Gandalf

Olórin in Valinor

Before he came to Middle-earth Gandalf was Olórin, a Maia who dwelt in Lórien, the gardens of Irmo, in Valinor. The Valaquenta names him the wisest of the Maiar and says that he often went to the house of Nienna, the Lady of Pity, and learned patience and compassion from her. He was of the people of Manwë and Varda, and even in those days his particular love was for the Children of Ilúvatar: he walked among the Elves unseen, or in a form like theirs, and left in their hearts wise thoughts and visions of hope whose source they did not know.

About a thousand years into the Third Age, when the shadow of Sauron began to grow again in Mirkwood, the Valar resolved to send messengers to Middle-earth. Unfinished Tales tells how Manwë called a council and how Olórin, when named, protested that he was too weak for the task and feared Sauron. Manwë answered that this was the best reason to send him, and Varda added that he should not be counted least among the emissaries. The Istari were forbidden to match Sauron's power with power or to rule the peoples of Middle-earth by force or fear; they were to come as old men, to counsel and to kindle courage, and to accept the weariness and peril of bodily life.

The Grey Pilgrim

Olórin came last of the five to the Grey Havens, and Círdan, who saw further than most, perceived that he was the greatest of them despite his lesser stature and gave him Narya, the Ring of Fire, one of the Three Rings of the Elves, to sustain him against weariness and to rekindle hearts grown cold. He kept this secret until the end of the Age. The Elves named him Mithrandir, the Grey Pilgrim, the Dwarves Tharkûn, the Men of the North Gandalf, and in the South he was known as Incánus. Unlike Saruman he never settled anywhere or gathered followers; he travelled ceaselessly between Lindon, Rivendell, Lothlórien, Gondor and Rohan, and, alone of the Wise, he took an interest in the Hobbits of the Shire, whom he came to know through the Old Took and whose fireworks he made famous.

The Necromancer

In T.A. 2063 Gandalf went to Dol Guldur, where a dark power had taken up residence, to learn what it was. Sauron withdrew before him into the East, beginning the Watchful Peace, but returned four centuries later with greater strength. Gandalf came to suspect the truth, and in 2850 he entered Dol Guldur a second time, in secret, and confirmed that the Necromancer was Sauron himself. In its dungeons he found the dying Dwarf Thráin II, who gave him the map and key of Erebor. Gandalf urged the White Council to attack, but Saruman, who had his own reasons, overruled him. Gandalf also came to suspect that Sauron was searching the Gladden Fields for the One Ring.

The quest of Erebor

The attack that Saruman had prevented took place at last in 2941, but by then Gandalf had another design in hand. Fearing that Sauron would use the dragon Smaug against Rivendell and Lórien, and wanting the Dwarves and the Men of the North strong, he met Thorin Oakenshield at Bree and persuaded him to attempt the recovery of Erebor with a company of thirteen and a Hobbit burglar. The Hobbit was Bilbo, chosen partly by instinct and partly because Gandalf remembered his mother's family. Gandalf rescued the company from the trolls, guided them through Rivendell and the High Pass, killed the Great Goblin beneath the mountains and led the escape, called on Gwaihir and the Eagles, and brought them to Beorn. At the eaves of Mirkwood he left them to join the Council's assault on Dol Guldur, from which Sauron withdrew to Mordor. He returned in time for the Battle of Five Armies, and journeyed home with Bilbo. He did not yet understand what Bilbo had found in the dark, but he noticed that Bilbo's story about the ring did not ring true.

The Ring

For sixty years Gandalf kept watch on Bilbo and the ring, uneasy at how slowly Bilbo aged. At the farewell party of T.A. 3001 he pressed Bilbo to leave it behind, and Bilbo's sudden, savage reluctance confirmed his fears. He set Aragorn to find Gollum, searched the archives of Minas Tirith for the scroll of Isildur, and in April 3018 returned to Bag End, cast the ring into the fire and read the letters that appeared. He told Frodo the whole history and sent him toward Rivendell, promising to meet him. Instead, warned by Radagast that the Nazgûl were abroad, he went to Saruman, was betrayed, and was imprisoned on the pinnacle of Orthanc. Gwaihir carried him off on 18 September; he took the horse Shadowfax from Rohan and reached the Shire too late, followed Frodo to Weathertop, fought off the Riders there, and reached Rivendell before the wounded Hobbit.

At the Council of Elrond it was Gandalf who laid out the whole matter and named the only course: to destroy the Ring in Mount Doom. He joined the Fellowship as its guide. When Caradhras defeated them he led them into Moria, and there, on 15 January 3019, he met Durin's Bane at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. He broke the bridge under the Balrog and was dragged down with it. They fought in the deeps, up the Endless Stair and on the peak of Zirakzigil, until he cast the Balrog down on 25 January and died.

The White Rider

Gandalf was sent back, by an authority above the Valar, with greater power and a clearer purpose. Gwaihir carried him to Lórien, where Galadriel clothed him in white, and on 1 March he met Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli in Fangorn as Gandalf the White, Saruman as Saruman should have been. In Edoras he freed Théoden from the influence of Gríma, brought Erkenbrand and the Huorns to the dawn relief of Helm's Deep, and at the door of Orthanc, after Saruman refused his last offer, cast him out of the order and broke his staff. When Pippin looked into the palantír, Gandalf rode with him to Minas Tirith on Shadowfax.

The siege and the Black Gate

In Minas Tirith Gandalf stood as the true commander of the defence while Denethor despaired. He rescued Faramir's retreat from Osgiliath, riding out against the Nazgûl; when the Gate was broken by Grond he alone faced the Witch-king in the archway, until the horns of Rohan sounded. During the battle of the Pelennor he was drawn away by Pippin to save Faramir from the pyre on which Denethor burned himself. Afterwards he counselled the captains of the West to march on the Black Gate as a bait to draw Sauron's eyes from Frodo; at the parley he took the tokens of the captured Hobbits from the Mouth of Sauron and refused his terms. When the Ring went into the fire he rode on Gwaihir to the slopes of Mount Doom and brought Frodo and Sam out of the ruin.

Departure

At the coronation on 1 May 3019 Gandalf set the crown on Aragorn's head, and he led the new king to the sapling of the White Tree on the mountainside. His task was done. He left the Hobbits at the borders of the Shire to settle their own affairs, and turned aside to visit Tom Bombadil. On 29 September 3021 he sailed from the Grey Havens with Elrond, Galadriel, Bilbo and Frodo, wearing Narya openly at last, and passed out of Middle-earth into the West.

Legacy

Alone of the Istari Gandalf stayed faithful to the whole of his charge, and the histories judge that Sauron was overthrown chiefly through his labour. His legacy is in the friendships he made across every kindred, in the memory of the Shire, and in the pattern of a power that chose never to dominate.

Gandalf sailed from the Grey Havens on September 29, T.A. 3021, with the Ring-bearers and the keepers of the Three, and returned to the West.