil&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:I think that&#039;s a good idea and if you like that page you might also like [[Index of categories]]. It has to be updated manually so it&#039;s missing a lot but hopefully we&#039;ll be able to create a nice tree-like structure for even easier navigation. I&#039;ll try and find a spot for it down by the A-Z list or something. Oh and you can sign your comments by clicking the signature button second from the right just above this textbox. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 12:11, 22 April 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Thanks --[[User:Findegil|Findegil]] 13:45, 26 April 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Chat isn&#039;t working for me==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Well, I&#039;m back, as you&#039;ve probably noticed.  I was hoping to communicate with you on Chat, but for the past three days I haven&#039;t been able to access it through the java links provided.  My browser keeps on saying &amp;quot;page not found&amp;quot;, etc.  I&#039;m not sure if it&#039;s my problem or that of the Chat itself. --[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 11:38, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:By the way, was the issue of redirects ever cleared up?  Several editors are really leaping at the chance to redirect a lot of pages. --[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 11:41, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::Just cleaning up, Narfil. I apologise if i seem to be taking a liberty but i&#039;m using my best judgement in every redirect i make. [[User:Dr Death|Dr Death]] 12:46, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::Welcome back Narfil! The Java clients will be down for a while, I&#039;ll try and get them working this weekend, but your best bet is to get a real IRC client like [http://www.silverex.org/download/ XChat] and connect to irc.tolkiengateway.net. I don&#039;t think we&#039;ve come to a conclusion regarding redirects, but for now we should probably lay off converting anything into redirects as right now I think those who oppose yours and my views don&#039;t fully see the whole dictionary aspect and how much redirection would hurt that goal. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 13:37, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:::I&#039;m not sure if you saw what I posted at the forum, but in short I said that I believed that it should only be converted into a redirect if it contains no more information that &amp;quot;this was another name for&amp;quot;, etc.  Of course, it might be an interesting idea if for such things (minor names) we could have references on that page to where that particular name was used.  Might be good if we could decide on a standard version of LotR/Sil/HoME, so we could add page numbers. --[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 14:28, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::::Ya I saw what you posted and I entirely agree. Everything about Gandalf should all be in the Gandalf article, however we can expand on his titles, when they were used, how they were derived, (by Tolkien as well as in-universe), etc. in Mithrandir, Olorin, etc. References is an issue I hope to tackle this summer, I&#039;d like everything to be based on paragraph seeing as this wouldn&#039;t change. And I&#039;ll create a website which will allow people to easily lookup and convert the paragraphs into their respected page numbers and visa versa. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 14:57, 8 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::: Well to add a face to &#039;those who...&#039; i think it&#039;s worth pointing out that even dictionaries have &#039;see: X&#039; under some entries, redirection just cuts out the middleman. While i whole heartedly agree that full exploration should be given to every name and its entymology (for gods sake dont get me wrong on that) i still beleive that it should be done under a central article to what it applies so as to fascilitate a greater resource of information regarding the subject. If you really want to get pedantic wikis are online *encyclopedias* rather than dictionaries and so should provide the greatest and most comprehensive amount of information without having to piddle about with technicalities. I say this as much from the standpoint of a user as an editor. By all means have sections within a main article and redirect to those sections but there are too many technicalities (a recent new page for &#039;*The* War of Wrath&#039; rather than just &#039;War of Wrath&#039; prooves my point adequately as to how easily people can get mixed up). [[User:Dr Death|Dr Death]] 08:54, 9 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
:::: And I can see the benefit to that which is why I&#039;m not 100% decided on the issue either. However let us take [[Aragorn]] for example, where would the history behind the name be located at, Aragorn I or Aragorn II? Same goes for [[Boromir]], [[Minas Tirith]], and many more articles. Instead of having to replicate the information on the name on each article, Aragorn is a nice example of how the definition could be at the disambiguation article which links to articles with that name. &lt;br /&gt;
::::When we get more editors we will be able to vote on matters like this, it is just hard now with so few as we don&#039;t want to be swayed in the wrong direction by a one/two votes, which is why I guess we&#039;ll just have to focus on other matters until we all agree on something. Thanks for all your input and help by the way! &lt;br /&gt;
::::Looking back, I think we both have the same idea, but the issue is which article is the &amp;quot;central article&amp;quot;. Wikipedia, (and I think yourself?) would vote for Aragorn since it is the most popular and obvious. I tend to sway towards staying neutral and treating even the minor characters with equality, as one might say that just because Tolkien&#039;s stories focused more one one character, doesn&#039;t make them more important. This is obviously going to force the majority of users to make an extra click, but I&#039;m just a perfectionist like that :) --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 19:35, 9 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::::: In the case of disambiguation pages i am in utter and complete agreement with you. Considering that Tolkien Gateway is more specialist than wikipedia we should treat all subjects with identical names with complete equality (so long as we make it clear which is which) and if we include a translation of the name there for both cases then so much the better, since that page does have to exist. In those cases it may be worth giving a &#039;quick translation&#039; though in the character box if someone does go specific (so you dont have to go to [[Aragorn]] if you just want to know out of interest what [[Aragorn II]]&#039;s name translates as). &lt;br /&gt;
::::: The situations i am opposed to though are those when a name or term for any subject (which does tend to be characters but others suffer as well) which specifically refers to that one subject and has no context outside it (Mithrandir only ever refers to Gandalf in the writings of Tolkien) is given a whole page all to itself just because strictly speaking it could (rather than does) refer to something else (such as the case of Mithrandir- there may be another referred to as &#039;Grey Pilgrim&#039; out there but Tolkien never mentioned them). In those cases i beleive that entymology should be given to every such term but in a section the article of the sole subject it refers to rather than as an independant page.&lt;br /&gt;
::::: In the case of titles or tags which could refer to multiple things (say [[The Nine]], [[King under the Mountain]] etc. I beleive that they should be disambiguation pages with a little information on the term itself (much like occurs in the case of two characters called the same thing ([[Aragorn]] using the common example).) &lt;br /&gt;
::::: I beleive our notions are how to do things are closer than you think. The matter just seems to have been overlooked (that isnt meant as an insult, just a comment). However i&#039;m going to make it my business to really sort it out so as to provide the clearest possible way to find information on this site. [[User:Dr Death|Dr Death]] 08:12, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::::::A quick translation wouldn&#039;t be a bad idea in the infobox, though I do think we&#039;ll run into an issue when there is a translation multiple languages, such as a Mannish word has a translation in Black Speech, Quenya, Sindarin, etc. On all of the articles we are definitely trying to add Etymology sections however, which should also prove fairly quick in providing the meaning and history behind a name (both in-Arda and out-of-Arda).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::::::I&#039;m glad we both agree on the disambig articles, and I can definitely see the benefit for an article such as Mithrandir to be a redirect. But here is the conflict: Articles such as those found in [[:Category:Quenya_words]]. If we agree that these articles of Quenya words are worth having, then we can deduce that the difference between an article such as [[Astar]] and [[Mithrandir]] is that Mithrandir is attributed to someone/something. To me that is like giving less importance to a &amp;quot;more important&amp;quot; article. I guess I&#039;m trying to just look at it from the perspective of a language expert using the wiki as a dictionary reference. Heh, sorry, I can be rather stubborn at times :) Thanks for bringing this up and hopefully we can set a standard for it as a lot of the wiki is not as standardized as I would like. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 09:34, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::::::: Well i mentioned briefly on the forum the difference between words in their pure form and in the form found in names. In names which usually consist of forms of at least two words of a different language. For example [[Gondor]] in its purest form would be Gondhdôr but is mutated to a far simpler form. I make no claim to be a linguistic expert but considering pretty much all names in middle earth whether they apply to a person or place are rendered into some form of elvish rather than &#039;The Queen&#039;s English&#039; to provide two entries for each: one for the word and another for what it refers to, seems to be all too much of a muchness (and would only be balanced by providing redirects to the subject matter for the word&#039;s translation in english). Far better to present the component words in their purest forms on their own page and provide the examples of use there while providing a &#039;quick translation&#039; on the page of what the hybrid words refer to (naturally linking to its componant parts). To me this sounds only like good sense, but i may be wrong. What do you think? [[User:Dr Death|Dr Death]] 10:50, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::::::::I&#039;ve gone ahead and thrown together a crude example at [[Mithrandir]]. A lot more could still be added to this article, and it just seems like we would be cramming a lot of information into Gandalf if we had to have similar sections for every single name Gandalf had. Anyway, I think both of us have our own, valid, opinions on the matter and we might as well just wait for a few more editors to voice their opinion until we can get a good majority before placing a final vote. Thanks for your input! --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 11:49, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::::::::: Yes, fair enoughski. Your article on Mithrandir is certainly a preferable format to what was there whem i redirected it to Gandalf but i cant help but feel it could have been summed up in a single short paragraph. Just to cobble together an example-&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;&#039;Mithrandir&#039;&#039;&#039; (pronounced &amp;quot;Meethra&#039;ndeerr&amp;quot;) [[Sindarin]] for &#039;Grey-Pilgrim/Wanderer&#039; (Olorin in [[Quenya]]: see above/below) used widely among the [[Elves]] &amp;lt;ref&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Mithrandir, Mithrandir sang the Elves, O Pilgrim Grey! For so they loved to call him.&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
– [[The Fellowship of the Ring]], [[The Mirror of Galadriel]] &amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; &lt;br /&gt;
, [[Gondorians]] &amp;lt;ref&amp;gt; &amp;quot;May you bring good councel to Denethor in his need, and to us all, Mithrandir!&#039; [[Ingold]] cried.&amp;quot; &amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt; and [[Dúnedain]] &amp;lt;ref&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Dark indeed is the hour,&#039; said the old man, &#039;and at such times you are wont to come Mithrandir.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
- [[The Return of the King]], [[Minas Tirith (chapter)]] &amp;lt;/ref&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::::::::: So as you can see while the coding is pretty fiendish it can be done. But as you say, the deciding vote will be cast when there are more voters to make it. Until then we&#039;ll just have to tread carefully around each others edits :). [[User:Dr Death|Dr Death]] 13:21, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
::::::::::I would agree my example was rather stretched out and yours flows much better. This brings up yet another issue, we need a good template for our Elvish word articles, pronunciation mp3 link in the corner, image of the word in [[Tengwar]], standard headers/sections/etc. I think this discussion could go on forever so I better stop as we both have made some good points, I think in a few more months we should be able to make a final decision as TG grows. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 14:19, 10 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== The Hobbit Screenplay ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I&#039;m just stopping by to ask about [[the Hobbit screenplay]], I&#039;m contributing to it. First, I would want to ask you, is it still active? Second, I want to ask you, can you read my additions and make suggestions on the thing I just wrote. Third, when the time comes, give the script to Peter Jackson or whatever responsible director and he/she and his/her colleague(s) will to whatever they want to it. =)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The book is really cool in my opinion, and I don&#039;t want some children&#039;s movie like Eragon or the 1980&#039;s adaption released in honor of this great book. =)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Hope it isn&#039;t that much to ask! =)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
--[[User:Iluvatar|Iluvatar]] 21:53, 12 June 2007 (EDT)&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43930</id>
		<title>User:Iluvatar</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43930"/>
		<updated>2007-06-06T21:44:15Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{|align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 &lt;br /&gt;
!align=center bgcolor=#FFFFFF|Information&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user men}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user lore-3}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{men infobox&lt;br /&gt;
|image= [[Image:Ted Nasmith - Minas Tirith at Dawn.jpg|200px]]&lt;br /&gt;
|name= Ilúvatar&lt;br /&gt;
|othernames= N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|birth= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|death= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|race= Human&lt;br /&gt;
|gender= Man&lt;br /&gt;
|height= 5&#039; Something&lt;br /&gt;
|hair= Black&lt;br /&gt;
|eyes= Brown&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I started knowing about the land of Middle-earth when one of my best friends introduced me to [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s Lord of the Rings film Trilogy, but the main reason I started liking Tolkien&#039;s Legendarium was because of the battle sequences in the film.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other than that, I think I&#039;ve found the best Fantasy that was ever created on [[Arda|Earth]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== My Thoughts ==&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s confusing, but overall rewarding stories, only if they had a gripping beginning to them and didn&#039;t have that Shakesperean stuff in it.&lt;br /&gt;
I am a Christian so I like how they specified that Arda was created by a God.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Favorite books by [[Tolkien]] (and [[Christopher Tolkien]]) ==&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of Middle-earth]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Ted_Nasmith_-_In_Haste_to_the_White_City.jpg|left|300px]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43929</id>
		<title>User:Iluvatar</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43929"/>
		<updated>2007-06-06T21:43:14Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{|align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 &lt;br /&gt;
!align=center bgcolor=#FFFFFF|Information&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user men}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user lore-3}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{men infobox&lt;br /&gt;
|image= [[Image:Ted Nasmith - Minas Tirith at Dawn.jpg|200px]]&lt;br /&gt;
|name= Ilúvatar&lt;br /&gt;
|othernames= N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|birth= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|death= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|race= Human&lt;br /&gt;
|gender= Man&lt;br /&gt;
|height= 5&#039; Something&lt;br /&gt;
|hair= Black&lt;br /&gt;
|eyes= Brown&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I started knowing about the land of Middle-earth when one of my best friends introduced me to [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s Lord of the Rings film Trilogy, but the main reason I started liking Tolkien&#039;s Legendarium was because of the battle sequences in the film.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other than that, I think I&#039;ve found the best Fantasy that was ever created on [[Arda|Earth]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== My Thoughts ==&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s confusing, but overall rewarding stories, only if they had a gripping beginning to them and didn&#039;t have that Shakesperean stuff in it.&lt;br /&gt;
I am a Christian so I like how they specified that Arda was created by a God.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Favorite books by [[Tolkien]] (and [[Christopher Tolkien]]) ==&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of Middle-earth]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Ted_Nasmith_-_In_Haste_to_the_White_City.jpg|left|300px|Minas Tirith, my favorite place]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43928</id>
		<title>User:Iluvatar</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43928"/>
		<updated>2007-06-06T21:40:45Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{|align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 &lt;br /&gt;
!align=center bgcolor=#FFFFFF|Information&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user men}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user lore-3}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{men infobox&lt;br /&gt;
|image= [[Image:Ted Nasmith - Minas Tirith at Dawn.jpg|200px|My house(just kidding]]&lt;br /&gt;
|name= Ilúvatar&lt;br /&gt;
|othernames= N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|birth= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|death= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|race= Human&lt;br /&gt;
|gender= Man&lt;br /&gt;
|height= 5&#039; Something&lt;br /&gt;
|hair= Black&lt;br /&gt;
|eyes= Brown&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I started knowing about the land of Middle-earth when one of my best friends introduced me to [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s Lord of the Rings film Trilogy, but the main reason I started liking Tolkien&#039;s Legendarium was because of the battle sequences in the film.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other than that, I think I&#039;ve found the best Fantasy that was ever created on [[Arda|Earth]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== My Thoughts ==&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s confusing, but overall rewarding stories, only if they had a gripping beginning to them and didn&#039;t have that Shakesperean stuff in it.&lt;br /&gt;
I am a Christian so I like how they specified that Arda was created by a God.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Favorite books by [[Tolkien]] (and [[Christopher Tolkien]]) ==&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of Middle-earth]]&#039;&#039;&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43927</id>
		<title>User:Iluvatar</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43927"/>
		<updated>2007-06-06T21:40:11Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{|align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 &lt;br /&gt;
!align=center bgcolor=#FFFFFF|Information&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user men}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user lore-3}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{men infobox&lt;br /&gt;
|image= [[Image:Ted Nasmith - Minas Tirith at Dawn.jpg|My house]]&lt;br /&gt;
|name= Ilúvatar&lt;br /&gt;
|othernames= N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|birth= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|death= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|race= Human&lt;br /&gt;
|gender= Man&lt;br /&gt;
|height= 5&#039; Something&lt;br /&gt;
|hair= Black&lt;br /&gt;
|eyes= Brown&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I started knowing about the land of Middle-earth when one of my best friends introduced me to [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s Lord of the Rings film Trilogy, but the main reason I started liking Tolkien&#039;s Legendarium was because of the battle sequences in the film.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other than that, I think I&#039;ve found the best Fantasy that was ever created on [[Arda|Earth]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== My Thoughts ==&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s confusing, but overall rewarding stories, only if they had a gripping beginning to them and didn&#039;t have that Shakesperean stuff in it.&lt;br /&gt;
