Eminence Grise-or "Grey is the new White"

[Mister Underhill]

This thread makes me think of a couple of Proverbs:

"The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness." (16:31)

"The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the grey head." (20:29)

These are both King James versions; in modern English bibles, "hoary head" is typically translated as "grey hair" or "grey head".

And there's also the Elder Eddas:

I rede thee, Loddfafnir! | and hear thou my rede,--
Profit thou hast if thou hearest,
Great thy gain if thou learnest:
Scorn not ever | the gray-haired singer,
Oft do the old speak good;
(Oft from shrivelled skin | come skillful counsels,
Though it hang with the hides,
And flap with the pelts,
And is blown with the bellies.)

The association of grey with wisdom fits comfortably with Gandalf, and extends without too much trouble to the Elves and the Dunedain.

[lindil]

Well A. you did such an excellent job on an excellent topic I can only say,
Yeppers. [w/ a capital Y]

Nice to see you Underhillo, and thanls for the ref's.

JRRT indeed reached into the twiligt [a grey variant imo] to rescue European mythology from dusty academia and bring it into the Light. Not by translating but by a masterful creative/assimilaitive act unparralled in the history of the world. Only Gurdjieff's All and Everything attempts something on that scale imo. [ though Gurdjieff was building his cosmology from different more 'historical, if more obscure and esoteric elements than the Prof.] And I trust JRRT's theology more.

But I see parallels to the outrage post now next door.

If we see [if it can rightly be called that] only in terms of Black and White, we miss reality in which almost nothing in this world is so. Did not Christ say, 'God alone is good'. And yet we must continually traffic in much that is not God. 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.

Feanor was another example that could only see the Valar in black and white terms, and once one Vala had done him wrong he made them all guilty by the association of similar origin.

[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.

[Morsul the Dark]

no allegory just applicable is LOTR may may I say the white is Evil in disguise base in my my opinion the inquisitors of spain consumed by there own piaty buring the unworthy whil gandalf the grey...the color of shadow...the undetected works lowly and unseen hidden in shadow(or grey) to make the world better he is only bested at staing hidden by two peole(the blue wizards )

[davem]

Of course, Grey is seen as being 'lesser' than White in that the Sindar are seen as lesser than the High Elves - the Calaquendi, or Elves of the Light. There is a clear hierarchy of Light Elves, Grey Elves & Dark Elves (Avari). But Middle earth in the Third Age is a 'Grey' world, a 'betwixt & between' world, straddling the 'Light' of earlier ages & the Darkness of later ones, so Gandalf the 'Grey'could be seen as symbolic of the Age in which he was present.

I can't help feeling that Grey is symbolic of 'passing' into the twilight. Gandalf the White is actually further from the world than Gandalf the White had been - he is closer to the Ainur he had been in Valinor, than the wizard he was. White is still the colour of holiness, but it is perhaps an increasingly 'otherworldly' holiness. When extreme 'Black' in the form of Sauron is removed from the world, so, it seems, is extreme White.

Don't know where I'm going with this, but I can't see that Grey is seen as 'superior' by Tolkien to White. I can only think that Grey is meant to symbolise a kind of 'not belonging' to the world - being 'in' the world, but not 'of' it. Grey, therefore, is the colour of those who 'wander', who are without a 'home' - or who are far from their home. The Grey Elves are 'wanderers', sojourners in Middle earth - their 'home' is beyond the Sundering Seas. Gandalf is in the same position. As are the Numenoreans, exiled forever from their lost home. The Fellowship members are all in the same position. So, Grey is the colour of sadness, bereavement & exile.

Or something like that...

[Anguirel]

I think, to coin another horrible piece of neophilia, that what you and I are both groping at is that Grey is in fact the new Green. By that I mean it is linked with the folklore surrounding Faerie-not necessarily Faerie as in Valinor, but Faerie as in ballads like Tam Lin:

"Tonight is Halloween
And the faeries will be in sight
If you wait for them at Mile's cross.
Please come for me tonight.

And later:

At last he was himself again
So she wrapped him in her cloak.
She was rejoicing in her victory
When the Queen of Faeries spoke.

"If I had know, Tam Lin," she says
"that you were up to no good
I'd have taken out your green eyes
and put in eyes of wood."

"If I had known, Tam Lin," she says
"you would have always been alone!
For I'd have taken out your mortal heart
And put in a heart of stone."

This is best exemplified in the perilous forests of Lothlorien and Fangorn, each possessing hidden, ancient powers, sinister and benevolent and once, capricious: the fascinating and beautiful hybrid of Celtic religion and Christianity that are fairies. It is to this strange world, neither Heaven, Earth, nor Hell, that the ambiguous colour grey seems to refer.

Green also functions in this respect, but in a more minor, cheerful, comic and reassuring capacity; we see Glorfindel's gem on the bridge repelling wraiths and Aragorn's Elessar; and green is prominent in Thranduil's jovial woodland court, not yet overcome by Lorien's lovely melancholy.

But the nostalgic and painful grey has altogether more moving qualities. The link with exile from home holds very true.