How Powerful is Gandalf?

for a mighty wizard we don't often see Gandalf actually use his full powers and when he does they sometimes seem a little underwhelming so what magic can he do let's take a look hi everyone this is Robert welcome to indeep geek on this channel we cover the best in fantasy books and TV shows the Lord of the Rings A Song of Ice and Fire The Witcher and more if you like the sound of that there's a subscribe button around here somewhere just how powerful is Gandalf gandal is introduced to us in both the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in the Shire as a great wizard but to the hobbits that really seems to just mean someone who is good at making fireworks fair enough you might think those are the simple expectations of a simple people who know little of the world outside the Shire but if you start thinking about it for a very powerful wizard Gandalf rarely uses his magic powers in obvious ways not like magicians in many other high fantasy worlds he certainly never throw throws Fireballs at the Nazgul when he could or teleports himself anywhere makes himself invisible or anything like that so what powers does he have well we should start by recognizing that Gandalf himself is a magical being he is not just an old man who has learned some spells he is a Maya created by the thought of aru alvatar himself he is Immortal and able to take different forms hence him being able to bodily die as Gandalf the Grey and return as Gandalf the White he has powers of foresight he knows the fate of some things to come if not all the details it's no coincidence that he formed an attachment to the hobbits of the Shire he knew they had an important role to play and he knew that Gollum had a role to play before the end for good or ill as he says may are powerful Spiritual Beings who can see and exist on a different more spiritual plane than mere mortals Gandalf can sense things that others can't this and his foresight undoubtedly played into something that isn't a power per se but proved crucial in the success of the Ring Quest his wisdom knowing to trust Frodo with the ring and to launch that seemingly hopeless attack on the black Gates of Mordor in order to win Frodo and Sam a clearer run at Mount Doom being a Maya meant that Gandalf was Immortal but it didn't make him omniscient or all powerful what happened at Moria proved that but it did mean that he had a base level of power that very few others in Middle Earth possessed in rather crude shorthand it meant that he was naturally magical tolken famously had a soft magic system so the line between natural and magical power is left deliberately fuzzy but either way you look at it even without going any further Gandalf was one of the handful of the most naturally powerful beings in Middle Earth and the moment he arrived in middlee he was immediately gifted a magical item that gave him even more power Kiran the elf gave him NAA one of the three Elven rings of power I talked about this at length in another video but very broadly speaking it seems to have had two huge impacts first it gave him the power of encouragement to himself and others this is what Kyan says when giving the ring to Gandalf it will support you in the weariness that you have taken upon yourself for this is the ring of fire and with it you may rekindle hearts in a world that grows chill I love the phrase rekindling hearts in a world that grows chill and you do see it with Gandalf wherever he goes people gain courage crucially when he leaves the opposite is also true when he fell at kazad Doom the remainder of the fellowship were beside themselves not just with grief but in losing heart Aragon literally turns to the rest of the fellowship urging the by saying that we must do without hope so gandal himself does not weary not even when things get tough and those around him are filled with hope encouragement of others is not a power easy to quantify but it is noticeable that when Gandalf is there his companions feel hope and a sense of direction the effect is palpable the second thing NAA the ring of fire seems to do is give Gandalf great power over fire there are those fire works in the Shire of course but there are so many other moments we see Gandalf do small bits of Fire magic almost as his default type of Magic Lighting campfires when the wood is soaking wet lighting the way through Moria throwing magical flaming pine cones down onto wolves and standing firm against the balrog that's a lot of fire resistance going on just there oh and he's pretty good at blowing smoke rings too but Gandalf doesn't just use Fire magic we see him do a lot of other different kinds of magic he mentions offhandedly that he used to know over 200 different spells to open doors and in Moria he uses a spell to close a door and keep it closed a couple of times we see him change his appearance to seem taller and more imposing and he strikes GMA voiceless in edas he also seems to have some combat Spells at least in facing off against the nasgul and other creatures of darkness in Moria he pushes his staff through a broken door and light bursts forth blinding their opponents and buying the fellowship some time when he rode to rescue faramir the nasgul were Wheeling overhead on their fell beasts Gandalf raised his hand and light burst forth the nasgul gave a cry and swerved away and earlier at weathertop when Gandalf met the nasgul on his own he unleashes a flurry of light and fire that Frodo and Aragon see from many miles away Gandalf drives off the n school it's perhaps a nerdly nuanced point but I guess that the magic therefore that Gandalf uses in combat isn't really combat magic per se we don't see any lightning bolts or Fireballs here incinerating opponents instead Gandalf tends to use his powers over light and fire to drive enemies away or buy some time I suppose it suits his character that he isn't really a battle mage but can still face down some pretty impressive opponents and we shouldn't forget Gandalf's mind magic he