I am a Christian so I like how they specified that Arda was created by a God.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Favorite books by [[Tolkien]] (and [[Christopher Tolkien]]) ==&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of Middle-earth]]&#039;&#039;&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43926</id>
		<title>User:Iluvatar</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43926"/>
		<updated>2007-06-06T21:38:20Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{|align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 &lt;br /&gt;
!align=center bgcolor=#FFFFFF|Information&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user men}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user lore-3}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{men infobox&lt;br /&gt;
|image= [[Ted Nasmith - Minas Tirith at Dawn.jpg|My house (just kidding)]]&lt;br /&gt;
|name= Ilúvatar&lt;br /&gt;
|othernames= N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|birth= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|death= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|race= Human&lt;br /&gt;
|gender= Man&lt;br /&gt;
|height= 5&#039; Something&lt;br /&gt;
|hair= Black&lt;br /&gt;
|eyes= Brown&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I started knowing about the land of Middle-earth when one of my best friends introduced me to [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s Lord of the Rings film Trilogy, but the main reason I started liking Tolkien&#039;s Legendarium was because of the battle sequences in the film.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other than that, I think I&#039;ve found the best Fantasy that was ever created on [[Arda|Earth]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== My Thoughts ==&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s confusing, but overall rewarding stories, only if they had a gripping beginning to them and didn&#039;t have that Shakesperean stuff in it.&lt;br /&gt;
I am a Christian so I like how they specified that Arda was created by a God.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Favorite books by [[Tolkien]] (and [[Christopher Tolkien]]) ==&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of Middle-earth]]&#039;&#039;&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43925</id>
		<title>User:Iluvatar</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43925"/>
		<updated>2007-06-06T21:37:42Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{|align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 &lt;br /&gt;
!align=center bgcolor=#FFFFFF|Information&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user men}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user lore-3}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{men infobox&lt;br /&gt;
|image= Ted Nasmith - Minas Tirith at Dawn.jpg&lt;br /&gt;
|name= Ilúvatar&lt;br /&gt;
|othernames= N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|birth= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|death= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|race= Human&lt;br /&gt;
|gender= Man&lt;br /&gt;
|height= 5&#039; Something&lt;br /&gt;
|hair= Black&lt;br /&gt;
|eyes= Brown&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I started knowing about the land of Middle-earth when one of my best friends introduced me to [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s Lord of the Rings film Trilogy, but the main reason I started liking Tolkien&#039;s Legendarium was because of the battle sequences in the film.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other than that, I think I&#039;ve found the best Fantasy that was ever created on [[Arda|Earth]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== My Thoughts ==&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s confusing, but overall rewarding stories, only if they had a gripping beginning to them and didn&#039;t have that Shakesperean stuff in it.&lt;br /&gt;
I am a Christian so I like how they specified that Arda was created by a God.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Favorite books by [[Tolkien]] (and [[Christopher Tolkien]]) ==&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of Middle-earth]]&#039;&#039;&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43924</id>
		<title>User:Iluvatar</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43924"/>
		<updated>2007-06-06T21:33:38Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{|align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 &lt;br /&gt;
!align=center bgcolor=#FFFFFF|Information&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user men}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user lore-3}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{men infobox&lt;br /&gt;
|image= Easterling.jpg&lt;br /&gt;
|name= Ilúvatar&lt;br /&gt;
|othernames= N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|birth= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|death= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|race= Human&lt;br /&gt;
|gender= Man&lt;br /&gt;
|height= 5&#039; Something&lt;br /&gt;
|hair= Black&lt;br /&gt;
|eyes= Brown&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I started knowing about the land of Middle-earth when one of my best friends introduced me to [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s Lord of the Rings film Trilogy, but the main reason I started liking Tolkien&#039;s Legendarium was because of the battle sequences in the film.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other than that, I think I&#039;ve found the best Fantasy that was ever created on [[Arda|Earth]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== My Thoughts ==&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s confusing, but overall rewarding stories, only if they had a gripping beginning to them and didn&#039;t have that Shakesperean stuff in it.&lt;br /&gt;
I am a Christian so I like how they specified that Arda was created by a God.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Favorite books by [[Tolkien]] (and [[Christopher Tolkien]]) ==&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of Middle-earth]]&#039;&#039;&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43923</id>
		<title>User:Iluvatar</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43923"/>
		<updated>2007-06-06T21:31:24Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{men infobox&lt;br /&gt;
|image= easterling.jpg&lt;br /&gt;
|name= Ilúvatar&lt;br /&gt;
|othernames= N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|birth= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|death= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|race= Human&lt;br /&gt;
|gender= Man&lt;br /&gt;
|height= 5&#039; Something&lt;br /&gt;
|hair= Black&lt;br /&gt;
|eyes= Brown&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{|align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 &lt;br /&gt;
!align=center bgcolor=#FFFFFF|Information&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user men}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user lore-3}}&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;Middle-earth is now dominated by the Secondborn.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I started knowing about the land of Middle-earth when one of my best friends introduced me to [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s [[Lord of the Rings film Trilogy]], but the main reason I started liking Tolkien&#039;s Legendarium was because of the battle sequences in the film.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other than that, I think I&#039;ve found the best Fantasy that was ever created on [[Arda|Earth]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== My Thoughts ==&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s confusing, but overall rewarding stories, only if they had a gripping beginning to them and didn&#039;t have that Shakesperean stuff in it.&lt;br /&gt;
I am a Christian so I like how they specified that Arda was created by a God.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Favorite books by [[Tolkien]] (and [[Christopher Tolkien]]) ==&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of Middle-earth]]&#039;&#039;&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43922</id>
		<title>User:Iluvatar</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Iluvatar&amp;diff=43922"/>
		<updated>2007-06-06T21:30:37Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{men infobox&lt;br /&gt;
|image= Easterling.jpg&lt;br /&gt;
|name= Ilúvatar&lt;br /&gt;
|othernames= N/A&lt;br /&gt;
|birth= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|death= Who knows?&lt;br /&gt;
|race= Human&lt;br /&gt;
|gender= Man&lt;br /&gt;
|height= 5&#039; Something&lt;br /&gt;
|hair= Black&lt;br /&gt;
|eyes= Brown&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{|align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 &lt;br /&gt;
!align=center bgcolor=#FFFFFF|Information&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user men}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user lore-3}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user Ea}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;Middle-earth is now dominated by the Secondborn.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I started knowing about the land of Middle-earth when one of my best friends introduced me to [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s [[Lord of the Rings film Trilogy]], but the main reason I started liking Tolkien&#039;s Legendarium was because of the battle sequences in the film.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other than that, I think I&#039;ve found the best Fantasy that was ever created on [[Arda|Earth]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== My Thoughts ==&lt;br /&gt;
It&#039;s confusing, but overall rewarding stories, only if they had a gripping beginning to them and didn&#039;t have that Shakesperean stuff in it.&lt;br /&gt;
I am a Christian so I like how they specified that Arda was created by a God.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Favorite books by [[Tolkien]] (and [[Christopher Tolkien]]) ==&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*&#039;&#039;[[The History of Middle-earth]]&#039;&#039;&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Warmaster&amp;diff=43921</id>
		<title>User:Warmaster</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=User:Warmaster&amp;diff=43921"/>
		<updated>2007-06-06T21:01:16Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{|align=right border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 &lt;br /&gt;
!align=center bgcolor=#FFFFFF|Information&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{User men}}&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
|{{user lore-3}}&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Hello,  I am Warmaster, an inhabitant of Luthien *cough* Aka England. I have been a Tolkien fan now for about 7 years. While i started with the Hobbit (ok) then LOTR (pretty good) my real favorite parts of Middle-Earth are without a doubt those contained in the [[Silmarillion]] Which is probably my favorite book of all time. This links well to my interests - i have always been a fan of history, and of map making, and the Silmarillion got lots of both in at once. I also write my own fantasy stories, of which the Silmarillion is a far bigger influence than LOTR.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== My thoughts on the [[Legendarium]] == &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
While the fact that Tolkien never completed the Legendarium is extremely depressing at times, the material he did &#039;complete&#039; and the work he left behind unfinished are some of the most absorbing and thoughtful works i have ever read.&lt;br /&gt;
Especially notable is the Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth (which should have been an appendix to the Silmarillion as Tolkien intended) and other such elements from Morgoth&#039;s Ring, which shows how deep Tolkien took his world. While the extention to include Numenor and then Gondor/Dunedain kingdoms deeply enriched Middle-Earth from the concepts of the 1930s, I do honestly think that the Hobbits are, and have always been the weakest link of the Legendarium. In all, despite its unfinished state, no fantasy author since has come remotely close (nor actually even tried!) to match Tolkien&#039;s skill as a world builder.&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Rings&amp;diff=43849</id>
		<title>The Lord of the Rings</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Rings&amp;diff=43849"/>
		<updated>2007-06-05T01:20:21Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: /* Writing */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{quote|The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read &#039;&#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;&#039; and [[The Hobbit]] and those who are going to read them.|Sunday Times}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{book|&lt;br /&gt;
title=The Lord of the Rings|&lt;br /&gt;
image=[[Image:Jrrt lotr cover design.jpg|200px]]|&lt;br /&gt;
author=[[J.R.R. Tolkien]]|&lt;br /&gt;
publisher=Houghton Mifflin|&lt;br /&gt;
date=1954-1956|&lt;br /&gt;
format=Hardcover, Paperback|&lt;br /&gt;
pages=1210|&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039; is an epic fantasy story by [[J.R.R. Tolkien]], a sequel to his earlier work, &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039;.  It was published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955.  Three movie productions have been made, the first, by animator [[Ralph Bakshi]] was released in 1978 (as part one of what was originally to be a two-part adaptation of the story), the second being a 1980 television special, and the third being director [[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]] released in 2001, 2002, and 2003.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The story&#039;s titular character is the Dark Lord [[Sauron]] of [[Mordor]].  The primary villain of the work, he created the One Ring to control nineteen other Rings of Power, and is thus the &amp;quot;Lord of the Rings.&amp;quot; Sauron, in turn, was the servant of an earlier Dark Lord, [[Morgoth]] (Melkor), who is prominent in Tolkien&#039;s &#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;, the history of Middle-earth.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Books and volumes==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Writing===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Tolkien did not originally intend to write a sequel to &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039;, and instead wrote several other children&#039;s tales, including &#039;&#039;[[Roverandom]]&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;[[Farmer Giles of Ham]]&#039;&#039;. As his main work, Tolkien began to outline the history of [[Arda]], telling tales of the [[Silmarils]], and many other stories of how the races and situations that we read about in the Lord of the Rings trilogy came to be.  Tolkien died before he could complete and put together &#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;, but his son [[Christopher Tolkien]] edited his father&#039;s work, filled in gaps and published in 1977.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Tolkien had a deep desire to write a mythology for England, especially after his horrific experiences during the First World War. He was also influenced by the effects of continued industrialisation, where he saw much of the England he loved passing away and became aware of the immense evil in the world.  Thus to understand his writings we must be aware of how Tolkien the scholar influences Tolkien the author.  His writing of this mythology emerges as an Oxford philologist well acquainted with Northern European Medieval Literature including the great mythic works such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hervarar_saga| Hervarar saga], the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volsunga_Saga| Völsunga saga], the influential [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf|Beowulf] as well as other Old Norse, Old and Middle English Texts. He was also inspired by non-Germanic works such as the Finnish epic [[Kalevala]]. A man who had created his first language by the age of seven, he was driven by a desire to write a mythology for England influenced by his exposure and expertise of these ancient traditions.  The need for such a myth was often a topic of conversation in his meetings with the [[Inklings]], fellow Oxford scholars who have been described as Christian Romantics, meeting weekly and discussing Icelandic myths and their own unpublished compositions. Tolkien agreed with one of the other members of the group, [[C.S. Lewis]], that if there were no adequate myths for England then they would have to write their own. Tolkien&#039;s work has been commonly interpreted in this light.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Persuaded by his publishers, he started &#039;a new hobbit&#039; in December 1937.  After several false starts, the story of the One Ring soon emerged, and the book mutated from being a sequel to the Hobbit, to being, in theme, more of a sequel to the unpublished &#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion|Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;.  The idea of the first chapter (&#039;&#039;A Long-Expected Party&#039;&#039;) arrived fully-formed, although the reasons behind Bilbo&#039;s disappearance, and the significance of the Ring did not arrive, along with the title &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; until spring 1938. Originally he was going to write another story in which Bilbo had used up all his treasure and was looking for another adventure to gain more; however he remembered the ring and the powers it had and decided to write about that instead. He started to write it with Bilbo as the main character but decided that the story was too serious to use the fun loving Hobbit so Tolkien looked to use a member of Bilbo&#039;s family. He thought about using Bilbo&#039;s son but this generated some difficult questions &amp;amp;mdash; Where was his wife?  How could Bilbo let his son go into that kind of danger? &amp;amp;mdash; so he looked for an alternate character to carry the ring.  In Greek legend, it was a hero&#039;s nephew that gained the item of power, and so into existence came the Hobbit Frodo. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Writing was slow due to Tolkien&#039;s perfectionism, and was frequently interrupted by his obligations as an examiner, and other academic duties.  In fact, the first sentence of &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039; was written on a blank page a student had left on an exam paper that Tolkien was grading &amp;amp;mdash; &amp;quot;In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit&amp;quot;.  He seems to have abandoned the book during most of 1943 and only re-started it in April 1944.  This effort was written as a serial for [[Christopher Tolkien]] and [[C.S. Lewis]] &amp;amp;mdash; the former would be sent copies of chapters as they were written while he was serving in [[Africa]] in the [[Royal Air Force]].  He made another push in 1946, and showed a copy of the manuscript to his publishers in 1947.  The story was effectively finished the next year, but Tolkien did not finish revising earlier parts of the work until 1949.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A dispute with his publishers, [[Allen &amp;amp; Unwin]], led to the book being offered to [[Collins]] in 1950.  He intended &#039;&#039;the Silmarillion&#039;&#039; (itself largely unrevised at this point) to be published along with &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;, but A&amp;amp;U were unwilling to do this.  After his contact at Collins, Milton Waldman, expressed the belief that &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; itself &#039;urgently needed cutting&#039;, he eventually demanded that they publish the book in 1952.  They did not do so, and so Tolkien wrote to Allen and Unwin, saying &amp;quot;I would gladly consider the publication of any part of the stuff&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Publication===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
For publication, due largely to post-war paper shortages, but also to keep the price of the first volume down, the book was divided into three volumes (&#039;&#039;[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]&#039;&#039;: Books I and II; &#039;&#039;[[The Two Towers]]&#039;&#039;: Books III and IV; and &#039;&#039;[[The Return of the King]]&#039;&#039;: Books V and VI, 6 appendices).  Delays in producing appendices and maps led to these being published later than originally hoped &amp;amp;mdash; on the 29 July and 11 November 1954 and 20 October 1955 in the United Kingdom, slightly later in the United States.  &#039;&#039;The Return of the King&#039;&#039; was especially delayed.  He did not, however, much like the title &#039;&#039;The Return of the King&#039;&#039;, believing it gave away too much of the storyline. He had originally suggested &#039;&#039;[[The War of the Ring]]&#039;&#039; which was dismissed by his publishers.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The books were published under a &#039;profit-sharing&#039; arrangement, where Tolkien would not receive an advance or royalties until the books had broken even, but after then take a large share of the profits.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
