Heren Istarion

August 1st , 2003: Why I Read Lord Of The Rings
a Beyond the Shire report by Michelle Laundhardt

One of Tolkien's strengths, in my opinion, is the way he makes his characters appear fully-formed - these aren't cardboard cutouts but people with histories and failings and strengths and tempers and loves. What I particularly enjoy is how he reveals more of a character's personality through confrontation.

One example is when Gandalf faces down the Witchking at the shattered Gate of Gondor:

In rode the Lord of the Nazgul. A great black shape against the fires beyond he loomed up, grown to a vast menace of despair. In rode the Lord of the Nazgul, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face.

All save one. There waiting, silent and still in the space before the Gate, sat Gandalf upon Shadowfax: Shadowfax who alone among the free horses of the earth endured the terror, unmoving, steadfast as a graven image in Rath Dinen.

"You cannot enter here," said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. "Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!"
The Black Rider flung back his hood, and behold! he had a kingly crown; and yet upon no head visible was it set. The red fires shone between it and the mantled shoulders vast and dark. From a mouth unseen there came a deadly laughter.

"Old fool!" he said. "Old fool! This is my hour. Do you not know Death when you see it? Die now and curse in vain!" And with that he lifted high his sword and flame ran down the blade.
Gandalf did not move. And in that very moment, away behind in the some courtyard of the City, a cock crowed.

This is part of my favorite passage of the book, not only because of the rhythm of the passage and the confrontation of Evil and Good, but what it reveals about Gandalf the White: a creature of great power ("the huge shadow halted") yet quiet and assured with it ("waiting, silent and still"). He is not the irritated Gandalf of the Shire anymore, interested in the smallest pleasures: he is a creature who can face up to one of the greatest evils with confidence in his own strengths. Of all of LOTR, I consider this part to be 'Gandalf uncloaked' - the Maia, the Istari, powerful and knowledgeable, unswerving and absolute, who you *know* is supremely strong partly because he doesn't have a need to be flashy with it. (When you know you can thump the living daylights out of anyone, you don't have to walk around *looking like* you can thump the living daylights out of anyone.)

Of course we also see the Witchking in a new light as well. Long gone is the sniffing Black Rider of the Shire (although note that Tolkien harkens back to that time by calling him a Black Rider, perhaps to contrast the Rider at the start of the book with the awesome Lord of the Nazgul at the Gate of Gondor, so as to emphasize the greatness and the depth of evil in the Witchking). He whose cry helped shatter the Great Gate, before whom the brave Men of Gondor flee - is frightened by Gandalf. (That's my interpretation anyway of his bullish "Old fool! Do you not know Death when you see it?," having been stopped in his tracks by Gandalf's voice.)

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