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COMING OF AGE: CHANGES OF HEART

Growth and enlightenment in "Lord of the Rings"

It is at Khazad-dûm that Gandalf reaches his consuming change: he dies. Standing alone before the Balrog, his strength fails; not his mental power, which is enough to cast down his supernatural foe, but his human vigour.   “I have never felt so spent,”2  he says, after his efforts to close the door of the Chamber of Mazarbul, vying even then with the Balrog, although he did not know it. Not strong enough either to leap back in time or to resist the pull of the Balrog’s whip, he falls and is lost in the abyss.

Later we learn that he continues to pursue the Balrog throughout the mountain, hanging on by will alone through thick and thin, and slays it at last. But with that final effort his frail mortal body is broken, and his spirit leaves it to fly back whence he came.

But Gandalf is not human, and those even more powerful than he decide to send him back. Presumably they give him another body, similar yet not exactly like his former one; a reason why even his good friends do not at first recognise him. It seems, in Fangorn, as though Gandalf himself has some trouble adjusting, finding difficulty even in remembering his name; like someone waking from amnesia or coma, he is at this point truly ‘born again’. And while still the same old wizard in many ways, for example his abrupt methods and caustic speech, he is changed. Merry says,   “He has grown, or something,”3  and he does possess more authority, more power, more compassion even. We do not learn if the Valar have given him these things in some way, or if they are entirely the product of his mortal struggle with the Balrog. There is a hint that some of Saruman’s attributes have become his, but whether because he has literally taken them over, or simply that, growing in stature himself, he is worthy of Saruman’s former place, is not clear. If he were human, it could be explained thus: he has been through the fire, facing death, and seemed to die. Such an experience often changes a person, and gives them greater insight and purpose in life. Then he is given the accolade of heading the White Council in Saruman’s place; despite all his mistakes, those in authority over him recognise his efforts and his worth. He is sent back with enormous responsibilities, and no assurances, yet he carries the trust and belief of the great. No wonder he rises to greater heights, no wonder he is now able to challenge the Witch-King himself. But Gandalf, even resurrected, is no deus ex machina. His powers have been won by his own supreme efforts, and though enlarged sufficiently to complete his task, the quintessential Gandalf remains the same.

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First published in Mallorn [journal of the Tolkien Society] #39