An index to the entire 3-volume set at the end of third volume was promised in the first volume.  However, this proved impractical to compile in a reasonable timescale.  Later, in 1966, four indices which were not compiled by Tolkien were added to &#039;&#039;The Return of the King&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Because the three-volume binding was so widely distributed, the work is usually referred to as the &#039;&#039;Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; &amp;quot;trilogy&amp;quot;.  Tolkien himself made use of the term &amp;quot;trilogy&amp;quot; for the work, though he did at other times consider this incorrect, as it was written and conceived as a single novel.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A 1999 (Millennium Edition) British (ISBN 0-261-10387-3) 7-volume box set followed the six-book division authored by Tolkien, but with the Appendices from the end of Book VI bound as a separate volume. The letters of &#039;&#039;Tolkien&#039;&#039; appear on the spines of the boxed set which includes a CD.&lt;br /&gt;
The individual names for books in this series were decided posthumously, based on a combination of suggestions Tolkien had made during his lifetime, title of the volumes, and whole cloth&amp;lt;!--whole cloth?--&amp;gt; &amp;amp;mdash; viz:&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* T Book I:   &#039;&#039;The Ring Sets Out&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
* O Book II:  &#039;&#039;The Ring Goes South&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
* L Book III: &#039;&#039;The Treason of Isengard&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
* K Book IV:  &#039;&#039;The Ring Goes East&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
* I Book V:   &#039;&#039;The War of the Ring&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
* E Book VI:  &#039;&#039;The End of the Third Age&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
* N Appendices&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The name of the complete work is often abbreviated to &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;LotR&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;LOTR&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, or simply &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;LR&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, and the three volumes as FR, FOTR, or FotR (The &#039;&#039;&#039;F&#039;&#039;&#039;ellowship &#039;&#039;&#039;o&#039;&#039;&#039;f &#039;&#039;&#039;t&#039;&#039;&#039;he &#039;&#039;&#039;R&#039;&#039;&#039;ing), TT or TTT (&#039;&#039;&#039;T&#039;&#039;&#039;he &#039;&#039;&#039;T&#039;&#039;&#039;wo &#039;&#039;&#039;T&#039;&#039;&#039;owers), and RK, ROTK, or RotK (The &#039;&#039;&#039;R&#039;&#039;&#039;eturn &#039;&#039;&#039;o&#039;&#039;&#039;f &#039;&#039;&#039;t&#039;&#039;&#039;he &#039;&#039;&#039;K&#039;&#039;&#039;ing).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Note that the three titles &#039;&#039;The Return of the Shadow&#039;&#039;, &#039;&#039;The Treason of Isengard&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;The War of the Ring&#039;&#039; were used by [[Christopher Tolkien]] in [[The History of The Lord of the Rings]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Some locations and characters were inspired by Tolkien&#039;s childhood in [[Sarehole]], then a [[Warwickshire]] village, now part of [[Birmingham]], and in Birmingham itself.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Publication history ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The three parts were first published by [[Allen &amp;amp;amp; Unwin]] in 1954&amp;amp;ndash;1955 several months apart. They were later reissued many times by multiple publishers, as one, three, six or seven volumes. Two current printings are ISBN 0-618-34399-7 (one-volume) and ISBN 0-618-34624-4 (three volume set).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In the early 1960s, Donald A. Wollheim, science fiction editor of the paperback publisher [[Ace Books]], realized that &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; was not protected in the United States under American copyright law because the US hardcover edition had been bound from pages printed in the UK for the British edition. Ace Books proceeded to publish an edition, unauthorized by Tolkien and without compensation to him. Tolkien made this plain to US fans who wrote to him.  Grass-roots pressure became so great that Ace books withdrew their edition and made a nominal payment to Tolkien, well below what he might have been due in an appropriate publication. However, this poor beginning was overshadowed when an authorized edition followed from [[Ballantine Books]] to tremendous commercial success. By the mid-1960s the books, due to their wide exposure on the American public stage, had become a true cultural phenomenon.  The Second Edition of the Lord of the Rings dates from this time &amp;amp;mdash; Tolkien undertook various textual revisions to produce a version of the book that would have a valid U.S. copyright.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The books have been translated, with various degrees of success, into dozens of other languages.  &lt;br /&gt;
Tolkien, an expert in philology, examined many of these translations, and had comments on each that illuminate both the translation process and his work.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The enormous popular success of Tolkien&#039;s epic saga greatly expanded the demand for fantasy fiction. Largely thanks to &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;, the genre flowered throughout the 1960s. Many well-written books of this genre were published (comparable works include the &#039;&#039;Earthsea&#039;&#039; books of Ursula K. Le Guin, the &#039;&#039;Thomas Covenant&#039;&#039; novels of Stephen R. Donaldson, and in the case of the &#039;&#039;Gormenghast&#039;&#039; books by Mervyn Peake, and &#039;&#039;The Worm Ourobouros&#039;&#039; by E. R. Eddison, rediscovered). It also strongly influenced the role playing game industry that achieved popularity in the 1970s with &#039;&#039;Dungeons &amp;amp; Dragons&#039;&#039; which featured many creatures that could be found in Tolkien&#039;s books.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As in all artistic fields, a great many lesser derivatives of the more prominent works appeared. The term &amp;quot;Tolkienesque&amp;quot; is used in the genre to refer to the oft-used and abused storyline of &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;: a group of adventurers embarking on a quest to save a magical fantasy world from the armies of an evil &amp;quot;[[Dark Lord|dark lord]]&amp;quot;, and is a testament to how much the popularity of these books has increased, since many critics initially decried Lord of the Rings as being &amp;quot;[[Richard Wagner| Wagner]] for children&amp;quot; (a reference to the [[Ring Cycle]]) &amp;amp;mdash; a specially interesting commentary in light of a possible interpretation of The Lord of The Rings as a Christian response to Wagner, for example following [http://atimes.com./atimes/others/spengler.html ATimes&#039; pseudo-Oswald Spengler].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== The books ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; began as a personal exploration by Tolkien of his interests in philology, religion (particularly Roman Catholicism); fairy tales, and Norse and Celtic mythology.&lt;br /&gt;
Tolkien detailed his creation to an astounding extent; he created a complete mythology for his realm of Middle-earth, including genealogies of characters, languages, [[runes]], calendars and histories.&lt;br /&gt;
Some of this supplementary material is detailed in the appendices to &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;, and the mythological history was woven into a large, biblically-styled volume entitled &#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
J. R. R. Tolkien once described &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; as &amp;quot;&#039;&#039;a fundamentally religious and Catholic work&#039;&#039;&amp;quot; he wrote to his friend, the English Jesuit Father Robert Murray, &amp;quot;&#039;&#039;unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.&#039;&#039;&amp;quot;(&#039;&#039;[[The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien]]&#039;&#039;, 142).  There are many theological themes underlying the narrative, the battle of good versus evil, the triumph of humility over pride, the activity of grace, Death and Immortality, Resurrection, Salvation, Repentance, Self-Sacrifice, Free Will, Humility, Justice, Fellowship, Authority and Healing.&lt;br /&gt;
In it the great virtues of Mercy and Pity (shown by Bilbo and Frodo towards Gollum) win the day and the message from the Lord&#039;s Prayer &amp;quot;And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil&amp;quot; was very much on Tolkien&#039;s mind as Frodo struggled against the power of the One Ring (&#039;&#039;Letters&#039;&#039;, 181 and 191).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Religious motifs other than Christian can be discerned as strong influences in Tolkien&#039;s Middle Earth. The pantheon of the Valar and Maiar (greater and lesser gods/angels) responsible for the creation and maintenance of everything from skies (Manwe) and seas (Ulmo), to dreams (Lorien) and dooms (Mandos) suggest a pre-Christian mythology in style, albeit that these Valar and Maiar are themselves creations of a monotheistic entity &amp;amp;mdash; Illuvatar or Eru, &amp;quot;The One&amp;quot;. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other pre-Christian mythological references can be seen in the representations of: a &amp;quot;Green Man&amp;quot; &amp;amp;mdash; Tom Bombadil, wise-men &amp;amp;mdash; the Istari (commonly referred to as the Wizards, perhaps more of angels), shapechangers &amp;amp;mdash; Beorn, undead spirits &amp;amp;mdash; Barrow Wights, Oathbreakers, sentient nonhumans &amp;amp;mdash; Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits, and, of course, Ents. Magic is utilised freely in Middle Earth, and may be found not only in the incantations of Wizards, but in the weapons and tools of warriors and craftspeople, in the perceptions and abilities of heroes, and in the natural world itself.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Tolkien did repeatedly insist that his works were not an allegory of any kind, and even though his thoughts on the matter are mentioned in the introduction of the book, there has been heavy speculation about the Ruling Ring being an allegory for the atom bomb. However, Tolkien had already completed most of the book, and planned the ending in entirety, before the first atom bombs were made public to the world during the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.  However there is a strong theme of despair in front of new mechanized warfare that Tolkien himself had experienced in the trenches of World War One.  The development of a specially bred orc army, and the destruction of the environment to aid this have modern resonances. Nevertheless, the author&#039;s own opinion on the matter of allegories was that he disliked them, and it would be irresponsible to dismiss such direct statements on these matters lightly.  &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The plot of &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; builds from his earlier book &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039; and more obliquely from the history in &#039;&#039;[[The Silmarillion]]&#039;&#039;, which contains events to which the characters of &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; look back upon in the book.&lt;br /&gt;
The [[hobbit]]s become embroiled in great events that threaten their entire world, as [[Sauron]], an evil spirit, attempts to regain the lost [[One Ring]] which will restore him to full potency.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== The Verse of the One Ring ===&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The lines :&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;nbsp;One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
are inscribed in the language of Sauron and Mordor (the Black Speech) on the One Ring itself. Phonetically it would be:&lt;br /&gt;
:&#039;&#039;Ash nazg durbatul&amp;amp;ucirc;k, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatul&amp;amp;ucirc;k agh burzum-ishi krimpatul&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== The storyline ===&lt;br /&gt;
See the articles on &#039;&#039;[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]&#039;&#039;, &#039;&#039;[[The Two Towers]]&#039;&#039;, and &#039;&#039;[[The Return of the King]]&#039;&#039; for plot summaries.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Criticism ===&lt;br /&gt;
The book was characterized as &amp;quot;juvenile balderdash&amp;quot; by American critic [[Edmund Wilson]] in his essay &amp;quot;[http://www.jrrvf.com/sda/critiques/The_Nation.html Oo, those awful Orcs]&amp;quot;, and in 1961 [[Philip Toynbee]] wrote, somewhat prematurely, that it had &amp;quot;passed into a merciful oblivion&amp;quot; [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/1695926.stm]. Although she had never read &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;, [[Germaine Greer]] wrote &amp;quot;it has been my nightmare that Tolkien would turn out to be the most influential writer of the twentieth century. The bad dream has materialized.&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[W.H. Auden]] also criticized the book in a 1968 &#039;&#039;Critical Quarterly&#039;&#039; article, &amp;quot;Good and evil in &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;,&amp;quot; objecting to Tolkien&#039;s conception of sentient species that are intrinsically evil without possibility of redemption.&amp;lt;!-- an actual quote from this article would be nice--&amp;gt;  (This is a criticism often directed at [[Dungeons and Dragons]]-like fantasy worlds as well as at fantasy literature in general, and a criticism that Tolkien himself increasingly struggled with during his last years.)  On the other hand, in  a 1956 &#039;&#039;New York Times&#039;&#039; book review, &amp;quot;At the end of the Quest, Victory,&amp;quot; Auden also called the book &amp;quot;a masterpiece of its genre&amp;quot; that &amp;quot;succeeded where [[John Milton|Milton]] failed&amp;quot; in depicting an epic battle between good and evil, and wrote that it &amp;quot;never violated&amp;quot; the &amp;quot;reader&#039;s sense of the credible.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Science-fiction author [[David Brin]] has criticized the books for unquestioning devotion to a traditional elitist social structure, their positive depiction of the slaughter of the opposing forces, and their romantic backward-looking worldview [http://www.davidbrin.com/tolkienarticle1.html].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Another notable SF writer Michael Moorcock wrote a long and piercing critique of the book under the title Epic Pooh advancing the thesis that it was simply a child&#039;s tale written in the language of epic myth.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
China Mieville, a modern fantasy writer, criticised Tolkien&#039;s works as &amp;quot;reactionary.&amp;quot;  Mieville is also a detractor of later fantasy which draws heavily upon Tolkien&#039;s work, based on the idea that such work is cliche.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Praise===&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;The English-speaking world is divided into those who have read &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; and those who are going to read them.&amp;quot; &amp;amp;mdash; &#039;&#039;Sunday Times&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Among the greatest works of imaginative fiction of the twentieth century.&amp;quot; &amp;amp;mdash; &#039;&#039;Sunday Telegraph&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Here are the beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron.&amp;quot; &amp;amp;mdash; C.S. Lewis&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;J.R.R. Tolkien&#039;s epic trilogy remains the ultimate quest, the ultimate battle between good and evil, the ultimate chronicle of stewardship of the earth.  Endlessly imitated, it never has been surpassed.&amp;quot; &amp;amp;mdash; &#039;&#039;Kansas City Star&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;A story magnificently told, with every kind of colour and movement and greatness.&amp;quot; &amp;amp;mdash; &#039;&#039;New Statesman&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Peter Jackson said, &amp;quot;&amp;amp;hellip;it is as if Tolkien found some secret scroll about the real history of earth&amp;amp;hellip;&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; on film ==&lt;br /&gt;
===Early efforts===&lt;br /&gt;
There were plans for [[the Beatles]] to do a version of &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; but they came to nothing. It was even said that Stanley Kubrick had looked into the possibility of filming the story, but he abandoned the idea as too &amp;quot;immense&amp;quot; to be made into a movie. In the mid-1970s, renowned film director [[John Boorman]] collaborated with film rights holder and producer [[Saul Zaentz]] to do a live action picture, but the project proved too expensive to finance at that time. Boorman would later use many of the locations and sets in his Arthurian epic &amp;quot;Excalibur&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In 1978, [[Rankin/Bass]] studios produced the first real film adaptation of any &#039;&#039;Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; related material with an animated television version of &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039;, which was a precursor to &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Shortly after, Saul Zaentz picked up where Rankin-Bass left off by producing an animated adaptation of &#039;&#039;The Fellowship of the Ring&#039;&#039; and part of &#039;&#039;The Two Towers&#039;&#039; in 1978.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;[[Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings|The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;, originally released by [[United Artists]] was directed by [[Ralph Bakshi]] and used an animation technique called rotoscoping in which footage of live actors was filmed and then traced over.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The film was part one of what was originally to be a two-part adaptation of Tolkien&#039;s story, Part I ending after the battle of Helm&#039;s Deep, but before Sam, Frodo and Gollum traverse the [[Dead Marshes]], and Part II picking up from where the first film left off. Made for a minimal budget of $8 million dollars, the film earned $30 million dollars at the box office. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
United Artists viewed the film as a flop, and refused to fund a Part II (covering the rest of the story), leaving the door open for Rankin-Bass to do the work for him with the 1980 animated television version of &#039;&#039;[[Rankin/Bass&#039; The Return of the King|The Return of the King]]&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
However, the Rankin-Bass film picked up from where the book began, and not from where Bakshi&#039;s film left off. Additionally, the change in style and character design was quite noticeable. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Since this film was targeted to a younger audience, adult enthusiasts have complained that much of the depth and darkness of the book was discarded.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===The New Line Cinema films===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;Main article [[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Miramax]] Films developed a full-fledged live-action adaptation of &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;, with [[Peter Jackson]] as director. Eventually, Miramax became uneasy with the sheer scope of the proposed projectand wanted to combine the suggested three films into two. [[Peter Jackson]] struck a deal with Miramax that if he could not find a fresh studio to back the project, he would walk away and leave the rights and all the work so far completed with Miramax. However, in 1998, [[New Line Cinema]] assumed production responsibility (while Miramax executives [[Bob Weinstein]] and [[Harvey Weinstein]] retained on-screen credits as executive producers on the films).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The three live action films (supplemented with extensive computer-generated imagery, for example in the major battle scenes, using the &amp;quot;[[Massive]]&amp;quot; software) were filmed simultaneously. &#039;&#039;[[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Fellowship of the Ring|The Fellowship of the Ring]]&#039;&#039; was released on December 19, 2001. &#039;&#039;[[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Two Towers|The Two Towers]]&#039;&#039; was released on December 18, 2002 and &#039;&#039;[[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Return of the King|The Return of the King]]&#039;&#039; was released worldwide on December 17, 2003. All three films won the Hugo Award for Best (Long-form) Dramatic Presentation in their respective years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Although some have criticized these films because they have altered the story somewhat and, arguably, have a noticeably different tone from Tolkien&#039;s original vision, others have hailed them as remarkable achievements. [[Peter Jackson]] has defended his changes by stating that he views the films as merely one man&#039;s interpreatation.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s film adaptations garnered seventeen Oscars (four for &#039;&#039;The Fellowship of the Ring&#039;&#039;, two for &#039;&#039;The Two Towers&#039;&#039;, and eleven for &#039;&#039;The Return of the King&#039;&#039;); these cover many of the awards categories (in fact, &#039;&#039;The Return of the King&#039;&#039; won all of the eleven awards for which it was nominated, including Best Picture).  With 30 total nominations, the trilogy also became the most-nominated in the Academy&#039;s history, surpassing the &#039;&#039;Godfather&#039;&#039; series (28).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;The Return of the King&#039;&#039;&amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;&#039;&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;s Oscar sweep is widely seen as a proxy award for the entire trilogy. &#039;&#039;The Return of the King&#039;&#039;&amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;&#039;&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;s 11 Oscars at the 2004 Academy Awards tied it for most awards won for one film with &#039;&#039;Titanic&#039;&#039; six years earlier and the 1959 version of &#039;&#039;Ben-Hur&#039;&#039;.  It also broke the previous &amp;quot;sweep&amp;quot; record, beating &#039;&#039;Gigi&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;The Last Emperor&#039;&#039; (which had gone 9 for 9).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The visual-effects work has been groundbreaking, particularly the creation of the emotionally versatile digital character [[Gollum]].&lt;br /&gt;
