Concerning Wizards

In my recent review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I noted that there aren’t any human characters with speaking roles in the film.  This raised the question, if Gandalf isn’t human then what is he?  And what about Radagast and Saruman?

Glad you asked!  You could, of course, find this information elsewhere, and I don’t purport to be a Tolkien expert, just a lifelong fan.  However, this inquiry gave me an excuse to dust off my copy of Tolkien’s magnum opus,The Silmarillion, as well as his Unfinished Tales.  Both of these works were published posthumously by J.R.R. Tolkien’s son Christopher, and both contain much more detailed information on Middle Earth and its millennia of history.

Here, then, is a very brief (and overly simplified) breakdown of Tolkien’s mythological cosmology.  There is the One, Eru.  He is the Creator of all.  Beneath Him are the Valar, powerful spirits to whom He entrusted the care of His creation.  Of these, Manwë is the leader.  The evil Vala is named Melkor or Morgoth.  He entered creation with the intent of turning it to his own glory and undoing all the beauty which Eru made.  In Christian terms, we would refer to the Valar as angels, and Manwë would probably be the archangel.  Melkor is definitely the Satan figure.  However, Tolkien was creating myth and his Valar have much in common with Greek and Roman gods.  Still, his universe remains monotheistic in that everything is created and exists for the One, Eru or Ilúvatar.

Anyway, getting back to the question of Gandalf, below the Valar in rank are several less powerful spirits.  These are referred to as the Maiar.  They entered the world (or Arda) along with the Valar and they pre-date the creation of Elves and Men.  As far as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are concerned, readers encounter Maiar of varying levels in the forms of Sauron, the Balrog, Gandalf and his fellow wizards, and possibly even Shadowfax the horse!

So, how did Gandalf the Maia (or Olórin as he was originally called) end up roaming Middle Earth in the body of an old man?  Well, he was sent there as an emissary of the Valar along with four other wizards or Istari.  This was after Sauron had already forged the One Ring and as he was attempting to conquer Middle Earth.  The Istari came from Valinor, the Blessed Realm across the sea, on a mission to encourage and inspire the races of Middle Earth in their struggle against Sauron.

At this point, allow me to quote a passage from Professor Tolkien’s work as his words are far superior to mine.  This is the scene of the Istari’s commissioning in Valinor.  Manwë has called a council of the Valar and the Maiar and is seeking emissaries to send to Middle Earth.

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“Who would go? For they must be mighty, peers of Sauron, but must forgo might, and clothe themselves in flesh so as to treat on equality and win the trust of Elves and Men.  But this would imperil them, dimming their wisdom and knowledge, and confusing them with fears, cares and weariness coming from the flesh.”  But only two came forward: Curomo [or Saruman] … and Alatar [one of the two blue wizards]…  Then Manwë asked, where was Olórin [Gandalf]?  And Olórin, who was clad in grey, and having just entered from a journey had seated himself at the edge of the council, asked what Manwë would have of him.  Manwë replied that he wished Olórin to go as the third messenger to Middle-earth … But Olórin declared that he was too weak for such a task, and that he feared Sauron.  Then Manwë said that that was all the more reason why he should go and that he commanded Olórin [to serve as the third emissary].  But at that, Varda [Manwë’s wife and Queen of the Stars] looked up and said, “Not as the third.”  And Curomo [Saruman] remembered it.

The note ends with the statement that Curomo took Aiwendil [Radagast] because Yavanna [the Queen of plants and animals] begged him, and that Alatar took Pallando [the second blue wizard] as a friend.

Unfinished Tales, Ballantine Books, 1992.  p. 410

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Well, I hope that answers the question of Gandalf’s identity.  I’ve been re-reading that chapter on the Istari and I still have several thoughts swirling around.  Perhaps I’ll post them later along with a few more passages from Tolkien.

For now, let me just remark that I see a type of Christ in Gandalf.  Now, I understand that this is certainly not a new or shocking idea.  After all, the wizard later lays down his life for his friends and then is raised in a glorified body, becoming Gandalf the White.  The Christ parallels don’t get much clearer than that!  (Except, perhaps, in the case of a King who has the hands of a Healer and who, well, Returns.)

Anyway, it’s just that as I read over the details of Olórin’s incarnation, I was reminded of the One who took on flesh for me.  Like Gandalf, Jesus left the Blessed Realm, emptying Himself and being found in the form of a Servant.  He faced the confusion, “fears, cares, and weariness coming from the flesh” and yet without sin.  He had no place to call home but was regarded as a wanderer and a pilgrim.  And ultimately, when no one else could, He courageously took a stand against evil and overcame it.

Of course, unlike Gandalf, Jesus isn’t just a lesser spirit or angelic being.  And this is where the True Myth far outshines Tolkien’s legendarium.  Christianity dares to assert that The One, the Creator Himself, all-powerful, limitless, infinite God took on the limitations of flesh and dwelt among us.  And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The true Incarnation is simply astounding.  YHWH Himself entered human history and changed everything forever.

Now that is a story worth telling.

