gandalf as a maia

[burrahobbit]

So now you are trying to tell me that Faramir is stupid? Because that's what it is looking like you are saying. Did you forget where he grew up?

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

No-one in the fellowship knew. There were others in Middle-earth who might have had an inkling.

[dwarfguard]

i remember reading somewhere that someone suspected that he came from the west,thats why cirdan gave him his ring and said something like by these grey shores shall i await you and your labors will be hard.So he must of known.Right?

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Cirdan had the distinct empirical advantage of witnessing Gandalf arrive from the West. So his suspicions were aroused somewhat.

[burrahobbit]

He had the empirical advantage of seeing him get off of a boat on the west coast.

[Maerbenn]

It is said in the first paragraph of the essay on the Istari published in Unfinished Tales that “none save maybe Elrond, Círdan and Galadriel discovered of what kind they were or whence they came.”

According to the third paragraph, it was “for long known only to Círdan” that the Ithron “came from over the Sea out of the Uttermost West.”

[dwarfguard]

so, it makes you wonder how the fellowship explained the existence of wizards to themselves.I mean, its not everyday you meet a person of magical powers that returns from the dead.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

You allude to a bold assertion Maerbenn. That historian obviously never considered the possibility that the Istari had merely been on a zany college drinking cruise.

Cirdan had certainly considered that possibility. A careful fellow, yea verily.

[lord of dor-lomin]

who of the fellowship (if any)knew that gandalf was a maia and not just a "wizard".I think that elrond knew and probably cirdan knew.

Elrond and Cirdan were in the Fellowship?

But I'm sure anyone who knew anything could figure it out that he was an Ainu, even if they couldn't figure out he was a Maia. He looks like a man but he can't be one since he just keeps living and living and doesn't turn wraith-like, he's too tall to be a dwarf or a hobbit, and he looks too old to be an elf- plus he doesn't have pointy ears, and everyone knows that elves have pointy ears.

What else can he be?

Another Bombadilish enigma? An ent that has grown mannish and shrunk?

He doesn't fit snugly into any category, so what's left? An Ainu!

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Well, obviously. If you know what an Ainu is. Bilbo, for example, considered him a wizard. And that was that. That didn't make Bilbo stupid.