The scale of the production alone &amp;amp;mdash; three films shot and edited back to back over a period of little more than three years &amp;amp;mdash; is unprecedented.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The films have also proven to be substantial box office successes. The premiere of &#039;&#039;The Return of the King&#039;&#039; took place in [[Wellington]], [[New Zealand]], on December 1, 2003 and was surrounded by fan celebrations and official promotions (the production of the films having contributed significantly to the New Zealand economy). It has made movie history as the largest Wednesday opening ever. &#039;&#039;The Return of the King&#039;&#039; was also the second movie in history (after &#039;&#039;Titanic&#039;&#039;) to earn over 1 billion $US (worldwide).  Note, however, that these numbers are all unadjusted for inflation, making their significance questionable.  Adjusted for inflation, as of 24 March 2005, the three films rank (in order of release) as the 71st, 56th, and 48th highest-grossing films in the United States [http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Fanatics of the films have also flocked to the locations where the trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, with many tour companies being totally devoted to taking fans to and from the filming locations that Director Peter Jackson chose for the adaption of Tolkien&#039;s  epic trilogy.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_Of_The_Ring]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; on radio ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The BBC produced a 13-part radio adaptation of &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; in 1956, and a 6-part version of &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; in 1966.&lt;br /&gt;
It is uncertain whether Tolkien ever heard either series. No recording of the 1956 series is known to exist, but &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; has survived.&lt;br /&gt;
It is a very faithful adaptation, incorporating some passing references to &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; and the [[Silmarillion]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A 1979 dramatization was broadcast in the USA and subsequently issued on tape and CD. No cast or credits appear on the audio packaging.&lt;br /&gt;
Each of the actors was apparently recorded separately and then the various parts were edited together.&lt;br /&gt;
Thus, unlike a BBC recording session where the actors are recorded together, none of the cast are actually interacting with each other and the performances suffer badly as a result.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In 1981 the BBC broadcast a new, ambitious dramatization of &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; in 26 half-hour instalments. See: &#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings (1981 radio series)]]&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; on stage ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Ed Mirvish|Mirvish Productions]] has started rehearsals for a three-hour stage musical adaptation of &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; that will have a cast of over 65 actors and cost C$27 million (£11.5 million).  The show will be written by Shaun McKenna and Matthew Warchus with music by [[A. R. Rahman]] and [[Värttinä]], collaborating with [[Christopher Nightingale]] and will be directed by [[Matthew Warchus]].  It will open on March 23 2006 at Toronto&#039;s Princess of Wales Theatre, with preview performances from February 2 until March 22. It is planned to premiere in London in autumn 2006 and New York City within two years.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The director explained his vision of the play’s format by saying, &amp;quot;We have not attempted to pull the novel towards the standard conventions of musical theatre, but rather to expand those conventions so that they will accommodate Tolkien&#039;s material. As a result, we will be presenting a hybrid of text, physical theatre, music and spectacle never previously seen on this scale. To read the novel is to experience the events of Middle-earth in the mind’s eye; to watch the films is to view Middle-earth as though through a giant window. Only in the theatre are we actually plunged into the events as they happen. The environment surrounds us. We participate. We are in Middle-earth.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Satire and parody based on &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; ==&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;This section has been moved to the [[Humor]] page.&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Awards==&lt;br /&gt;
* In 1957 it was awarded the International Fantasy Award&lt;br /&gt;
* In the 2003 &amp;quot;Big Read&amp;quot; survey conducted by the BBC, The Lord of the Rings was found to be the &amp;quot;Nation&#039;s Best-loved Book&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
* Australians voted The Lord of the Rings &amp;quot;My Favourite Book&amp;quot; in a 2004 survey conducted by the Australian ABC&lt;br /&gt;
* In a 1999 poll of Amazon.com customers, The Lord of the Rings was judged to be their favourite &amp;quot;book of the millennium&amp;quot;. [http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2001/06/04/tolkien/]&lt;br /&gt;
* In 2002 Tolkien was voted the ninety-second &amp;quot;greatest Briton&amp;quot; in a poll conducted by the BBC&lt;br /&gt;
* In 2004 he was voted thirty-fifth in the SABC3&#039;s Great South Africans, the only person to appear in both lists&lt;br /&gt;
* In a 2004 poll inspired by the UK’s &amp;quot;Big Read&amp;quot; survey, about 250,000 Germans found The Lord of the Rings to be their favourite work of literature. [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/04/1096871805007.html?from=storyrhs]&lt;br /&gt;
* The Lord of the Rings came in 3rd in the Librarians&#039; Poll [http://tolkiensociety.org/news/librarians-poll.html]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;&#039;See also:&#039;&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
* [[References to The Lord of the Rings]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{lotr}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Books by J.R.R. Tolkien|Lord of the Rings]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Making_of_the_Movie_Trilogy&amp;diff=43848</id>
		<title>The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Making_of_the_Movie_Trilogy&amp;diff=43848"/>
		<updated>2007-06-05T01:18:27Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{stub}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{book|&lt;br /&gt;
title=The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy|&lt;br /&gt;
author=[[Brian Sibley]]|&lt;br /&gt;
publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]|&lt;br /&gt;
date=2002|&lt;br /&gt;
format=Hardcover, Softcover|&lt;br /&gt;
pages=192&lt;br /&gt;
amazon=&lt;br /&gt;
amazonprice=$13.46&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
From conceptual design to filming, this book explores the making of &amp;quot;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&amp;quot; movie trilogy, with interviews with cast members, commentary from the [[Peter Jackson|director]], and hundreds of stunning behind-the-scenes images, many exclusive to this book.&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Making_of_the_Movie_Trilogy&amp;diff=43847</id>
		<title>The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Making_of_the_Movie_Trilogy&amp;diff=43847"/>
		<updated>2007-06-05T01:17:43Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{stub}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{book|&lt;br /&gt;
title=The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy|&lt;br /&gt;
author=[[Brian Sibley]]|&lt;br /&gt;
publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]|&lt;br /&gt;
date=2002|&lt;br /&gt;
format=Hardcover, Softcover|&lt;br /&gt;
pages=192&lt;br /&gt;
amazon=http://www.amazon.com/Making-Movie-Trilogy-Lord-Rings/dp&lt;br /&gt;
/0618260226/ref=sr_1_1/105-1841389-5782030?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;s=books&amp;amp;qid=1181006058&amp;amp;sr=1-1&lt;br /&gt;
amazonprice=$13.46&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
From conceptual design to filming, this book explores the making of &amp;quot;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&amp;quot; movie trilogy, with interviews with cast members, commentary from the [[Peter Jackson|director]], and hundreds of stunning behind-the-scenes images, many exclusive to this book.&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Making_of_the_Movie_Trilogy&amp;diff=43846</id>
		<title>The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Making_of_the_Movie_Trilogy&amp;diff=43846"/>
		<updated>2007-06-05T01:17:01Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{stub}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{book|&lt;br /&gt;
title=The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy|&lt;br /&gt;
author=[[Brian Sibley]]|&lt;br /&gt;
publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]|&lt;br /&gt;
date=2002|&lt;br /&gt;
format=Hardcover, Softcover|&lt;br /&gt;
pages=192&lt;br /&gt;
amazon=http://www.amazon.com/Making-Movie-Trilogy-Lord-Rings/dp/0618260226/ref=sr_1_1/105-1841389-5782030?ie=UTF8&amp;amp;s=books&amp;amp;qid=1181006058&amp;amp;sr=1-1&lt;br /&gt;
amazonprice=$13.46&lt;br /&gt;
}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
From conceptual design to filming, this book explores the making of &amp;quot;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&amp;quot; movie trilogy, with interviews with cast members, commentary from the [[Peter Jackson|director]], and hundreds of stunning behind-the-scenes images, many exclusive to this book.&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Richard_Taylor&amp;diff=43845</id>
		<title>Richard Taylor</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Richard_Taylor&amp;diff=43845"/>
		<updated>2007-06-05T01:08:06Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: /* External Links */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Richard Taylor was the leader of the crew at [[Weta Workshop]] that created the special effects, weapons, wardrobe, miniatures and prosthetics. for the filming of the [[Lord of the Rings]] film trilogy.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== External Links ==&lt;br /&gt;
*[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0853050/ IMDb]&lt;br /&gt;
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Taylor_%28movies%29 Wikipedia]&lt;br /&gt;
*[http://www.wetaworkshop.co.nz/about/crew/profile/richard_taylor Weta&#039;s Profile]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Richard_Taylor&amp;diff=43844</id>
		<title>Richard Taylor</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Richard_Taylor&amp;diff=43844"/>
		<updated>2007-06-05T01:07:35Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;Richard Taylor was the leader of the crew at [[Weta Workshop]] that created the special effects, weapons, wardrobe, miniatures and prosthetics. for the filming of the [[Lord of the Rings]] film trilogy.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== External Links ==&lt;br /&gt;
[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0853050/ IMDb]&lt;br /&gt;
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Taylor_%28movies%29 Wikipedia]&lt;br /&gt;
[http://www.wetaworkshop.co.nz/about/crew/profile/richard_taylor Weta&#039;s Profile]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Quest_of_the_Ring&amp;diff=43843</id>
		<title>Quest of the Ring</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Quest_of_the_Ring&amp;diff=43843"/>
		<updated>2007-06-05T00:58:52Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;The Quest of the Ring was the quest taken by the members of the [[Fellowship of the Ring]] to destroy the [[One Ring]] of [[Sauron]] to rid the evil in [[Middle-earth]] during the [[Third Age]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Formation of the Quest ==&lt;br /&gt;
The quest was approved of during the [[Council of Elrond]], [[Elrond]] appointed nine members to accompany the [[Frodo Baggins|ring-bearer]], on his difficult journey: [[Gandalf]], [[Aragorn]], [[Legolas]], [[Boromir]], [[Samwise Gamgee|Sam]], [[Meriadoc Brandybuck|Merry]] and [[Peregrin Took|Pippin]] (Merry and Pippin were not chosen, but went on their own consent)&lt;br /&gt;
After a few days stay in [[Rivendell]], the Company set off on the arduous journey that lay ahead.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{stub}}&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Gandalf&amp;diff=43840</id>
		<title>Gandalf</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Gandalf&amp;diff=43840"/>
		<updated>2007-06-04T23:55:59Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: /* Pre-War of the Ring */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{Istari infobox&lt;br /&gt;
| image=[[Image:Roger Thomasson - Gandalf.jpg|250px]]&lt;br /&gt;
| name=Gandalf&lt;br /&gt;
| othernames= The Grey, The White, Olórin, Mithrandir, Incánus, Tharkûn, The White Rider, Gandalf Greyhame, Stormcrow, [[Gandalf#Wand-elf|Wand-elf]]&lt;br /&gt;
| birth= Entered [[Middle-earth]] in III 1000&lt;br /&gt;
| death= III 3018 (later resurrected); after the War of the Ring he passed to [[Valinor]]&lt;br /&gt;
| gender=Male&lt;br /&gt;
| robes=Grey, White&lt;br /&gt;
| height=&lt;br /&gt;
| hair= Grey, White&lt;br /&gt;
| eyes=&lt;br /&gt;
|}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{quote|Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his long white hair, his sweeping beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his eyes were set like coals that could suddenly burst into fire.|[[The Fellowship of the Ring]], &amp;quot;[[Many Meetings]]&amp;quot;}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the Grey&#039;&#039;&#039;, later &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the White&#039;&#039;&#039;, was a [[Wizard]] of the [[Third Age]] and the greatest force of good of his time. His tireless work against the Dark Lord [[Sauron]] saved [[Middle-earth]] from his malice and was the basis for &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== History ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Origins ===&lt;br /&gt;
{{Pronounce|Gandalf.mp3|Ardamir}}&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:John Howe - Gandalf.jpg|thumb|300px|This is one of the most well known illustrations of &#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;&#039;, by [[John Howe]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf is the best-known of the [[Maiar]] of the people of [[Valinor]]. He was known as &#039;&#039;&#039;Olórin&#039;&#039;&#039; who dwelt in the gardens of [[Irmo]] and was the pupil of [[Nienna]]. When the [[Valar]] decided to send the order of the [[Wizards]] (or [[Istari]] to Middle-earth, Olórin was proposed by [[Manwë]], in order to counsel and assist all those in Middle-earth who opposed [[Sauron]].  He is said to be one of the wisest of that order, rivalling [[Saruman]], with whom he had a strained, competitive relationship. The other Maiar to travel from Valinor on this mission were: [[Aiwendil|Radagast]], [[Pallando]] and [[Alatar]]. It is possible that [[Glorfindel of Gondolin]] travelled with Gandalf from Valinor (see also &#039;&#039;[[Glorfindel#Are they the same?|Are they the same?]]&#039;&#039;).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Role in &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; ===&lt;br /&gt;
In &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039;, Gandalf visits the [[Shire]], where he spent a great deal of time, as a vain, fussy old conjurer who entertained children with fireworks during festivals and parties. He partially reveals his true nature and power to [[Bilbo Baggins]]. He arranges a proposition for Bilbo to join a band of thirteen [[Dwarves]] to regain the Dwarvish treasure of the [[Lonely Mountain]] that was stolen many years before by the [[Dragons|dragon]], [[Smaug]]. It is on this quest that Gandalf finds his sword, &#039;&#039;[[Glamdring]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Unknown to the Dwarves or Bilbo, Gandalf had joined the quest in order to investigate what he suspected to be Sauron&#039;s resurgence in [[Mirkwood]]; he frequently vanishes to &amp;quot;attend to other pressing business&amp;quot;— the nature of which he refuses to discuss. Some years before, he had encountered [[Thráin II]], father of the quest&#039;s leader, [[Thorin Oakenshield]], dying in [[Dol Guldur]], and the Dwarf king entrusted him with a map to Erebor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As Dol Guldur became one of Sauron&#039;s strongholds, Gandalf feared that Sauron&#039;s agents were at large again. He met Thorin years later and agreed to go on the quest as a way to investigate further. He insisted, however, on bringing Bilbo along as a &amp;quot;burglar&amp;quot;, someone who could sneak into places Dwarves couldn&#039;t access and gather information. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When Bilbo finds the One Ring, Gandalf is immediately suspicious of the Hobbit&#039;s story of evading the [[Goblins]] through &amp;quot;being invisible.&amp;quot; He privately confronts Bilbo and forces the truth out of him, and is deeply troubled by his story of the ring&#039;s powers, as they seem eerily familiar.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
He disappears when the company reaches Mirkwood, and does not reappear again until the [[Battle of Five Armies]] breaks out, when he brings an army of [[Eagles]] to help the Dwarves. After the battle, Gandalf accompanies Bilbo back to the Shire.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Pre-War of the Ring ===&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf spends the years between TA 2941 and 3001 travelling [[Middle-earth]] in search of information on [[Sauron]]&#039;s resurgence and Bilbo&#039;s mysterious ring. He spends as much time as he can in the Shire, however, strengthening his friendship with Bilbo and befriending Bilbo&#039;s heir, [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]]. He is also begins to be suspicious of Saruman commiting treason against the the [[Istari|Order]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In 3001 he attended Bilbo&#039;s &amp;quot;Eleventy-first&amp;quot; (111th) birthday party, bringing many strange fireworks, indicating his knowledge of chemistry as well as magic. When Bilbo stands to give an announcement to the Shirefolk, Bilbo puts on the ring and disappears at the end of his speech, as a prank on his neighbors. Troubled by this, Gandalf confronts his old friend and tries to persuade him to leave his ring to Frodo. Bilbo becomes hostile and accuses him of trying to steal the ring&amp;amp;mdash;which he calls &amp;quot;my precious,&amp;quot; much as [[Gollum]]. Horrified, Gandalf stands to his full height and orders Bilbo to leave it behind. Bilbo returns to his senses, and admits that the ring had been troubling him lately. Then leaves Bag End for a long journey, being the only Ring-bearer in history to have left it voluntarily.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Over the next seventeen years, Gandalf travels extensively, searching for answers. Having long sought for Gollum near Mordor, he meets with [[Aragorn II|Aragorn]] in Mirkwood, who had captured the creature. Gandalf interrogates the him and learns that Sauron had tortured him to tell what he knew about the ring, revealing that Bilbo carried The One Ring.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Role in &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; ===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Enis Cisic - Gandalf and Frodo.jpg|thumb|left|&#039;&#039;Gandalf and Frodo&#039;&#039; by [[Enis Cisic]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Upon returning to the Shire, in Chapter 2 of &#039;&#039;[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]&#039;&#039;, he confirms his suspicions by throwing the Ring into Frodo&#039;s hearth fire and reading the writing. He tells Frodo the full history of the Ring, urging him to leave with it and make for [[Rivendell]], the home of the elves, knowing he is in grave danger if he stays at home.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf, while riding near the Shire, is requested by Radagast the Brown to seek out Saruman because the [[Nazgûl]] had come forth and crossed the River [[Anduin]]. Gandalf leaves a note for Frodo with Butterbur, an inn-keeper in [[Bree]], and heads towards [[Isengard]]. Once there, he is betrayed and held captive by Saruman, who had already come under the influence of Sauron due to his use of the [[palantíri|palantír]]. Eventually rescued by Gwahir the eagle, he only reaches the Shire after Frodo has set out and does not meet up with him until Frodo reaches Rivendell on October 20.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Taking leadership of the Fellowship (nine representatives of the free peoples of Middle-earth &amp;quot;set against the [[Nine Riders]]&amp;quot;), he and Aragorn lead the hobbits and their companions on an unsuccessful effort to cross Mount Caradhras in winter. Then they take the &amp;quot;dark and secret way&amp;quot; through the Mines of [[Moria]], which &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;&#039;&#039; had visited once before, looking for King Thraín II. They fought with Goblins and a Cave Troll in the [[Battle of the Chamber of Mazarbul]].  They defeated the force and fled for the [[East-gate]], when they met met an ancient demon, a [[Balrogs|Balrog]], one of the Maiar corrupted by [[Melkor]] in the [[First Age]]. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Danny Staten - Gandalf&#039;s Triumph.jpg|thumb|&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;s Triumph&#039;&#039; by [[Danny Staten]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Since Gandalf and the Balrog were both Maiar, they were beings of the same order. As they faced each other, Gandalf broke the Bridge in front of him, but as the Balrog fell it wrapped its whip around Gandalf&#039;s ankle, which dragged him down to hanging onto the edge. As the Company looked in horror, Gandalf cried, &amp;quot;Fly, you fools!&amp;quot; and let go. Neither he nor the Balrog was killed by the fall, and Gandalf pursued the creature for eight days until they climbed to the peak of Zirakzigil. Here they fought for two days and nights in what was called the [[Battle of the Peak]]. In the end, the Balrog was cast down and it broke the mountain-side as it fell. Gandalf himself died following this ordeal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf is &amp;quot;brought back&amp;quot; (either resurrected or reincarnated), returning as a more imposing white-clad figure, &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the White&#039;&#039;&#039;. In [[Fangorn]] forest he encounters the Three Walkers (Aragorn, [[Gimli]], and [[Legolas]]) who were tracking Fellowship members (and Frodo&#039;s cousins) [[Meriadoc Brandybuck|Merry]] and [[Peregrin Took|Pippin]]. Arriving in [[Rohan]], Gandalf finds that its king, [[Théoden]], has been weakened by Saruman&#039;s agent, [[Gríma Wormtongue]]. He breaks Wormtongue&#039;s hold over Theoden, and convinces the King to join them in fighting Sauron. They then go on to prosecute the war against Isengard and [[Barad-dûr]] ([[The Two Towers]]).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