is clearly a telepath of some kind I'll pick up on this in more detail in another video because tolken had a lot to say about telepathy in Middle Earth but there are lots of examples of Gandalf communicating with his mind he tells Frodo in Rivendell that he knows exactly what happened to him because he could hear his thoughts he seems to have some mental connection with shadowfax being able to communicate with him from miles away and as everyone is returning home at the end of the story we read that Gandalf ke Gorn Galadriel and elrond would talk to each other without moving or speaking with their mouths just mind to mind and we can probably add telekinesis to telepathy he breaks saran's staff simply by saying Saran your staff is broken and when Aragon gimle and Legolas meet Gandalf the White and mistake him for Saran he lifts his staff and gim's axe goes flying Aragon's sword blazed into fire and Legolas against his will fired his knocked Arrow into the sky not at Gandalf impressive stuff so when you think about it Gandalf's magical range is huge fire magic mental magic water magic lockpicking light and so on in just this one short video we've seen well over a dozen completely different ways in which Gandalf has used magic in addition to his innate abilities as a Maya and I promise you there are many other instances that I haven't mentioned Gandalf knows a lot of magic so why do some people leave reading the Lord of the Rings with the idea that Gandalf doesn't do much magic I suppose it's probably in comparison to later High fantasy series and franchises where magic is often a lot more obvious you wouldn't have to be a very high level wizard in Dungeons and Dragons say to do most of what Gandalf does but I think Gandalf's lowkey magic usage is Absolut abolutely intentional by Tolen Gandalf seems loathed to use magic partly because it comes at a cost it seems to Tire him and particularly when he is forced to do a word of command which seems to be an especially taxing and mysterious form of magic but again we'll cover that in another video he may not do much flashy magic but he uses the right magic for the right occasions and his breadth of knowledge is astonishing we've not even touched on his ability to read and use magical runes his ability to maximize the power of magical weapons like when glamdring shattered the bog sword or the wonderful hint that he may have blessed Balan Butter's beer at the prancing ponies so that it is always excellent he really did on the hearing that the hobbits had left the prancing pony with Aragorn he exclaimed may your beer be laid under an enchantment of surpassing Excellence for seven years and when he returned with the hobbits at the end of the adventure baryan said that since that moment his beer had been uncommon good but I think the most important thing here is that Gandalf simply doesn't like to show off almost everything Gandalf does is humble the one time he does seem to use his powers in a very showy way fire and light to drive away the nazgol at weathertop where he later reflects that I was hard put to it indeed such light and Flame cannot have been seen on weather Toops since the war beacons of old he was on his own not knowing that Frodo and Aragon could see the night sky lit up from miles away and it seems to have been simply what was needed not what looked good which isn't to say that he doesn't enjoy the odd artistic flourish with his magic there are the impressive fireworks of course blowing fun smoke rings with Bilbo and adding water horses to elon's flood of riverwater that washed the Black Riders away from outside Rivendell but for everyone of these times there are many more when he deliberately keeps things lowkey this is probably partly because he is a genuinely humble being but also partly because that was the commission he had from The Valor it wasn't to lead the free peoples of middlee in their fight against saon it was to support and encourage them Gandalf took this very seriously he is clearly one of the most powerful beings in Middle Earth but he held himself back so that the elves and humans and dwarves and Hobbits could St Step Up themselves I've said a few times in this video that Gandalf was one of the most powerful beings in Middle Earth but how powerful was he well we do have a few Clues and perhaps the biggest is from gandal himself after getting his power up and returning as Gandalf the White which made him indisputably the most powerful of the five aari he mentions to gimy that he is now very dangerous more dangerous than anything you will ever meet unless you were brought alive before the seat of the dark lord Gandalf is in effect claiming that although there may be some more un quantifiably powerful individuals around Tom bomil Springs to mind he is now the second most able and willing to use his power with devastating effect not that most of the time he does and ultimately Gandalf's approach to not often using his power to its full extent is proven right you don't need to be showy to achieve things he achieved achieved his ultimate goal Sauron Was Defeated it's a useful reminder we often talk about how the Lord of the Rings shows how the humble and not very powerful can take on great evil against even greater odds but it also shows that those who do have great power bear a great responsibility to use it wisely and humbly to serve and not just to bring its user Glory or for its own sake if you'd like to see more videos on the world of JRR tolken and the Lord of the Rings please click on the link to the playlist on the left of your screen or if you'd like to support this Channel or get access to some content I produce just for my patrons please click on the link to my patreon page on the right of your screen thanks for watching that's all for this time I'll see you again soon

Channel: In Deep Geek

Views: 802,784

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Id: Wp0H4rzD48s

Length: 12min 49sec (769 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 20 2023