What Ho, Wee Readers and welcome to the fourth glory of the Nine Glories of the Rings of Power. Remember to sign up to the Wee Mailing List before the 27th of February, to discover the Ninth Glory of the Rings of Power.

The Stranger

In the past few posts I’ve started out fairly negatively in regards to previous depictions of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. It’s hard to see how I could have done anything else in my first post, but I will concede that for the others it’s a fault of my own writing.

Thus for this post I’d thought I’d begin a bit differently – do you know who I love? Ian Mckellen as Gandalf. He’s so warm to the Hobbits, brave to the soldiers he’s leading into battle, and damn right scary to the people that oppose him.

So you have to understand that when I say I love the Stranger, and the way his actor portrays him – it’s not because I think he’s a superior depiction of the grey pilgrim. Rather that I enjoy the depiction of a different Gandalf, in a different part of his life.

It asks interesting questions of his character, not just as a wise sage for the more inherently flawed heroes of the story – but as someone who is quite lost himself. Gandalf is basically an angel like being in the guise of an old man. What would a being like that be like when he first came to mortal lands? He’d probably would be quite unsettling to anyone who found him. His powers might be dangerous and unpredictable, and he might thusly need a lot of emotional support. Ultimately what all these questions lead to is a depiction of a familiar character that is – what Rings of power succeeds at over all – very different and very, very interesting.

Plus, the idea that Gandalf is attached to the hobbits because it was their ancestors who helped him at his most vulnerable, just makes me feel all warm and nice inside.

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