After the overthrow of [[Saruman]] at [[Isenguard]], Gandalf breaks Saruman&#039;s staff and banishes him from the Order of Wizards. He then takes Pippin with him to Gondor to aide in the defense of the city.  Gandalf buys the city precious time by facing off against the [[Witch-king of Angmar]], the Lord of the Nazgûl, giving the Rohirrim enough time to reach the city during the [[Battle of Pelennor Fields]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf leads the final battle against Sauron&#039;s forces at the [[Black Gate]], waging an all-out battle to distract the [[Dark Lord]]&#039;s attention away from Frodo and [[Samwise Gamgee|Sam]], who were at the very same moment scaling [[Mount Doom]] to destroy the Ring. Without his efforts, Sauron may well have learned where the two Hobbits were and killed them before they could complete their task. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three years later, Gandalf, now having spent over 2,000 years in Middle-Earth, departs with Frodo, [[Galadriel]], Bilbo, and [[Elrond]] across the sea to the [[Undying Lands]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Appearance ==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Piotr Wysocki - Gandalf&#039;s Brooch.jpg|thumb|left|&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;s Brooch&#039;&#039; by Piotr Wysocki.]]&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf initially appears as an old man with a grey beard, a grey cloak and a large, pointed blue hat. Although some of the Wise know his true nature, others mistake him for a simple conjuror. After he is resurrected the change of his signature colour from grey to white is significant, for he has been sent back to replace the corrupt Saruman as the chief of the Wizards. In the book he says that he has himself become what Saruman should have been.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Círdan]] the Shipwright seemed to have foreseen this, for he entrusted the care of [[Narya]], the ring of Fire, one of the [[Rings of Power|Three Rings]] of the Elves to Gandalf rather than Saruman.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Powers &amp;amp; Abilities ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[The Hobbit]], Gandalf demonstrated extensive knowledge of the land and an assortment of magical abilities.  He could blow glowing smoke rings that moved around a room at his direction, and [[Bilbo]] remembered him for his fantastic fireworks displays.  More usefully, he created blinding flashes and other pyrotechnics to distract the [[goblin]]s of the [[Misty Mountains]], aiding the dwarves in their escape from [[Goblin-town]].  On the eastern slopes, he turned pine cones into flaming projectiles that threw hot sparks and started fires that would not easily go out.  He was also able come and go from the presence of [[Thorin and Company]] without anyone noticing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[The Lord of the Rings]], he again displayed his proficiency with pyrotechnics at [[Bilbo&#039;s Farewell Party]].  He was also able to start fires under blizzard conditions, create light of varying intensity for the journey through [[Moria]], magically secure doors, and break the [[Bridge of Khazad-dûm]].  When angered or aroused for battle, he seemed to grow in height and assume a terrifying aspect.  He also fought the [[Durin&#039;s Bane|Balrog of Moria]] and killed his opponent, although he did not survive the battle himself.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sent back to [[Middle-earth]] as Gandalf the White, he possessed greater charisma and a limited degree of clairvoyance, although he was unable to peer into the land of [[Mordor]] to see the progress of Frodo and [[Sam]].  His power and authority had increased so that he could break [[Saruman|Saruman&#039;s]] staff with a spoken command, showing his authority to throw the treacherous wizard out of the order.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Special Equipment===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Like all wizards, Gandalf carried a staff which sometimes served as a focus for his powers (like creating light).  Exactly how much it aided him in the use of magic is unknown, but [[Grima Wormtongue]] tried to forbid Gandalf from bringing it into [[Edoras]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When he arrived in Middle Earth, Gandalf received the Elven ring [[Narya]] from [[Cirdan the Shipwright]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In 2941, Gandalf acquired the sword [[Glamdring]] from the treasure horde of a band of trolls.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Names and Titles ==&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Olórin&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name in [[Valinor]] and in very ancient times. &amp;quot;Olórin was my name in my youth in the West that is forgotten.&amp;quot; It is [[Quenya]] and its meaning is associated with dreams (perhaps &amp;quot;dreamer&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;of dreams&amp;quot;), from the root &#039;&#039;ÓLOS&#039;&#039;-&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Mithrandir&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his [[Sindarin]] name, used in [[Gondor]] and meaning &amp;quot;Grey Pilgrim&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Incánus&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name in the South, of unclear language and meaning. Tolkien several times changed his mind about it, varying between the Latin word Incanus meaning Grey, a possible [[Westron]] invention meaning Greymantle, or even an [[Elvish]] word &#039;&#039;Ind-cano&#039;&#039; meaning &amp;quot;Mind Ruler&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Tharkûn&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name to the Dwarves, probably meaning &amp;quot;Staff Man&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;The White Rider&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name while riding the great horse [[Shadowfax]]&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf Greyhame&#039;&#039;&#039;, given to him by [[Gríma Wormtongue]]&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;Stormcrow&#039;&#039;&#039;, a reference to his arrival being associated with times of trouble&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Wand-elf===&lt;br /&gt;
Within the legendarium, &amp;quot;Gandalf&amp;quot; translates an unknown name of the meaning  &amp;quot;Elf-of-the-wand (or cane/staff)&amp;quot;, or more literary &amp;quot;Wand-elf&amp;quot;, in old northern Mannish. Most denizens of Middle-earth incorrectly assumed Gandalf was a [[Men|Man]] (human), although he was really a Maia spirit (approximately equivalent to an angel).  However, a less common misconception that occurred during the beginning of his career in Middle-earth was that for someone to be [[immortal]] and use as much magic as he did, he must have been an Elf. Although it soon became apparent to all that he couldn&#039;t be an Elf, as he was old and Elves don&#039;t generally age, the nickname stuck with him. He later gave it as his name to others he met who didn&#039;t know its original meaning.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Inspiration ==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Der_Berggeist_(Origin_of_Gandalf)_by_J._Madelener.gif|left|thumb|250px|This painting on a postcard is rumored to be how [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] got his inspiration for the character known as &amp;quot;Gandalf&amp;quot;]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;Gandalfr&#039;&#039;&amp;lt;!-- this is the nominative, not a typo!--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
appears in the list of dwarves in the &#039;&#039;[[Völuspá]]&#039;&#039; of the [[Elder Edda]], the name means &amp;quot;Cane-elf&amp;quot;. Tolkien took the name along with the other dwarves&#039; names when he wrote &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; in the 1930s. He came to regret the creation of this &amp;quot;rabble of eddaic-named dwarves [...] invented in an idle hour&amp;quot; ([[The Treason of Isengard|HoME 7]]:452), since it forced him to come up with an explanation of why Old Norse names should be used in [[Third Age]] Middle-earth. He solved the dilemma in 1942 by the explanation that Old Norse was a &#039;&#039;translation&#039;&#039; of the language of [[Dale]]. The figure of Gandalf has other influences from Germanic mythology, particularly Odin in his incarnation as &amp;quot;the Wanderer&amp;quot;, an old man with one eye, a long white beard, a wide brimmed hat, and a staff: Tolkien states that he thinks of Gandalf as an &#039;&#039;&amp;quot;Odinic wanderer&amp;quot;&#039;&#039; in a letter of 1946 (&#039;&#039;Letters&#039;&#039; no. 107). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Tolkien had a postcard labelled &#039;&#039;Der Berggeist&#039;&#039; (&amp;quot;the mountain spirit&amp;quot;), and on the paper cover in which he kept it, he wrote &amp;quot;the origin of Gandalf&amp;quot; at some point. The postcard reproduces a painting of a bearded figure, sitting on a rock under a pine tree in a mountainous setting. He wears a wide-brimmed round hat and a long cloak and white fawn is nuzzling his upturned hands.&lt;br /&gt;
[[Humphrey Carpenter]] in his 1977 biography said that Tolkien had bought the postcard during his 1911 holiday in Switzerland. However, Manfred Zimmerman (1983) discovered that the painting was by German artist Josef Madlener and dates to the late 1920s. Carpenter concluded that Tolkien was probably mistaken about the origin of the postcard himself. Tolkien must have acquired the card at some time in the early 1930s, at a time when &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; had already begun to take shape.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The original painting was auctioned at Sotheby&#039;s in London on July 12, 2005 for 84,000 GBP. The previous owner had been given the painting by Madlener in the 1940s and recalled that he had stated the mountains in the background of the painting were the Dolomites.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The first description of Gandalf, then, is preserved in the first pages of &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039;, &lt;br /&gt;
dating to the early 1930s. Gandalf&#039;s fame is alluded to even before his physical description (&amp;quot;Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion&amp;quot;), directed by the author to the reader, while the protagonist&#039;s (&amp;quot;unsuspecting Bilbo&amp;quot;) impression is that of:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;blockquote&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;...an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which a white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Portrayals in Adaptations ==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;gallery&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Gandalf from Rankin-Bass&#039; The Hobbit.jpg|Gandalf as portrayed in [[Rankin/Bass&#039; The Hobbit]]&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Gandalf from Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings.jpg|Gandalf as portrayed in [[Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]]&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Peter Jackson&#039;s Gandalf.jpg|[[Ian McKellen]] as Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]]&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/gallery&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
[[John Huston]] provided the voice of Gandalf in two animated television features by [[Rankin/Bass]]. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]] Gandalf was voiced by [[William Squire]]. It is not known whether Squire played him in the live-action filming used for rotoscoping. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In the BBC radio dramatisations, [[Heron Carvic]] played him in &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; and Sir [[Michael Hordern]] played him in &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Ian McKellen|Sir Ian McKellen]] was Gandalf in &#039;&#039;[[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Lord of the Rings|The Lord of The Rings]]&#039;&#039; movie trilogy directed by [[Peter Jackson]]. McKellan was also nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Fellowship of the Ring]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sean Connery was initially approached to play Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s movie trilogy; allegedly he was rejected when he professed ignorance of the books!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== See Also ==&lt;br /&gt;
* [[:Category:Images of Gandalf|Images of Gandalf]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== References ==&lt;br /&gt;
* Manfred Zimmerman, &#039;&#039;The Origin of Gandalf and [[Josef Madlener]]&#039;&#039;, Mythlore 34 (1983).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== External Links ==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.tolkiensociety.org/news/gandalf-painting.html The painting from which Tolkien drew inspiration for Gandalf]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{istari}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{maiar}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{Thorin and Company}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{fellowship}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Characters]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Maiar]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wizards]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Gandalf&amp;diff=43839</id>
		<title>Gandalf</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Gandalf&amp;diff=43839"/>
		<updated>2007-06-04T23:51:57Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: /* Pre-War of the Ring */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{Istari infobox&lt;br /&gt;
| image=[[Image:Roger Thomasson - Gandalf.jpg|250px]]&lt;br /&gt;
| name=Gandalf&lt;br /&gt;
| othernames= The Grey, The White, Olórin, Mithrandir, Incánus, Tharkûn, The White Rider, Gandalf Greyhame, Stormcrow, [[Gandalf#Wand-elf|Wand-elf]]&lt;br /&gt;
| birth= Entered [[Middle-earth]] in III 1000&lt;br /&gt;
| death= III 3018 (later resurrected); after the War of the Ring he passed to [[Valinor]]&lt;br /&gt;
| gender=Male&lt;br /&gt;
| robes=Grey, White&lt;br /&gt;
| height=&lt;br /&gt;
| hair= Grey, White&lt;br /&gt;
| eyes=&lt;br /&gt;
|}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{quote|Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his long white hair, his sweeping beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his eyes were set like coals that could suddenly burst into fire.|[[The Fellowship of the Ring]], &amp;quot;[[Many Meetings]]&amp;quot;}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the Grey&#039;&#039;&#039;, later &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the White&#039;&#039;&#039;, was a [[Wizard]] of the [[Third Age]] and the greatest force of good of his time. His tireless work against the Dark Lord [[Sauron]] saved [[Middle-earth]] from his malice and was the basis for &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== History ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Origins ===&lt;br /&gt;
{{Pronounce|Gandalf.mp3|Ardamir}}&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:John Howe - Gandalf.jpg|thumb|300px|This is one of the most well known illustrations of &#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;&#039;, by [[John Howe]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf is the best-known of the [[Maiar]] of the people of [[Valinor]]. He was known as &#039;&#039;&#039;Olórin&#039;&#039;&#039; who dwelt in the gardens of [[Irmo]] and was the pupil of [[Nienna]]. When the [[Valar]] decided to send the order of the [[Wizards]] (or [[Istari]] to Middle-earth, Olórin was proposed by [[Manwë]], in order to counsel and assist all those in Middle-earth who opposed [[Sauron]].  He is said to be one of the wisest of that order, rivalling [[Saruman]], with whom he had a strained, competitive relationship. The other Maiar to travel from Valinor on this mission were: [[Aiwendil|Radagast]], [[Pallando]] and [[Alatar]]. It is possible that [[Glorfindel of Gondolin]] travelled with Gandalf from Valinor (see also &#039;&#039;[[Glorfindel#Are they the same?|Are they the same?]]&#039;&#039;).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Role in &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; ===&lt;br /&gt;
In &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039;, Gandalf visits the [[Shire]], where he spent a great deal of time, as a vain, fussy old conjurer who entertained children with fireworks during festivals and parties. He partially reveals his true nature and power to [[Bilbo Baggins]]. He arranges a proposition for Bilbo to join a band of thirteen [[Dwarves]] to regain the Dwarvish treasure of the [[Lonely Mountain]] that was stolen many years before by the [[Dragons|dragon]], [[Smaug]]. It is on this quest that Gandalf finds his sword, &#039;&#039;[[Glamdring]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Unknown to the Dwarves or Bilbo, Gandalf had joined the quest in order to investigate what he suspected to be Sauron&#039;s resurgence in [[Mirkwood]]; he frequently vanishes to &amp;quot;attend to other pressing business&amp;quot;— the nature of which he refuses to discuss. Some years before, he had encountered [[Thráin II]], father of the quest&#039;s leader, [[Thorin Oakenshield]], dying in [[Dol Guldur]], and the Dwarf king entrusted him with a map to Erebor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As Dol Guldur became one of Sauron&#039;s strongholds, Gandalf feared that Sauron&#039;s agents were at large again. He met Thorin years later and agreed to go on the quest as a way to investigate further. He insisted, however, on bringing Bilbo along as a &amp;quot;burglar&amp;quot;, someone who could sneak into places Dwarves couldn&#039;t access and gather information. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When Bilbo finds the One Ring, Gandalf is immediately suspicious of the Hobbit&#039;s story of evading the [[Goblins]] through &amp;quot;being invisible.&amp;quot; He privately confronts Bilbo and forces the truth out of him, and is deeply troubled by his story of the ring&#039;s powers, as they seem eerily familiar.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
