[Bêthberry]

Thanks to Morthoron, Gordis and Boro88 for their thoughts on grey. For a colour lacking hue, it certainly carries a fair bit of symbolism.

We know that grey represents some kind of neutral stance of indifference or balance. It's not a hot to trot colour--limbo indeed. This could represent either calmness and coolness or unthinking routine. (In the case of Gandalf the Grey, I always thought it represented a challenging limitation on the power of the maiar.) It is also the colour of intellect--"grey matter"--and the colour of age-"grey hairs". (Well, Gandalf and the Nazgul are all very old.) Those who see things only in shades of black and white are challenged by those who see "shades of grey", the fine points of articulation between two opposing positions. Again, depending on one's point of view, this is either positive or negative. In folklore, denizens of the fairy world are often associated with grey and dusk or dawn, those immaterial times between light and dark. (Both Gandalf and the Nazgul belong to this realm.) In a certain subculture, grey denotes a particular fetishism-bondage. (It's possible to argue that the Nazgul are in bondage, but not that they belong to this subculture.) Grey is also the colour of ashes and penitence, contrition, Lent. (Mortification? One could argue that Gandalf operates under mortification until he becomes the White.)

I suppose we could say that Gandalf would obviously be a warm grey (tinged with yellow) while the Dark Riders would be a cool grey (tinged with blue), yet how interesting that the spirit realm of Middle-earth combines both the great wizard and the horrible adversaries of Light. To me, it makes Sauron's experiments with Rings even more ominous, that he is perverting the existence of the Maiar. No wonder Gandalf was so frightened himself by the Ring.