Gandalf's Blessing - ep.171

khazaphod

New Member
Sorry, but I'm about to get biblical. Maybe it was your reference to Pharoah's dream (from Genesis by the way, not Exedus), but I was thinking about blessings and curses from a religious point of view. The Talmud notes how from Balaam's blessings to the Israelites you can infer what he meant to curse them. You can probably already see where this is going, but I thought to apply the same logic to Gandalf.

From the start I have never truly countenanced the idea of Gandalf applying physical torture to Barliman. However, a curse on his beer for seven years, that I could believe. The more I think about this, the more it seems a plausable retribution towards the innkeep. I can well imagine Gandlaf saying something to the effect of, "Well, if you are too busy to even send a letter, maybe you should have fewer customers. May your beer be placed under a enchantment of surpassing vileness for seven years!". True, this doesn't fit exactly with "roasting" or "melting", but from what we see it appears that Butterbur was already beginning to "melt" just from Gandalf's voice pre the Strider news.

It just seems to me logical that if he had this curse in his head, it would have been easy and likely for him to switch it around with the eucatastrophic news.
 
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