He disappears when the company reaches Mirkwood, and does not reappear again until the [[Battle of Five Armies]] breaks out, when he brings an army of [[Eagles]] to help the Dwarves. After the battle, Gandalf accompanies Bilbo back to the Shire.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Pre-War of the Ring ===&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf spends the years between TA 2941 and 3001 travelling [[Middle-earth]] in search of information on [[Sauron]]&#039;s resurgence and Bilbo&#039;s mysterious ring. He spends as much time as he can in the Shire, however, strengthening his friendship with Bilbo and befriending Bilbo&#039;s heir, [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]]. He is also begins to be suspicious of Saruman commiting treason against the the [[Istari|Order]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In 3001 he attended Bilbo&#039;s &amp;quot;Eleventy-first&amp;quot; (111th) birthday party, bringing many strange fireworks, indicating his knowledge of chemistry as well as magic. When Bilbo stands to give an announcement to the Shirefolk, Bilbo puts on the ring and disappears at the end of his speech, as a prank on his neighbors. Troubled by this, Gandalf confronts his old friend and tries to persuade him to leave his ring to Frodo. Bilbo becomes hostile and accuses him of trying to steal the ring&amp;amp;mdash;which he calls &amp;quot;my precious,&amp;quot; much as [[Gollum]], the creature Bilbo had taken the ring from, had. Horrified, Gandalf stands to his full height and almost orders Bilbo to leave it behind. Bilbo returns to his senses, and admits that the ring had been troubling him lately. He then leaves, the only Ring-bearer in history to have left it voluntarily.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Over the next seventeen years, Gandalf travels extensively, searching for answers. Having long sought for Gollum near Mordor, he meets with [[Aragorn II|Aragorn]] in Mirkwood, who had captured the creature. Gandalf interrogates the wretched creature and learns that Sauron had forced him to tell what he knew about the ring under torture, adding to his suspicions that Bilbo carried The One Ring.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Role in &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; ===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Enis Cisic - Gandalf and Frodo.jpg|thumb|left|&#039;&#039;Gandalf and Frodo&#039;&#039; by [[Enis Cisic]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Upon returning to the Shire, in Chapter 2 of &#039;&#039;[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]&#039;&#039;, he confirms his suspicions by throwing the Ring into Frodo&#039;s hearth fire and reading the writing. He tells Frodo the full history of the Ring, urging him to leave with it and make for [[Rivendell]], the home of the elves, knowing he is in grave danger if he stays at home.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf, while riding near the Shire, is requested by Radagast the Brown to seek out Saruman because the [[Nazgûl]] had come forth and crossed the River [[Anduin]]. Gandalf leaves a note for Frodo with Butterbur, an inn-keeper in [[Bree]], and heads towards [[Isengard]]. Once there, he is betrayed and held captive by Saruman, who had already come under the influence of Sauron due to his use of the [[palantíri|palantír]]. Eventually rescued by Gwahir the eagle, he only reaches the Shire after Frodo has set out and does not meet up with him until Frodo reaches Rivendell on October 20.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Taking leadership of the Fellowship (nine representatives of the free peoples of Middle-earth &amp;quot;set against the [[Nine Riders]]&amp;quot;), he and Aragorn lead the hobbits and their companions on an unsuccessful effort to cross Mount Caradhras in winter. Then they take the &amp;quot;dark and secret way&amp;quot; through the Mines of [[Moria]], which &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;&#039;&#039; had visited once before, looking for King Thraín II. They fought with Goblins and a Cave Troll in the [[Battle of the Chamber of Mazarbul]].  They defeated the force and fled for the [[East-gate]], when they met met an ancient demon, a [[Balrogs|Balrog]], one of the Maiar corrupted by [[Melkor]] in the [[First Age]]. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Danny Staten - Gandalf&#039;s Triumph.jpg|thumb|&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;s Triumph&#039;&#039; by [[Danny Staten]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Since Gandalf and the Balrog were both Maiar, they were beings of the same order. As they faced each other, Gandalf broke the Bridge in front of him, but as the Balrog fell it wrapped its whip around Gandalf&#039;s ankle, which dragged him down to hanging onto the edge. As the Company looked in horror, Gandalf cried, &amp;quot;Fly, you fools!&amp;quot; and let go. Neither he nor the Balrog was killed by the fall, and Gandalf pursued the creature for eight days until they climbed to the peak of Zirakzigil. Here they fought for two days and nights in what was called the [[Battle of the Peak]]. In the end, the Balrog was cast down and it broke the mountain-side as it fell. Gandalf himself died following this ordeal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf is &amp;quot;brought back&amp;quot; (either resurrected or reincarnated), returning as a more imposing white-clad figure, &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the White&#039;&#039;&#039;. In [[Fangorn]] forest he encounters the Three Walkers (Aragorn, [[Gimli]], and [[Legolas]]) who were tracking Fellowship members (and Frodo&#039;s cousins) [[Meriadoc Brandybuck|Merry]] and [[Peregrin Took|Pippin]]. Arriving in [[Rohan]], Gandalf finds that its king, [[Théoden]], has been weakened by Saruman&#039;s agent, [[Gríma Wormtongue]]. He breaks Wormtongue&#039;s hold over Theoden, and convinces the King to join them in fighting Sauron. They then go on to prosecute the war against Isengard and [[Barad-dûr]] ([[The Two Towers]]).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
After the overthrow of [[Saruman]] at [[Isenguard]], Gandalf breaks Saruman&#039;s staff and banishes him from the Order of Wizards. He then takes Pippin with him to Gondor to aide in the defense of the city.  Gandalf buys the city precious time by facing off against the [[Witch-king of Angmar]], the Lord of the Nazgûl, giving the Rohirrim enough time to reach the city during the [[Battle of Pelennor Fields]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf leads the final battle against Sauron&#039;s forces at the [[Black Gate]], waging an all-out battle to distract the [[Dark Lord]]&#039;s attention away from Frodo and [[Samwise Gamgee|Sam]], who were at the very same moment scaling [[Mount Doom]] to destroy the Ring. Without his efforts, Sauron may well have learned where the two Hobbits were and killed them before they could complete their task. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three years later, Gandalf, now having spent over 2,000 years in Middle-Earth, departs with Frodo, [[Galadriel]], Bilbo, and [[Elrond]] across the sea to the [[Undying Lands]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Appearance ==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Piotr Wysocki - Gandalf&#039;s Brooch.jpg|thumb|left|&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;s Brooch&#039;&#039; by Piotr Wysocki.]]&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf initially appears as an old man with a grey beard, a grey cloak and a large, pointed blue hat. Although some of the Wise know his true nature, others mistake him for a simple conjuror. After he is resurrected the change of his signature colour from grey to white is significant, for he has been sent back to replace the corrupt Saruman as the chief of the Wizards. In the book he says that he has himself become what Saruman should have been.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Círdan]] the Shipwright seemed to have foreseen this, for he entrusted the care of [[Narya]], the ring of Fire, one of the [[Rings of Power|Three Rings]] of the Elves to Gandalf rather than Saruman.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Powers &amp;amp; Abilities ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[The Hobbit]], Gandalf demonstrated extensive knowledge of the land and an assortment of magical abilities.  He could blow glowing smoke rings that moved around a room at his direction, and [[Bilbo]] remembered him for his fantastic fireworks displays.  More usefully, he created blinding flashes and other pyrotechnics to distract the [[goblin]]s of the [[Misty Mountains]], aiding the dwarves in their escape from [[Goblin-town]].  On the eastern slopes, he turned pine cones into flaming projectiles that threw hot sparks and started fires that would not easily go out.  He was also able come and go from the presence of [[Thorin and Company]] without anyone noticing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[The Lord of the Rings]], he again displayed his proficiency with pyrotechnics at [[Bilbo&#039;s Farewell Party]].  He was also able to start fires under blizzard conditions, create light of varying intensity for the journey through [[Moria]], magically secure doors, and break the [[Bridge of Khazad-dûm]].  When angered or aroused for battle, he seemed to grow in height and assume a terrifying aspect.  He also fought the [[Durin&#039;s Bane|Balrog of Moria]] and killed his opponent, although he did not survive the battle himself.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sent back to [[Middle-earth]] as Gandalf the White, he possessed greater charisma and a limited degree of clairvoyance, although he was unable to peer into the land of [[Mordor]] to see the progress of Frodo and [[Sam]].  His power and authority had increased so that he could break [[Saruman|Saruman&#039;s]] staff with a spoken command, showing his authority to throw the treacherous wizard out of the order.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Special Equipment===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Like all wizards, Gandalf carried a staff which sometimes served as a focus for his powers (like creating light).  Exactly how much it aided him in the use of magic is unknown, but [[Grima Wormtongue]] tried to forbid Gandalf from bringing it into [[Edoras]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When he arrived in Middle Earth, Gandalf received the Elven ring [[Narya]] from [[Cirdan the Shipwright]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In 2941, Gandalf acquired the sword [[Glamdring]] from the treasure horde of a band of trolls.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Names and Titles ==&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Olórin&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name in [[Valinor]] and in very ancient times. &amp;quot;Olórin was my name in my youth in the West that is forgotten.&amp;quot; It is [[Quenya]] and its meaning is associated with dreams (perhaps &amp;quot;dreamer&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;of dreams&amp;quot;), from the root &#039;&#039;ÓLOS&#039;&#039;-&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Mithrandir&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his [[Sindarin]] name, used in [[Gondor]] and meaning &amp;quot;Grey Pilgrim&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Incánus&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name in the South, of unclear language and meaning. Tolkien several times changed his mind about it, varying between the Latin word Incanus meaning Grey, a possible [[Westron]] invention meaning Greymantle, or even an [[Elvish]] word &#039;&#039;Ind-cano&#039;&#039; meaning &amp;quot;Mind Ruler&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Tharkûn&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name to the Dwarves, probably meaning &amp;quot;Staff Man&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;The White Rider&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name while riding the great horse [[Shadowfax]]&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf Greyhame&#039;&#039;&#039;, given to him by [[Gríma Wormtongue]]&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;Stormcrow&#039;&#039;&#039;, a reference to his arrival being associated with times of trouble&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Wand-elf===&lt;br /&gt;
Within the legendarium, &amp;quot;Gandalf&amp;quot; translates an unknown name of the meaning  &amp;quot;Elf-of-the-wand (or cane/staff)&amp;quot;, or more literary &amp;quot;Wand-elf&amp;quot;, in old northern Mannish. Most denizens of Middle-earth incorrectly assumed Gandalf was a [[Men|Man]] (human), although he was really a Maia spirit (approximately equivalent to an angel).  However, a less common misconception that occurred during the beginning of his career in Middle-earth was that for someone to be [[immortal]] and use as much magic as he did, he must have been an Elf. Although it soon became apparent to all that he couldn&#039;t be an Elf, as he was old and Elves don&#039;t generally age, the nickname stuck with him. He later gave it as his name to others he met who didn&#039;t know its original meaning.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Inspiration ==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Der_Berggeist_(Origin_of_Gandalf)_by_J._Madelener.gif|left|thumb|250px|This painting on a postcard is rumored to be how [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] got his inspiration for the character known as &amp;quot;Gandalf&amp;quot;]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;Gandalfr&#039;&#039;&amp;lt;!-- this is the nominative, not a typo!--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
appears in the list of dwarves in the &#039;&#039;[[Völuspá]]&#039;&#039; of the [[Elder Edda]], the name means &amp;quot;Cane-elf&amp;quot;. Tolkien took the name along with the other dwarves&#039; names when he wrote &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; in the 1930s. He came to regret the creation of this &amp;quot;rabble of eddaic-named dwarves [...] invented in an idle hour&amp;quot; ([[The Treason of Isengard|HoME 7]]:452), since it forced him to come up with an explanation of why Old Norse names should be used in [[Third Age]] Middle-earth. He solved the dilemma in 1942 by the explanation that Old Norse was a &#039;&#039;translation&#039;&#039; of the language of [[Dale]]. The figure of Gandalf has other influences from Germanic mythology, particularly Odin in his incarnation as &amp;quot;the Wanderer&amp;quot;, an old man with one eye, a long white beard, a wide brimmed hat, and a staff: Tolkien states that he thinks of Gandalf as an &#039;&#039;&amp;quot;Odinic wanderer&amp;quot;&#039;&#039; in a letter of 1946 (&#039;&#039;Letters&#039;&#039; no. 107). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Tolkien had a postcard labelled &#039;&#039;Der Berggeist&#039;&#039; (&amp;quot;the mountain spirit&amp;quot;), and on the paper cover in which he kept it, he wrote &amp;quot;the origin of Gandalf&amp;quot; at some point. The postcard reproduces a painting of a bearded figure, sitting on a rock under a pine tree in a mountainous setting. He wears a wide-brimmed round hat and a long cloak and white fawn is nuzzling his upturned hands.&lt;br /&gt;
[[Humphrey Carpenter]] in his 1977 biography said that Tolkien had bought the postcard during his 1911 holiday in Switzerland. However, Manfred Zimmerman (1983) discovered that the painting was by German artist Josef Madlener and dates to the late 1920s. Carpenter concluded that Tolkien was probably mistaken about the origin of the postcard himself. Tolkien must have acquired the card at some time in the early 1930s, at a time when &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; had already begun to take shape.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The original painting was auctioned at Sotheby&#039;s in London on July 12, 2005 for 84,000 GBP. The previous owner had been given the painting by Madlener in the 1940s and recalled that he had stated the mountains in the background of the painting were the Dolomites.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The first description of Gandalf, then, is preserved in the first pages of &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039;, &lt;br /&gt;
dating to the early 1930s. Gandalf&#039;s fame is alluded to even before his physical description (&amp;quot;Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion&amp;quot;), directed by the author to the reader, while the protagonist&#039;s (&amp;quot;unsuspecting Bilbo&amp;quot;) impression is that of:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;blockquote&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;...an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which a white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Portrayals in Adaptations ==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;gallery&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Gandalf from Rankin-Bass&#039; The Hobbit.jpg|Gandalf as portrayed in [[Rankin/Bass&#039; The Hobbit]]&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Gandalf from Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings.jpg|Gandalf as portrayed in [[Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]]&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Peter Jackson&#039;s Gandalf.jpg|[[Ian McKellen]] as Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]]&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/gallery&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
[[John Huston]] provided the voice of Gandalf in two animated television features by [[Rankin/Bass]]. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]] Gandalf was voiced by [[William Squire]]. It is not known whether Squire played him in the live-action filming used for rotoscoping. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In the BBC radio dramatisations, [[Heron Carvic]] played him in &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; and Sir [[Michael Hordern]] played him in &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Ian McKellen|Sir Ian McKellen]] was Gandalf in &#039;&#039;[[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Lord of the Rings|The Lord of The Rings]]&#039;&#039; movie trilogy directed by [[Peter Jackson]]. McKellan was also nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Fellowship of the Ring]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sean Connery was initially approached to play Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s movie trilogy; allegedly he was rejected when he professed ignorance of the books!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== See Also ==&lt;br /&gt;
* [[:Category:Images of Gandalf|Images of Gandalf]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== References ==&lt;br /&gt;
* Manfred Zimmerman, &#039;&#039;The Origin of Gandalf and [[Josef Madlener]]&#039;&#039;, Mythlore 34 (1983).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== External Links ==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.tolkiensociety.org/news/gandalf-painting.html The painting from which Tolkien drew inspiration for Gandalf]&lt;br /&gt;
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{{istari}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{maiar}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{Thorin and Company}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{fellowship}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Characters]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Maiar]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wizards]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
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		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Gandalf&amp;diff=43836</id>
		<title>Gandalf</title>
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		<updated>2007-06-04T23:44:46Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: /* Role in &amp;#039;&amp;#039;The Hobbit&amp;#039;&amp;#039; */&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;div&gt;{{Istari infobox&lt;br /&gt;
| image=[[Image:Roger Thomasson - Gandalf.jpg|250px]]&lt;br /&gt;
| name=Gandalf&lt;br /&gt;
| othernames= The Grey, The White, Olórin, Mithrandir, Incánus, Tharkûn, The White Rider, Gandalf Greyhame, Stormcrow, [[Gandalf#Wand-elf|Wand-elf]]&lt;br /&gt;
| birth= Entered [[Middle-earth]] in III 1000&lt;br /&gt;
| death= III 3018 (later resurrected); after the War of the Ring he passed to [[Valinor]]&lt;br /&gt;
| gender=Male&lt;br /&gt;
| robes=Grey, White&lt;br /&gt;
| height=&lt;br /&gt;
| hair= Grey, White&lt;br /&gt;
| eyes=&lt;br /&gt;
|}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{quote|Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his long white hair, his sweeping beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his eyes were set like coals that could suddenly burst into fire.|[[The Fellowship of the Ring]], &amp;quot;[[Many Meetings]]&amp;quot;}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the Grey&#039;&#039;&#039;, later &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the White&#039;&#039;&#039;, was a [[Wizard]] of the [[Third Age]] and the greatest force of good of his time. His tireless work against the Dark Lord [[Sauron]] saved [[Middle-earth]] from his malice and was the basis for &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== History ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Origins ===&lt;br /&gt;
{{Pronounce|Gandalf.mp3|Ardamir}}&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:John Howe - Gandalf.jpg|thumb|300px|This is one of the most well known illustrations of &#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;&#039;, by [[John Howe]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf is the best-known of the [[Maiar]] of the people of [[Valinor]]. He was known as &#039;&#039;&#039;Olórin&#039;&#039;&#039; who dwelt in the gardens of [[Irmo]] and was the pupil of [[Nienna]]. When the [[Valar]] decided to send the order of the [[Wizards]] (or [[Istari]] to Middle-earth, Olórin was proposed by [[Manwë]], in order to counsel and assist all those in Middle-earth who opposed [[Sauron]].  He is said to be one of the wisest of that order, rivalling [[Saruman]], with whom he had a strained, competitive relationship. The other Maiar to travel from Valinor on this mission were: [[Aiwendil|Radagast]], [[Pallando]] and [[Alatar]]. It is possible that [[Glorfindel of Gondolin]] travelled with Gandalf from Valinor (see also &#039;&#039;[[Glorfindel#Are they the same?|Are they the same?]]&#039;&#039;).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Role in &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; ===&lt;br /&gt;
In &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039;, Gandalf visits the [[Shire]], where he spent a great deal of time, as a vain, fussy old conjurer who entertained children with fireworks during festivals and parties. He partially reveals his true nature and power to [[Bilbo Baggins]]. He arranges a proposition for Bilbo to join a band of thirteen [[Dwarves]] to regain the Dwarvish treasure of the [[Lonely Mountain]] that was stolen many years before by the [[Dragons|dragon]], [[Smaug]]. It is on this quest that Gandalf finds his sword, &#039;&#039;[[Glamdring]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Unknown to the Dwarves or Bilbo, Gandalf had joined the quest in order to investigate what he suspected to be Sauron&#039;s resurgence in [[Mirkwood]]; he frequently vanishes to &amp;quot;attend to other pressing business&amp;quot;— the nature of which he refuses to discuss. Some years before, he had encountered [[Thráin II]], father of the quest&#039;s leader, [[Thorin Oakenshield]], dying in [[Dol Guldur]], and the Dwarf king entrusted him with a map to Erebor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As Dol Guldur became one of Sauron&#039;s strongholds, Gandalf feared that Sauron&#039;s agents were at large again. He met Thorin years later and agreed to go on the quest as a way to investigate further. He insisted, however, on bringing Bilbo along as a &amp;quot;burglar&amp;quot;, someone who could sneak into places Dwarves couldn&#039;t access and gather information. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When Bilbo finds the One Ring, Gandalf is immediately suspicious of the Hobbit&#039;s story of evading the [[Goblins]] through &amp;quot;being invisible.&amp;quot; He privately confronts Bilbo and forces the truth out of him, and is deeply troubled by his story of the ring&#039;s powers, as they seem eerily familiar.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
