Eminence Grise-or "Grey is the new White"

[Anguirel]

Originally Posted by lindil

OF course we have to try and do so wisely, and it is here that we either stay enmeshed in a dualistic fantasy world that demonizes anything 'other' just as ROhan and Gondor was well on the way to doing with the Elves, or we fall into a Lorien-like isolationism cut off even from our nearest kin just up the river and down the path.

Interesting point-you bring up the matter of extreme greyness, which can also be detrimental. We see this in the lethargy and self-absorption of Lorien, in the diminished grandeur of Lindon and Rivendell, and, perhaps most clearly, in the treeishness overcoming the Ents and Huorns. While the "grey" forces of enchantment and fairy tale are potent, they are their own worst foe, and in the end are bound to diminish, along with everything they touch. Frodo, Sam and Gimli, once clothed in elven-grey, cannot escape it.

In this way Radagast the Brown was perhaps "greyer" than Gandalf the grey; or perhaps grey leads to brown, the brown of decay, of death, of stagnation, yet indispensable to nature. Perhaps when the Elves fear becoming rustic and go into the West, they are preferring to depart grey than linger brown.