What powers does Gandalf have?

for a mighty wizard we don't often see gandalf actually use his 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 in deep geek this video is brought to you with support from skillshare the online learning platform and i have a special offer for you from them at the end of this video so please stick around for that gandalf 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 these are the simple expectations of a simple people who know little of the world outside the shire but if you start thinking about it it's actually quite hard to think of when gandalf does use his magic powers in any significant way not like magicians in many other high fantasy worlds he certainly never throws fireballs at the nazgul or teleports himself anywhere or makes himself invisible or throws up force fields or anything like that so what powers does he have is he really a powerful magic user or are the hobbits right is he just a wise old man who can do a few tricks and make some really really impressive fireworks well the first thing to understand about gandalf and his magic and we'll come back to this later is that it is almost never showy gandalf does use magic many times during the lord of the rings but it's almost always in a subtle way not drawing attention to himself to the extent that readers often miss it and even other characters in the story don't realize that he is doing it but the fact is that the closer you analyze the text the more often you start to notice gandalf operating magically and he is almost always doing it secretly or quietly so what magic powers does he have 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 uru eluvitar 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 of 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 maya are powerful spiritual beings who can see and exist on a different more spiritual plane than mere mortals he can sense things that others can't seeing frodo after he received and was healed from his wound the mortal blade had caused he saw him as a little more transparent and gandalf was able to see the magical west gate of moria not even gimli could see that until gandalf revealed it gandalf sees things others don't this and his foresight undoubtedly played into something which 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 didn't make gandalf omniscient or all-powerful what happened at maurya proved that but it did mean that he had a base level of power that very few other people in middle earth possessed and the moment he arrived in middle earth he was immediately gifted a magical item that gave him even more power kurdan the elf gave him nayyah 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 two huge impacts first it gave him the power of encouragement to himself and to others this is what kardan says when he gives 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 gandalf does not weary not even when things get very 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 and when he isn't despair so often creeps in the second thing naya the ring of fire seems to do is give gandalf great power over fire there are those fireworks of course but there are so many other moments we see gandalf do small bits of fire magic lighting campfires when the wood is soaking wet lighting the way through moria throwing magical flaming pinecones down onto wolves and standing firm against the belrog that's a lot of fire resistance going on just there but gandalf doesn't just use fire magic we see him do a lot of other different kinds of magic he mentions off-handedly 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 struck grima voiceless when in ederas he also seems to have some combat spells at least in facing off against the nazcal 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 nazgul were wheeling overhead on their fell beasts gandalf raised his hand and light burst forth the nazgul gave a cry and swerved away and earlier at weathertop when gandalf met the nazgul on his own he unleashes a flurry of light and fire that frodo and aragorn see from many miles away he drives the nazgul off it's perhaps a nerdly nuanced point but i suppose the magic gandalf uses in combat isn't really combat magic there are no 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 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 tolkien had a lot to say about telepathy and middle earth but there are lots of examples of gandalf communicating with his mind he tells frodo and 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 kelleborne 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 sarah mann's staff simply by saying sarah man your staff is broken and when aragorn gimli and legolas meet gandalf the white and mistake him for sarah man he lifts his stuff and gimli's axe goes flying aragorn's sword blazed into fire and legolas against his will fired his knocked arrow into the sky not at gandalf impressive stuff so far from gandalf not being very powerful he actually seems to be able to cover almost every magical base fire magic mental magic water magic lock picking 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 i haven't mentioned gandalf knows lots of magic he may not do 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 clandering shattering the balrog sword or the wonderful hint that he may have blessed barliman's beer at the prancing pony so that it was always excellent so why do so many 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 for example to do most of what gandalf does but i think gandalf's low key magic usage is absolutely intentional by tolkien gandalf seems loathe to use magic partly because it comes at a cost it seems to tire him and particularly when he's forced to do a word of command which seems to be an especially taxing and mysterious form of magic but we'll cover that as well in another video but most importantly 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 nazgul at weathertop he was on his own not knowing that frodo and aragorn could see the night sky lit up from miles away he seems to enjoy fanciful artistic flourishes with the fireworks blowing fun smoke rings with bilbo and adding water horses to elrond's water magic washing the black riders away outside rivendell but when push comes to shove he only does what is needed when it is needed a lot of the time people don't even notice when he is using magic and ultimately gandalf's approach is proven right you don't need to be showy to achieve things he achieved his ultimate goal sauron was defeated so often with tolkien it is the humble who win and gandalf is humble despite all his power by the end of it all with sauron's fall the balrog gone the witch king dead and the dragons dead or diminished gandalf has a reasonable claim to be one of the most powerful beings left in middle earth and yet he hardly ever used the full extent of his power or at least he used his powers a lot but rarely so people would notice i told you i'd say a bit more about skillshare who sponsored this video skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people you can explore new skills deepen existing passions and get lost in creativity i use skillshare myself in a number of different ways recently to help me improve my productivity creating more videos at the same or better standard i've been watching ali abidahl's productivity masterclass principles and tools to boost your productivity i've learned a lot of useful tips and hopefully you'll see the results soon in even more videos on this channel there are also ad-free classes across a whole range of other creative areas like photography art and how to start your own business and that's all for just ten dollars a month and i said i had an offer for you the first thousand of my subscribers to click the link in the description will get a two-month free trial of premium membership so you can explore your creativity if you'd like to see more videos in the world of jrr tolkien 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 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Channel: In Deep Geek

Views: 518,975

Rating: 4.9403811 out of 5

Keywords: in deep geek, deep geek, lotr, lord of the rings, the lord of the rings, tolkien, middle earth, gandalf, what powers does gandalf have, gandalf powers, gandalf powers and abilities, gandalf the white powers, gandalf the grey powers, gandalf the white, gandalf the grey, magic, spells

Id: TXBA3smqcd4

Length: 12min 3sec (723 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020

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