He disappears when the company reaches Mirkwood, and does not reappear again until the [[Battle of Five Armies]] breaks out, when he brings an army of [[Eagles]] to help the Dwarves. After the battle, Gandalf accompanies Bilbo back to the Shire.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Pre-War of the Ring ===&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf spends the years between Third Age 2941 and 3001 travelling [[Middle-earth]] in search of information on [[Sauron]]&#039;s resurgence and Bilbo&#039;s mysterious ring. He spends as much time as he can in the Shire, however, strengthening his friendship with Bilbo and befriending Bilbo&#039;s heir, [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]]. It is also at about this time that he first begins to be suspicious of Saruman.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In 3001 he attended Bilbo&#039;s &amp;quot;Eleventy-First&amp;quot; (111th) birthday party, bringing many fireworks and a giant flying firework &#039;dragon&#039;, indicating his knowledge of chemistry as well as magic.  At the end of the party Bilbo puts on the ring and disappears at the end of his speech, as a prank on his neighbors. Troubled by this, Gandalf confronts his old friend and tries to persuade him to leave it to Frodo. Bilbo becomes hostile and accuses him of trying to steal the ring&amp;amp;mdash;which he calls &amp;quot;my precious,&amp;quot; much as [[Gollum]], the creature Bilbo had taken the ring from, had. Horrified, Gandalf stands to his full height and almost orders Bilbo to leave it behind. Bilbo returns to his senses, and admits that the ring had been troubling him lately. He then leaves, the only Ring-bearer in history to have left it voluntarily.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Over the next seventeen years, Gandalf travels extensively, searching for answers. Having long sought for Gollum near Mordor, he meets with [[Aragorn II|Aragorn]] in Mirkwood, who had captured the creature. Gandalf interrogates the wretched creature and learns that Sauron had forced him to tell what he knew about the ring under torture, adding to his suspicions that Bilbo carried The One Ring.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Role in &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; ===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Enis Cisic - Gandalf and Frodo.jpg|thumb|left|&#039;&#039;Gandalf and Frodo&#039;&#039; by [[Enis Cisic]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Upon returning to the Shire, in Chapter 2 of &#039;&#039;[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]&#039;&#039;, he confirms his suspicions by throwing the Ring into Frodo&#039;s hearth fire and reading the writing. He tells Frodo the full history of the Ring, urging him to leave with it and make for [[Rivendell]], the home of the elves, knowing he is in grave danger if he stays at home.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf, while riding near the Shire, is requested by Radagast the Brown to seek out Saruman because the [[Nazgûl]] had come forth and crossed the River [[Anduin]]. Gandalf leaves a note for Frodo with Butterbur, an inn-keeper in [[Bree]], and heads towards [[Isengard]]. Once there, he is betrayed and held captive by Saruman, who had already come under the influence of Sauron due to his use of the [[palantíri|palantír]]. Eventually rescued by Gwahir the eagle, he only reaches the Shire after Frodo has set out and does not meet up with him until Frodo reaches Rivendell on October 20.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Taking leadership of the Fellowship (nine representatives of the free peoples of Middle-earth &amp;quot;set against the [[Nine Riders]]&amp;quot;), he and Aragorn lead the hobbits and their companions on an unsuccessful effort to cross Mount Caradhras in winter. Then they take the &amp;quot;dark and secret way&amp;quot; through the Mines of [[Moria]], which &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;&#039;&#039; had visited once before, looking for King Thraín II. They fought with Goblins and a Cave Troll in the [[Battle of the Chamber of Mazarbul]].  They defeated the force and fled for the [[East-gate]], when they met met an ancient demon, a [[Balrogs|Balrog]], one of the Maiar corrupted by [[Melkor]] in the [[First Age]]. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Danny Staten - Gandalf&#039;s Triumph.jpg|thumb|&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;s Triumph&#039;&#039; by [[Danny Staten]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Since Gandalf and the Balrog were both Maiar, they were beings of the same order. As they faced each other, Gandalf broke the Bridge in front of him, but as the Balrog fell it wrapped its whip around Gandalf&#039;s ankle, which dragged him down to hanging onto the edge. As the Company looked in horror, Gandalf cried, &amp;quot;Fly, you fools!&amp;quot; and let go. Neither he nor the Balrog was killed by the fall, and Gandalf pursued the creature for eight days until they climbed to the peak of Zirakzigil. Here they fought for two days and nights in what was called the [[Battle of the Peak]]. In the end, the Balrog was cast down and it broke the mountain-side as it fell. Gandalf himself died following this ordeal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf is &amp;quot;brought back&amp;quot; (either resurrected or reincarnated), returning as a more imposing white-clad figure, &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the White&#039;&#039;&#039;. In [[Fangorn]] forest he encounters the Three Walkers (Aragorn, [[Gimli]], and [[Legolas]]) who were tracking Fellowship members (and Frodo&#039;s cousins) [[Meriadoc Brandybuck|Merry]] and [[Peregrin Took|Pippin]]. Arriving in [[Rohan]], Gandalf finds that its king, [[Théoden]], has been weakened by Saruman&#039;s agent, [[Gríma Wormtongue]]. He breaks Wormtongue&#039;s hold over Theoden, and convinces the King to join them in fighting Sauron. They then go on to prosecute the war against Isengard and [[Barad-dûr]] ([[The Two Towers]]).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
After the overthrow of [[Saruman]] at [[Isenguard]], Gandalf breaks Saruman&#039;s staff and banishes him from the Order of Wizards. He then takes Pippin with him to Gondor to aide in the defense of the city.  Gandalf buys the city precious time by facing off against the [[Witch-king of Angmar]], the Lord of the Nazgûl, giving the Rohirrim enough time to reach the city during the [[Battle of Pelennor Fields]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf leads the final battle against Sauron&#039;s forces at the [[Black Gate]], waging an all-out battle to distract the [[Dark Lord]]&#039;s attention away from Frodo and [[Samwise Gamgee|Sam]], who were at the very same moment scaling [[Mount Doom]] to destroy the Ring. Without his efforts, Sauron may well have learned where the two Hobbits were and killed them before they could complete their task. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three years later, Gandalf, now having spent over 2,000 years in Middle-Earth, departs with Frodo, [[Galadriel]], Bilbo, and [[Elrond]] across the sea to the [[Undying Lands]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Appearance ==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Piotr Wysocki - Gandalf&#039;s Brooch.jpg|thumb|left|&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;s Brooch&#039;&#039; by Piotr Wysocki.]]&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf initially appears as an old man with a grey beard, a grey cloak and a large, pointed blue hat. Although some of the Wise know his true nature, others mistake him for a simple conjuror. After he is resurrected the change of his signature colour from grey to white is significant, for he has been sent back to replace the corrupt Saruman as the chief of the Wizards. In the book he says that he has himself become what Saruman should have been.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Círdan]] the Shipwright seemed to have foreseen this, for he entrusted the care of [[Narya]], the ring of Fire, one of the [[Rings of Power|Three Rings]] of the Elves to Gandalf rather than Saruman.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Powers &amp;amp; Abilities ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[The Hobbit]], Gandalf demonstrated extensive knowledge of the land and an assortment of magical abilities.  He could blow glowing smoke rings that moved around a room at his direction, and [[Bilbo]] remembered him for his fantastic fireworks displays.  More usefully, he created blinding flashes and other pyrotechnics to distract the [[goblin]]s of the [[Misty Mountains]], aiding the dwarves in their escape from [[Goblin-town]].  On the eastern slopes, he turned pine cones into flaming projectiles that threw hot sparks and started fires that would not easily go out.  He was also able come and go from the presence of [[Thorin and Company]] without anyone noticing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[The Lord of the Rings]], he again displayed his proficiency with pyrotechnics at [[Bilbo&#039;s Farewell Party]].  He was also able to start fires under blizzard conditions, create light of varying intensity for the journey through [[Moria]], magically secure doors, and break the [[Bridge of Khazad-dûm]].  When angered or aroused for battle, he seemed to grow in height and assume a terrifying aspect.  He also fought the [[Durin&#039;s Bane|Balrog of Moria]] and killed his opponent, although he did not survive the battle himself.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sent back to [[Middle-earth]] as Gandalf the White, he possessed greater charisma and a limited degree of clairvoyance, although he was unable to peer into the land of [[Mordor]] to see the progress of Frodo and [[Sam]].  His power and authority had increased so that he could break [[Saruman|Saruman&#039;s]] staff with a spoken command, showing his authority to throw the treacherous wizard out of the order.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Special Equipment===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Like all wizards, Gandalf carried a staff which sometimes served as a focus for his powers (like creating light).  Exactly how much it aided him in the use of magic is unknown, but [[Grima Wormtongue]] tried to forbid Gandalf from bringing it into [[Edoras]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When he arrived in Middle Earth, Gandalf received the Elven ring [[Narya]] from [[Cirdan the Shipwright]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In 2941, Gandalf acquired the sword [[Glamdring]] from the treasure horde of a band of trolls.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Names and Titles ==&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Olórin&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name in [[Valinor]] and in very ancient times. &amp;quot;Olórin was my name in my youth in the West that is forgotten.&amp;quot; It is [[Quenya]] and its meaning is associated with dreams (perhaps &amp;quot;dreamer&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;of dreams&amp;quot;), from the root &#039;&#039;ÓLOS&#039;&#039;-&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Mithrandir&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his [[Sindarin]] name, used in [[Gondor]] and meaning &amp;quot;Grey Pilgrim&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Incánus&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name in the South, of unclear language and meaning. Tolkien several times changed his mind about it, varying between the Latin word Incanus meaning Grey, a possible [[Westron]] invention meaning Greymantle, or even an [[Elvish]] word &#039;&#039;Ind-cano&#039;&#039; meaning &amp;quot;Mind Ruler&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Tharkûn&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name to the Dwarves, probably meaning &amp;quot;Staff Man&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;The White Rider&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name while riding the great horse [[Shadowfax]]&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf Greyhame&#039;&#039;&#039;, given to him by [[Gríma Wormtongue]]&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;Stormcrow&#039;&#039;&#039;, a reference to his arrival being associated with times of trouble&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Wand-elf===&lt;br /&gt;
Within the legendarium, &amp;quot;Gandalf&amp;quot; translates an unknown name of the meaning  &amp;quot;Elf-of-the-wand (or cane/staff)&amp;quot;, or more literary &amp;quot;Wand-elf&amp;quot;, in old northern Mannish. Most denizens of Middle-earth incorrectly assumed Gandalf was a [[Men|Man]] (human), although he was really a Maia spirit (approximately equivalent to an angel).  However, a less common misconception that occurred during the beginning of his career in Middle-earth was that for someone to be [[immortal]] and use as much magic as he did, he must have been an Elf. Although it soon became apparent to all that he couldn&#039;t be an Elf, as he was old and Elves don&#039;t generally age, the nickname stuck with him. He later gave it as his name to others he met who didn&#039;t know its original meaning.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Inspiration ==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Der_Berggeist_(Origin_of_Gandalf)_by_J._Madelener.gif|left|thumb|250px|This painting on a postcard is rumored to be how [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] got his inspiration for the character known as &amp;quot;Gandalf&amp;quot;]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;Gandalfr&#039;&#039;&amp;lt;!-- this is the nominative, not a typo!--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
appears in the list of dwarves in the &#039;&#039;[[Völuspá]]&#039;&#039; of the [[Elder Edda]], the name means &amp;quot;Cane-elf&amp;quot;. Tolkien took the name along with the other dwarves&#039; names when he wrote &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; in the 1930s. He came to regret the creation of this &amp;quot;rabble of eddaic-named dwarves [...] invented in an idle hour&amp;quot; ([[The Treason of Isengard|HoME 7]]:452), since it forced him to come up with an explanation of why Old Norse names should be used in [[Third Age]] Middle-earth. He solved the dilemma in 1942 by the explanation that Old Norse was a &#039;&#039;translation&#039;&#039; of the language of [[Dale]]. The figure of Gandalf has other influences from Germanic mythology, particularly Odin in his incarnation as &amp;quot;the Wanderer&amp;quot;, an old man with one eye, a long white beard, a wide brimmed hat, and a staff: Tolkien states that he thinks of Gandalf as an &#039;&#039;&amp;quot;Odinic wanderer&amp;quot;&#039;&#039; in a letter of 1946 (&#039;&#039;Letters&#039;&#039; no. 107). &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Tolkien had a postcard labelled &#039;&#039;Der Berggeist&#039;&#039; (&amp;quot;the mountain spirit&amp;quot;), and on the paper cover in which he kept it, he wrote &amp;quot;the origin of Gandalf&amp;quot; at some point. The postcard reproduces a painting of a bearded figure, sitting on a rock under a pine tree in a mountainous setting. He wears a wide-brimmed round hat and a long cloak and white fawn is nuzzling his upturned hands.&lt;br /&gt;
[[Humphrey Carpenter]] in his 1977 biography said that Tolkien had bought the postcard during his 1911 holiday in Switzerland. However, Manfred Zimmerman (1983) discovered that the painting was by German artist Josef Madlener and dates to the late 1920s. Carpenter concluded that Tolkien was probably mistaken about the origin of the postcard himself. Tolkien must have acquired the card at some time in the early 1930s, at a time when &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; had already begun to take shape.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The original painting was auctioned at Sotheby&#039;s in London on July 12, 2005 for 84,000 GBP. The previous owner had been given the painting by Madlener in the 1940s and recalled that he had stated the mountains in the background of the painting were the Dolomites.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The first description of Gandalf, then, is preserved in the first pages of &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039;, &lt;br /&gt;
dating to the early 1930s. Gandalf&#039;s fame is alluded to even before his physical description (&amp;quot;Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion&amp;quot;), directed by the author to the reader, while the protagonist&#039;s (&amp;quot;unsuspecting Bilbo&amp;quot;) impression is that of:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;blockquote&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;...an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which a white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Portrayals in Adaptations ==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;gallery&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Gandalf from Rankin-Bass&#039; The Hobbit.jpg|Gandalf as portrayed in [[Rankin/Bass&#039; The Hobbit]]&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Gandalf from Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings.jpg|Gandalf as portrayed in [[Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]]&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Peter Jackson&#039;s Gandalf.jpg|[[Ian McKellen]] as Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]]&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/gallery&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
[[John Huston]] provided the voice of Gandalf in two animated television features by [[Rankin/Bass]]. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]] Gandalf was voiced by [[William Squire]]. It is not known whether Squire played him in the live-action filming used for rotoscoping. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In the BBC radio dramatisations, [[Heron Carvic]] played him in &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; and Sir [[Michael Hordern]] played him in &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Ian McKellen|Sir Ian McKellen]] was Gandalf in &#039;&#039;[[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Lord of the Rings|The Lord of The Rings]]&#039;&#039; movie trilogy directed by [[Peter Jackson]]. McKellan was also nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Fellowship of the Ring]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sean Connery was initially approached to play Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s movie trilogy; allegedly he was rejected when he professed ignorance of the books!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== See Also ==&lt;br /&gt;
* [[:Category:Images of Gandalf|Images of Gandalf]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== References ==&lt;br /&gt;
* Manfred Zimmerman, &#039;&#039;The Origin of Gandalf and [[Josef Madlener]]&#039;&#039;, Mythlore 34 (1983).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== External Links ==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.tolkiensociety.org/news/gandalf-painting.html The painting from which Tolkien drew inspiration for Gandalf]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{istari}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{maiar}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{Thorin and Company}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{fellowship}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Characters]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Maiar]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wizards]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Iluvatar</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Gandalf&amp;diff=43835</id>
		<title>Gandalf</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tolkiengateway.net/w/index.php?title=Gandalf&amp;diff=43835"/>
		<updated>2007-06-04T23:44:16Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Iluvatar: /* Role in &amp;#039;&amp;#039;The Hobbit&amp;#039;&amp;#039; */&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;{{Istari infobox&lt;br /&gt;
| image=[[Image:Roger Thomasson - Gandalf.jpg|250px]]&lt;br /&gt;
| name=Gandalf&lt;br /&gt;
| othernames= The Grey, The White, Olórin, Mithrandir, Incánus, Tharkûn, The White Rider, Gandalf Greyhame, Stormcrow, [[Gandalf#Wand-elf|Wand-elf]]&lt;br /&gt;
| birth= Entered [[Middle-earth]] in III 1000&lt;br /&gt;
| death= III 3018 (later resurrected); after the War of the Ring he passed to [[Valinor]]&lt;br /&gt;
| gender=Male&lt;br /&gt;
| robes=Grey, White&lt;br /&gt;
| height=&lt;br /&gt;
| hair= Grey, White&lt;br /&gt;
| eyes=&lt;br /&gt;
|}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{quote|Gandalf was shorter in stature than the other two; but his long white hair, his sweeping beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows his eyes were set like coals that could suddenly burst into fire.|[[The Fellowship of the Ring]], &amp;quot;[[Many Meetings]]&amp;quot;}}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the Grey&#039;&#039;&#039;, later &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the White&#039;&#039;&#039;, was a [[Wizard]] of the [[Third Age]] and the greatest force of good of his time. His tireless work against the Dark Lord [[Sauron]] saved [[Middle-earth]] from his malice and was the basis for &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;[[The Lord of the Rings]]&#039;&#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== History ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Origins ===&lt;br /&gt;
{{Pronounce|Gandalf.mp3|Ardamir}}&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:John Howe - Gandalf.jpg|thumb|300px|This is one of the most well known illustrations of &#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;&#039;, by [[John Howe]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf is the best-known of the [[Maiar]] of the people of [[Valinor]]. He was known as &#039;&#039;&#039;Olórin&#039;&#039;&#039; who dwelt in the gardens of [[Irmo]] and was the pupil of [[Nienna]]. When the [[Valar]] decided to send the order of the [[Wizards]] (or [[Istari]] to Middle-earth, Olórin was proposed by [[Manwë]], in order to counsel and assist all those in Middle-earth who opposed [[Sauron]].  He is said to be one of the wisest of that order, rivalling [[Saruman]], with whom he had a strained, competitive relationship. The other Maiar to travel from Valinor on this mission were: [[Aiwendil|Radagast]], [[Pallando]] and [[Alatar]]. It is possible that [[Glorfindel of Gondolin]] travelled with Gandalf from Valinor (see also &#039;&#039;[[Glorfindel#Are they the same?|Are they the same?]]&#039;&#039;).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Role in &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; ===&lt;br /&gt;
