Quote:
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Originally Posted by A_Brandybuck
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There is a quote from UT, The Quest of Erebor, which seems to underline my theory:
"Those were my dark thoughts as I jogged along the road. I was tired, and I was going to the Shire for a short rest, after being away from it for more than twenty years. I thought that if I put them out of my mind for a while I might perhaps find some way of dealing with these troubles. And so I did indeed, though I was not allowed to put them out of my mind.
It sounds like coming home after a long time being absent.
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This is the quote that struck me. It really does sound like he is going home for his rest. He meets up with Thorin in Bree, but I assume he was heading west from there? In fact, he did continue on to Thorin's place in the mountains.
The other thing is that Gandalf was apparently hanging around in the Shire even well before there was any obvious need to do so (i.e., the Ring). He helped the hobbits out in the Great Famine and knew Bilbo as a young adult, so it seems he was there off and on much earlier than the events that take place in LOTR...
Still, if he hasn't been back in 20 years, one could hardly think of the Shire as his "home base". I would guess that Rivendell would be closer to that. Gandalf seems to be very much at home when Frodo first sees him sitting next to Elrond and Glorfindel at the banquet...