Steve Melisi
New Member
I know we’re a long way from The Two Towers, but I need help! I’ve come across something that I’ve never encountered before in all my many readings of the trilogy.
In The White Rider, Gandalf says this of the Ring:
“Very nearly it was revealed to the Enemy, but it escaped. I had some part in that: for I sat in a high place, and I strove with the Dark Tower; and the Shadow passed.” (p 484)
Later, when talking of seeing Treebeard at a distance, he says:
“I did not speak, for I was heavy with thought, and weary after my struggle with the Eye of Mordor.”(p 488)
What is he talking about???
The implication, I think, is that Gandalf intervened when Frodo sat on Amon Hen and saw the Eye looking for him. Yet there is no reference in The Breaking of the Fellowship to anyone but Frodo fighting to get the Ring off his finger. If not that, then when and how did Gandalf have his “struggle with the Eye”?
What makes this even more confusing is that later, in The Palantir, Gandalf speaks to Pippin of his desire to look into the Stone: “Had I done so, I should have been revealed to him myself. I am not ready for such a trial, if indeed I shall ever be so.” (p. 581) The “him” of course would be Sauron.
Did Gandalf just contradict himself? He says he cannot handle “such a trial” and yet he seems to have already endured such a “struggle.”
Can anyone assist me in understanding this?
In The White Rider, Gandalf says this of the Ring:
“Very nearly it was revealed to the Enemy, but it escaped. I had some part in that: for I sat in a high place, and I strove with the Dark Tower; and the Shadow passed.” (p 484)
Later, when talking of seeing Treebeard at a distance, he says:
“I did not speak, for I was heavy with thought, and weary after my struggle with the Eye of Mordor.”(p 488)
What is he talking about???
The implication, I think, is that Gandalf intervened when Frodo sat on Amon Hen and saw the Eye looking for him. Yet there is no reference in The Breaking of the Fellowship to anyone but Frodo fighting to get the Ring off his finger. If not that, then when and how did Gandalf have his “struggle with the Eye”?
What makes this even more confusing is that later, in The Palantir, Gandalf speaks to Pippin of his desire to look into the Stone: “Had I done so, I should have been revealed to him myself. I am not ready for such a trial, if indeed I shall ever be so.” (p. 581) The “him” of course would be Sauron.
Did Gandalf just contradict himself? He says he cannot handle “such a trial” and yet he seems to have already endured such a “struggle.”
Can anyone assist me in understanding this?