In &#039;&#039;[[The Hobbit]]&#039;&#039;, Gandalf visits the [[Shire]], where he spent a great deal of time, as a vain, fussy old conjurer who entertained children with fireworks during festivals and parties. He partially reveals his true nature and power to [[Bilbo Baggins]]. He arranges a proposition for Bilbo to join a band of thirteen [[Dwarves]] to regain the Dwarvish treasure of the [[Lonely Mountain]] that was stolen many years before by the [[Dragons|dragon]], [[Smaug]]. It is on this quest that Gandalf finds his sword, &#039;&#039;[[Glamdring]]&#039;&#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Unknown to the Dwarves or Bilbo, Gandalf had joined the quest in order to investigate what he suspected to be Sauron&#039;s resurgence in [[Mirkwood]]; he frequently vanishes to &amp;quot;attend to other pressing business&amp;quot;— the nature of which he refuses to discuss. Some years before, he had encountered [[Thráin II]], father of the quest&#039;s leader, [[Thorin Oakenshield]], dying in [[Dol Guldur]], and the Dwarf king entrusted him with a map to Erebor.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
 As Dol Guldur became one of Sauron&#039;s strongholds, Gandalf feared that Sauron&#039;s agents were at large again. He met Thorin years later and agreed to go on the quest as a way to investigate further. He insisted, however, on bringing Bilbo along as a &amp;quot;burglar&amp;quot;, someone who could sneak into places Dwarves couldn&#039;t access and gather information. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
When Bilbo finds the One Ring, Gandalf is immediately suspicious of the Hobbit&#039;s story of evading the [[Goblins]] through &amp;quot;being invisible.&amp;quot; He privately confronts Bilbo and forces the truth out of him, and is deeply troubled by his story of the ring&#039;s powers, as they seem eerily familiar.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
He disappears when the company reaches Mirkwood, and does not reappear again until the [[Battle of Five Armies]] breaks out, when he brings an army of [[Eagles]] to help the Dwarves. After the battle, Gandalf accompanies Bilbo back to the Shire.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Pre-War of the Ring ===&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf spends the years between Third Age 2941 and 3001 travelling [[Middle-earth]] in search of information on [[Sauron]]&#039;s resurgence and Bilbo&#039;s mysterious ring. He spends as much time as he can in the Shire, however, strengthening his friendship with Bilbo and befriending Bilbo&#039;s heir, [[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]]. It is also at about this time that he first begins to be suspicious of Saruman.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In 3001 he attended Bilbo&#039;s &amp;quot;Eleventy-First&amp;quot; (111th) birthday party, bringing many fireworks and a giant flying firework &#039;dragon&#039;, indicating his knowledge of chemistry as well as magic.  At the end of the party Bilbo puts on the ring and disappears at the end of his speech, as a prank on his neighbors. Troubled by this, Gandalf confronts his old friend and tries to persuade him to leave it to Frodo. Bilbo becomes hostile and accuses him of trying to steal the ring&amp;amp;mdash;which he calls &amp;quot;my precious,&amp;quot; much as [[Gollum]], the creature Bilbo had taken the ring from, had. Horrified, Gandalf stands to his full height and almost orders Bilbo to leave it behind. Bilbo returns to his senses, and admits that the ring had been troubling him lately. He then leaves, the only Ring-bearer in history to have left it voluntarily.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Over the next seventeen years, Gandalf travels extensively, searching for answers. Having long sought for Gollum near Mordor, he meets with [[Aragorn II|Aragorn]] in Mirkwood, who had captured the creature. Gandalf interrogates the wretched creature and learns that Sauron had forced him to tell what he knew about the ring under torture, adding to his suspicions that Bilbo carried The One Ring.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Role in &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039; ===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Enis Cisic - Gandalf and Frodo.jpg|thumb|left|&#039;&#039;Gandalf and Frodo&#039;&#039; by [[Enis Cisic]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Upon returning to the Shire, in Chapter 2 of &#039;&#039;[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]&#039;&#039;, he confirms his suspicions by throwing the Ring into Frodo&#039;s hearth fire and reading the writing. He tells Frodo the full history of the Ring, urging him to leave with it and make for [[Rivendell]], the home of the elves, knowing he is in grave danger if he stays at home.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf, while riding near the Shire, is requested by Radagast the Brown to seek out Saruman because the [[Nazgûl]] had come forth and crossed the River [[Anduin]]. Gandalf leaves a note for Frodo with Butterbur, an inn-keeper in [[Bree]], and heads towards [[Isengard]]. Once there, he is betrayed and held captive by Saruman, who had already come under the influence of Sauron due to his use of the [[palantíri|palantír]]. Eventually rescued by Gwahir the eagle, he only reaches the Shire after Frodo has set out and does not meet up with him until Frodo reaches Rivendell on October 20.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Taking leadership of the Fellowship (nine representatives of the free peoples of Middle-earth &amp;quot;set against the [[Nine Riders]]&amp;quot;), he and Aragorn lead the hobbits and their companions on an unsuccessful effort to cross Mount Caradhras in winter. Then they take the &amp;quot;dark and secret way&amp;quot; through the Mines of [[Moria]], which &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;&#039;&#039; had visited once before, looking for King Thraín II. They fought with Goblins and a Cave Troll in the [[Battle of the Chamber of Mazarbul]].  They defeated the force and fled for the [[East-gate]], when they met met an ancient demon, a [[Balrogs|Balrog]], one of the Maiar corrupted by [[Melkor]] in the [[First Age]]. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Danny Staten - Gandalf&#039;s Triumph.jpg|thumb|&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;s Triumph&#039;&#039; by [[Danny Staten]]]]&lt;br /&gt;
Since Gandalf and the Balrog were both Maiar, they were beings of the same order. As they faced each other, Gandalf broke the Bridge in front of him, but as the Balrog fell it wrapped its whip around Gandalf&#039;s ankle, which dragged him down to hanging onto the edge. As the Company looked in horror, Gandalf cried, &amp;quot;Fly, you fools!&amp;quot; and let go. Neither he nor the Balrog was killed by the fall, and Gandalf pursued the creature for eight days until they climbed to the peak of Zirakzigil. Here they fought for two days and nights in what was called the [[Battle of the Peak]]. In the end, the Balrog was cast down and it broke the mountain-side as it fell. Gandalf himself died following this ordeal.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf is &amp;quot;brought back&amp;quot; (either resurrected or reincarnated), returning as a more imposing white-clad figure, &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf the White&#039;&#039;&#039;. In [[Fangorn]] forest he encounters the Three Walkers (Aragorn, [[Gimli]], and [[Legolas]]) who were tracking Fellowship members (and Frodo&#039;s cousins) [[Meriadoc Brandybuck|Merry]] and [[Peregrin Took|Pippin]]. Arriving in [[Rohan]], Gandalf finds that its king, [[Théoden]], has been weakened by Saruman&#039;s agent, [[Gríma Wormtongue]]. He breaks Wormtongue&#039;s hold over Theoden, and convinces the King to join them in fighting Sauron. They then go on to prosecute the war against Isengard and [[Barad-dûr]] ([[The Two Towers]]).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
After the overthrow of [[Saruman]] at [[Isenguard]], Gandalf breaks Saruman&#039;s staff and banishes him from the Order of Wizards. He then takes Pippin with him to Gondor to aide in the defense of the city.  Gandalf buys the city precious time by facing off against the [[Witch-king of Angmar]], the Lord of the Nazgûl, giving the Rohirrim enough time to reach the city during the [[Battle of Pelennor Fields]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf leads the final battle against Sauron&#039;s forces at the [[Black Gate]], waging an all-out battle to distract the [[Dark Lord]]&#039;s attention away from Frodo and [[Samwise Gamgee|Sam]], who were at the very same moment scaling [[Mount Doom]] to destroy the Ring. Without his efforts, Sauron may well have learned where the two Hobbits were and killed them before they could complete their task. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Three years later, Gandalf, now having spent over 2,000 years in Middle-Earth, departs with Frodo, [[Galadriel]], Bilbo, and [[Elrond]] across the sea to the [[Undying Lands]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Appearance ==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Piotr Wysocki - Gandalf&#039;s Brooch.jpg|thumb|left|&#039;&#039;Gandalf&#039;s Brooch&#039;&#039; by Piotr Wysocki.]]&lt;br /&gt;
Gandalf initially appears as an old man with a grey beard, a grey cloak and a large, pointed blue hat. Although some of the Wise know his true nature, others mistake him for a simple conjuror. After he is resurrected the change of his signature colour from grey to white is significant, for he has been sent back to replace the corrupt Saruman as the chief of the Wizards. In the book he says that he has himself become what Saruman should have been.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
[[Círdan]] the Shipwright seemed to have foreseen this, for he entrusted the care of [[Narya]], the ring of Fire, one of the [[Rings of Power|Three Rings]] of the Elves to Gandalf rather than Saruman.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Powers &amp;amp; Abilities ==&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[The Hobbit]], Gandalf demonstrated extensive knowledge of the land and an assortment of magical abilities.  He could blow glowing smoke rings that moved around a room at his direction, and [[Bilbo]] remembered him for his fantastic fireworks displays.  More usefully, he created blinding flashes and other pyrotechnics to distract the [[goblin]]s of the [[Misty Mountains]], aiding the dwarves in their escape from [[Goblin-town]].  On the eastern slopes, he turned pine cones into flaming projectiles that threw hot sparks and started fires that would not easily go out.  He was also able come and go from the presence of [[Thorin and Company]] without anyone noticing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In [[The Lord of the Rings]], he again displayed his proficiency with pyrotechnics at [[Bilbo&#039;s Farewell Party]].  He was also able to start fires under blizzard conditions, create light of varying intensity for the journey through [[Moria]], magically secure doors, and break the [[Bridge of Khazad-dûm]].  When angered or aroused for battle, he seemed to grow in height and assume a terrifying aspect.  He also fought the [[Durin&#039;s Bane|Balrog of Moria]] and killed his opponent, although he did not survive the battle himself.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sent back to [[Middle-earth]] as Gandalf the White, he possessed greater charisma and a limited degree of clairvoyance, although he was unable to peer into the land of [[Mordor]] to see the progress of Frodo and [[Sam]].  His power and authority had increased so that he could break [[Saruman|Saruman&#039;s]] staff with a spoken command, showing his authority to throw the treacherous wizard out of the order.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Special Equipment===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Like all wizards, Gandalf carried a staff which sometimes served as a focus for his powers (like creating light).  Exactly how much it aided him in the use of magic is unknown, but [[Grima Wormtongue]] tried to forbid Gandalf from bringing it into [[Edoras]].&lt;br /&gt;
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When he arrived in Middle Earth, Gandalf received the Elven ring [[Narya]] from [[Cirdan the Shipwright]].&lt;br /&gt;
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In 2941, Gandalf acquired the sword [[Glamdring]] from the treasure horde of a band of trolls.&lt;br /&gt;
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== Names and Titles ==&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Olórin&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name in [[Valinor]] and in very ancient times. &amp;quot;Olórin was my name in my youth in the West that is forgotten.&amp;quot; It is [[Quenya]] and its meaning is associated with dreams (perhaps &amp;quot;dreamer&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;of dreams&amp;quot;), from the root &#039;&#039;ÓLOS&#039;&#039;-&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Mithrandir&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his [[Sindarin]] name, used in [[Gondor]] and meaning &amp;quot;Grey Pilgrim&amp;quot; &lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Incánus&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name in the South, of unclear language and meaning. Tolkien several times changed his mind about it, varying between the Latin word Incanus meaning Grey, a possible [[Westron]] invention meaning Greymantle, or even an [[Elvish]] word &#039;&#039;Ind-cano&#039;&#039; meaning &amp;quot;Mind Ruler&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;Tharkûn&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name to the Dwarves, probably meaning &amp;quot;Staff Man&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;The White Rider&#039;&#039;&#039;, his name while riding the great horse [[Shadowfax]]&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;Gandalf Greyhame&#039;&#039;&#039;, given to him by [[Gríma Wormtongue]]&lt;br /&gt;
* &#039;&#039;&#039;Stormcrow&#039;&#039;&#039;, a reference to his arrival being associated with times of trouble&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Wand-elf===&lt;br /&gt;
Within the legendarium, &amp;quot;Gandalf&amp;quot; translates an unknown name of the meaning  &amp;quot;Elf-of-the-wand (or cane/staff)&amp;quot;, or more literary &amp;quot;Wand-elf&amp;quot;, in old northern Mannish. Most denizens of Middle-earth incorrectly assumed Gandalf was a [[Men|Man]] (human), although he was really a Maia spirit (approximately equivalent to an angel).  However, a less common misconception that occurred during the beginning of his career in Middle-earth was that for someone to be [[immortal]] and use as much magic as he did, he must have been an Elf. Although it soon became apparent to all that he couldn&#039;t be an Elf, as he was old and Elves don&#039;t generally age, the nickname stuck with him. He later gave it as his name to others he met who didn&#039;t know its original meaning.&lt;br /&gt;
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== Inspiration ==&lt;br /&gt;
[[Image:Der_Berggeist_(Origin_of_Gandalf)_by_J._Madelener.gif|left|thumb|250px|This painting on a postcard is rumored to be how [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] got his inspiration for the character known as &amp;quot;Gandalf&amp;quot;]]&lt;br /&gt;
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&#039;&#039;Gandalfr&#039;&#039;&amp;lt;!-- this is the nominative, not a typo!--&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
appears in the list of dwarves in the &#039;&#039;[[Völuspá]]&#039;&#039; of the [[Elder Edda]], the name means &amp;quot;Cane-elf&amp;quot;. Tolkien took the name along with the other dwarves&#039; names when he wrote &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; in the 1930s. He came to regret the creation of this &amp;quot;rabble of eddaic-named dwarves [...] invented in an idle hour&amp;quot; ([[The Treason of Isengard|HoME 7]]:452), since it forced him to come up with an explanation of why Old Norse names should be used in [[Third Age]] Middle-earth. He solved the dilemma in 1942 by the explanation that Old Norse was a &#039;&#039;translation&#039;&#039; of the language of [[Dale]]. The figure of Gandalf has other influences from Germanic mythology, particularly Odin in his incarnation as &amp;quot;the Wanderer&amp;quot;, an old man with one eye, a long white beard, a wide brimmed hat, and a staff: Tolkien states that he thinks of Gandalf as an &#039;&#039;&amp;quot;Odinic wanderer&amp;quot;&#039;&#039; in a letter of 1946 (&#039;&#039;Letters&#039;&#039; no. 107). &lt;br /&gt;
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Tolkien had a postcard labelled &#039;&#039;Der Berggeist&#039;&#039; (&amp;quot;the mountain spirit&amp;quot;), and on the paper cover in which he kept it, he wrote &amp;quot;the origin of Gandalf&amp;quot; at some point. The postcard reproduces a painting of a bearded figure, sitting on a rock under a pine tree in a mountainous setting. He wears a wide-brimmed round hat and a long cloak and white fawn is nuzzling his upturned hands.&lt;br /&gt;
[[Humphrey Carpenter]] in his 1977 biography said that Tolkien had bought the postcard during his 1911 holiday in Switzerland. However, Manfred Zimmerman (1983) discovered that the painting was by German artist Josef Madlener and dates to the late 1920s. Carpenter concluded that Tolkien was probably mistaken about the origin of the postcard himself. Tolkien must have acquired the card at some time in the early 1930s, at a time when &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; had already begun to take shape.&lt;br /&gt;
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The original painting was auctioned at Sotheby&#039;s in London on July 12, 2005 for 84,000 GBP. The previous owner had been given the painting by Madlener in the 1940s and recalled that he had stated the mountains in the background of the painting were the Dolomites.&lt;br /&gt;
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The first description of Gandalf, then, is preserved in the first pages of &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039;, &lt;br /&gt;
dating to the early 1930s. Gandalf&#039;s fame is alluded to even before his physical description (&amp;quot;Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place wherever he went, in the most extraordinary fashion&amp;quot;), directed by the author to the reader, while the protagonist&#039;s (&amp;quot;unsuspecting Bilbo&amp;quot;) impression is that of:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;blockquote&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&#039;&#039;...an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long grey cloak, a silver scarf over which a white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== Portrayals in Adaptations ==&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;gallery&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Gandalf from Rankin-Bass&#039; The Hobbit.jpg|Gandalf as portrayed in [[Rankin/Bass&#039; The Hobbit]]&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Gandalf from Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings.jpg|Gandalf as portrayed in [[Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]]&lt;br /&gt;
Image:Peter Jackson&#039;s Gandalf.jpg|[[Ian McKellen]] as Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]]&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;lt;/gallery&amp;gt;&lt;br /&gt;
[[John Huston]] provided the voice of Gandalf in two animated television features by [[Rankin/Bass]]. &lt;br /&gt;
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In [[Ralph Bakshi&#039;s The Lord of the Rings]] Gandalf was voiced by [[William Squire]]. It is not known whether Squire played him in the live-action filming used for rotoscoping. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In the BBC radio dramatisations, [[Heron Carvic]] played him in &#039;&#039;The Hobbit&#039;&#039; and Sir [[Michael Hordern]] played him in &#039;&#039;The Lord of the Rings&#039;&#039;. &lt;br /&gt;
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[[Ian McKellen|Sir Ian McKellen]] was Gandalf in &#039;&#039;[[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Lord of the Rings|The Lord of The Rings]]&#039;&#039; movie trilogy directed by [[Peter Jackson]]. McKellan was also nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson&#039;s The Fellowship of the Ring]].&lt;br /&gt;
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Sean Connery was initially approached to play Gandalf in [[Peter Jackson]]&#039;s movie trilogy; allegedly he was rejected when he professed ignorance of the books!&lt;br /&gt;
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== See Also ==&lt;br /&gt;
* [[:Category:Images of Gandalf|Images of Gandalf]]&lt;br /&gt;
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== References ==&lt;br /&gt;
* Manfred Zimmerman, &#039;&#039;The Origin of Gandalf and [[Josef Madlener]]&#039;&#039;, Mythlore 34 (1983).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
== External Links ==&lt;br /&gt;
* [http://www.tolkiensociety.org/news/gandalf-painting.html The painting from which Tolkien drew inspiration for Gandalf]&lt;br /&gt;
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{{istari}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{maiar}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{Thorin and Company}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{fellowship}}&lt;br /&gt;
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[[Category:Characters]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Maiar]]&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wizards]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
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