An Unexpected Enjoyment

Surprisingly, I thoroughly enjoyed the first cinematic installment of The Hobbit.  This is mildly shocking considering my initially negative response to each of The Lord of the Rings films.  Folks who knew me in college can attest to how spitefully I nit-picked each of those movies (and this blog post comes with the sincerest of apologies to those friends who were courteous enough to endure all of my joyless griping back then).  I always told myself that my ill-will toward Peter Jackson’s trilogy arose from my lifelong adoration of J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary masterpiece.  That may have been true, however, it seems to me now that there was also a large dose of academic arrogance behind my attitude.  Simply put, I was a film student and I hated everything.

Now, a decade later, I’m pleasantly surprised to report that I had a blast watching The Hobbit.  The only negative aspect of my viewing experience was that, afterward, my mouth rather hurt from smiling so much.  Seriously, I sat through the majority of the movie with a big, dumb grin on my face -- a big, dumb grin that would have appalled my snobbish film school self.  This probably says more about me than the film itself, but at least the movie earned that grin and kept on earning it throughout its considerable running time.

There’s so much to like about The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  It’s big, bold and imaginative.  Right from the start, with a flashback to the glory days of the dwarves, the film catches your breath and surpasses your expectations.  You think you’ve already seen a massive subterranean city with Moria?  Well, wait ‘til you get a load of the cavernous realm of Erebor and its magnificent Arkenstone!  You think you know all there is to know about elves?  Wait ‘til you witness King Thranduil ride over a ridge mounted regally on a moose!  Creative flourishes like these will surprise and delight audiences already well versed in the visual trappings of Middle Earth.

Of course, more than anything else, it’s the characters that keep us coming back to this mythical land.  And, happily, the cast of wizards, dwarves, hobbits and elves doesn’t disappoint.  Whereas The Lord of the Rings dealt extensively with various races of men, there isn’t a single human character with a speaking part in this first film.  However, that doesn’t stop the inherent humanity of these roles from emerging thanks to some wonderful performances.  Sir Ian McKellen is predictably excellent as he reprises the role of Gandalf.  Richard Armitage brings both nobility and surliness to his turn as Thorin Oakenshield, creating the most badass dwarf to ever grace the silver screen.  (Sorry, Gimli.)  Another stand-out is Ken Stott as the loyal but world-weary Balin.  And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Sir Christopher Lee, whose return as Saruman the White doesn’t amount to much more than a cameo, but who still has gravitas and presence to spare even at ninety years of age.

In the end, however, the film belongs to the hobbit himself: Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins.  His was an inspired piece of casting and Mr. Freeman seems even more at home in Bag End than Sir Ian Holm before him.  His domesticated fastidiousness is surpassed only by his evident longing for something more, something “out there.”  In a slight departure from the book, it is not Gandalf who ultimately “nudges” Bilbo out the door and onto the start of his adventure.  Rather, this scene plays out more reflectively as Mr. Baggins surveys his safe, familiar hobbit hole all the while holding his unsigned “burglar’s” contract and considering the unknown thrills and danger that it represents.  Mr. Freeman plays the moment of decision brilliantly and communicates all we really need to know about our protagonist without speaking a word.  The immense enjoyment I found throughout the film is due in large part to Martin Freeman’s terrific performance.

Of course, An Unexpected Journey is not a perfect movie.  It tries a bit too hard to inject Bilbo’s light-hearted adventures with the same sense of urgency and high stakes as Frodo’s later, darker quest.  As far as the source material goes, The Hobbit is a very different book from The Lord of the Rings.  The former is an episodic collection of bedtime stories for children.  The latter is a sprawling war epic for adults.  One wishes that Peter Jackson had made this distinction in his approach to the material.  Indeed, I couldn’t help but imagine how a single, fast-paced Hobbit film might have turned out compared to the ponderous, plodding trilogy that Mr. Jackson and company have planned.

Still, this first installment of The Hobbit gets the job done when it comes to entertaining audiences and welcoming them back to Middle Earth.  On a personal note, it also raises my esteem for Peter Jackson as a devotee of Tolkien.  I may not care for his directing style or agree with some of his choices in adapting the books to film.  However, I can’t deny the attention to detail or the amount of sheer love that he and his crew put into these productions. 

Nor can I deny that Mr. Jackson and his fellow screenwriters firmly grasp the major themes of Professor Tolkien’s work.  My absolute favorite scene in An Unexpected Journey is another dialog-free moment in which an invisible Bilbo has his blade within inches of an oblivious Gollum’s throat.  In the end, of course, Bilbo spares the wretched creature’s life and this moment becomes the crux of Tolkien’s entire saga.  As Gandalf will later remind Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring, “It was pity that stayed [Bilbo’s] hand.  Pity, and mercy: not to strike without need… The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many...”

The inclusion of Bilbo’s compassion for Gollum gives me hope that Peter Jackson understands that these stories are about so much more than just epic battle scenes.  And this glimmer of hope has allowed me to truly enjoy a Peter Jackson film in the theater for the very first time.

Or maybe I’ve finally just chilled out.  That’s a distinct possibility as well.  ;)