Shadowfax

Lord of the Mearas

Shadowfax was the chief of the Mearas, the horses of the kings of Rohan that were descended from Felaróf, the mount of Eorl. The Mearas lived as long as Men, understood human speech, and by the custom of the Mark would carry only the king or his sons. Shadowfax was the greatest of them in his generation: silver-grey in the daylight, so that in darkness he was nearly invisible, without saddle or bridle, and faster than any horse in Middle-earth, so fast that Gandalf said no rider could hope to overtake him and that he would have outrun the mounts of the Nazgûl. The Rohirrim held that the Mearas had been brought out of the West by Béma, whom the Elves call Oromë, and Gandalf spoke of Shadowfax as if that ancestry were living in him.

The wizard's horse

In September of T.A. 3018 Gandalf, carried out of Orthanc by Gwaihir, came on foot to Edoras and asked Théoden for a horse. The king, already under the counsel of Gríma, received him coldly and told him to take any horse and be gone. Gandalf took Shadowfax, who had never before borne a rider, and in doing so gave Théoden a grievance that rankled for months. It took him days to win the horse, but once won Shadowfax carried him from Rohan to the Shire in an unheard-of time, arriving at Hobbiton a few days after Frodo had left it. Gandalf followed the hobbits to Weathertop and on to Rivendell, and then sent Shadowfax back to Rohan.

The horse returned, but he would let no man of the Mark ride him, and grazed apart on the plains. Théoden's men reported that he had gone wild.

Fangorn to Edoras

At the end of February, T.A. 3019, Gandalf returned to Middle-earth as the White Rider, and when he met Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli on the edge of Fangorn he whistled, and Shadowfax came across the plain to him like a shining thing, bringing with him the two horses of Rohan that had run away in the night. Gandalf rode him to Edoras, and there Théoden, healed of his sickness, gave Shadowfax to the wizard as a gift, saying the horse had chosen him. From that day Shadowfax bore Gandalf willingly and answered to no one else.

The War of the Ring

Shadowfax carried Gandalf to the Fords of Isen and back to Helm's Deep with Erkenbrand at the turning of the battle, and then to Isengard. When Pippin looked into the palantír, Gandalf set him on Shadowfax and rode day and night to Minas Tirith, covering in three days a distance that took the muster of Rohan a week. It was Shadowfax who carried Gandalf out to the Pelennor to drive the Nazgûl from Faramir's retreat, and Shadowfax who stood in the broken gate of the city when the Witch-king rode in. Every other horse and man had fled; Shadowfax alone did not move, and Gandalf on his back barred the way until the horns of Rohan sounded.

After the Battle of the Pelennor Fields he bore Gandalf to the Black Gate and back, and at the end of the war carried him north with the returning hobbits, past Isengard and Rivendell to the borders of the Shire.

Fate

What became of Shadowfax is not told in the published histories. He is last seen at the eaves of the Old Forest, where Gandalf turned aside to visit Tom Bombadil. Since the Mearas lived the span of Men and Gandalf sailed from the Grey Havens a little more than two years later, readers have long supposed that the wizard did not leave his horse behind, but the text is silent.

Not told. Last seen carrying Gandalf toward the Old Forest in the autumn of T.A. 3019; commonly supposed to have gone with him over Sea, but the text does not say.