[The Saucepan Man]

Originally Posted by Esty

I wonder if Gandalf was now allowed to take on spirit form for instant transportation?

I would say that the restrictions still largely applied, just as they originally applied to Saruman - who he is, in effect, replacing. He still seems to remain bound by them for the remainder of the book. Perhaps they were "relaxed" slightly, but I think that it is more that, as Gandalf the White, he had a greater reserve of "innate" power with which to fulfil his mission within the preordained strictures.

Originally Posted by Nilp

What is it with Aragorn that he had been willing to die (and thus abandoning his claim to kingship, plus leaving his promise to Boromir unfulfilled) for Merry and Pippin?

I rather thought that Gimli's comment had been an example of grim humour and that neither he nor Aragorn really expected to starve if they pursued the Hobbits' trail into the depths of Fangorn. But it does show that, having made a commitment to find Merry and Pippin, he feels duty bound to follow it. Just as he could not leave them to their fate back at Parth Galen (when the same considerations were in play), he cannot do so now. Although he knows that they are free from the Orcs they are still in peril as far as he is concerned. It is only when he learns of their safety from Gandalf that he feels able to abandon the chase.

Originally Posted by Child

I am reading Aragorn's decision as strictly a question of morals. Time and again, Tolkien makes the point that we must focus on the immediate problem at hand and make a judgment according to what is right or wrong in that situation, even if long range considerations would seem to suggest otherwise.

I take the point that, like Gandalf, he lays his own interests aside and trusts to a higher power so that he is able to address the problem at hand. Although I wonder how applicable that lesson is in reality? Time and time again, it seems to me, governments, companies and individuals fall into error when they make short-term decisions to address immediate issues, rather than taking the longer term view. The difference here, I suppose, is that the "short-term" solutions taken by Gandalf and Aragorn are not in their own interests, but rather run contrary to them. They are, as Child and Fordim have said, making a personal sacrifice rather than furthering their interests.

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

In this connection, I have always thought that the answer to The Saucepan Man's question ... is simply that they are "close at hand" and Gandalf literally cannot at first recall them.

Originally Posted by Child

I, too, was left with the impression that Gandalf quote honestly could not remember many things closest to him, and inadvertently gave the impression that he was attempting to "disguise" himself. Quite the opposite was the case. Being so close to the mysterious and other-worldly transformation that had taken place 'beyond' Arda, he did not have the guile to think in terms of something so mundane as "disguise".

No, I didn't really suppose that Gandalf was deliberately springing a surprise on them. But the passage still seems strange to me. Some of his features may have been visible, but they were still hooded and those that were visible were hidden under his brows. Since the Three Hunters recognise him almost immediately when he casts of his grey rags and hood, I would surmise that he was unrecognisable up to that point. And, deliberately so, it would seem. Why else would he wear grey rags and a hood?

As for the way in which he addresses them as strangers, my initial reaction, too, was that he could not recall them (just as he could not, at first recall the name Gandalf). But this does not square with him making straight for them. Why would he purposefully make towards them, up a narrow stone stair in a cliff face, if he did not know who they were? Indeed, he seems to have been following them through Fangorn. He knows, before meeting with them, that they have been tracking two small hobbits, whom he knows to be Merry and Pippin. Indeed, the whole of his speech concerning Merry and Pippin, before he reveals himself, seems to have a deliberately mysterious air about it.

Perhaps your explanation is the correct one. It certainly seems to be the only logical one which does not involve some intention to mislead on Gandalf's part. But it still does not sit entirely easily with me.