Hello! As I am reading Unfinished tales, I found this passage:
Quote:
Wizard is a translation of Quenya istar (Sindarin ithron): one of the members of an "order" (as they call it), claiming to possess, and exhibiting, eminent knowledge of the history and nature the World.
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So in my earlier post, I asked about Gandalf's knowledge about Bilbo's ring. This passage from Unfinished tales says they had a vast knowledge of the World. So my questions:
1. In what sense does Tolkien mean that?
2. How much did Istari know of Middle-earth? If they had knowledge of the World, they should have known Middle-earth, its people and history.
3. If they knew Middle-earth's history, they could have known much about Rings of Power, no? Therefore, Gandalf could have known much about it -> much earlier conclusion about the Ring. But I suspect that this part of my questions are stupid, since they as Maiar probably didn't visit Middle-earth, and if they did, they couldn't appear anywhere they wanted.
4. What "history and nature" is meant?
As Maiar, they probably didn't know much about Middle-earth, but if they did, Gandalf could have known about Rings of Power much more - which is a stretch, since he obviously knew very little before his further investigation.
Thanks for answers, I found this forum very much useful!!