by David Day
The sources of Gandalf are many.
GANDALF
Merlin of the Celts
Odin of the Norsemen
Woden of the Early Germans
Mercury of the Romans
Hermes of the Greeks
Thoth of the Egyptians
All are linked with magic, sorcery, arcane knowledge, and secret doctrine. Gandalf, Merlin, Odin, and Woden were identical figures who usually took the form of a wandering old man in a grey cloak who carried a staff. Gandalf was comparable to the others as well in powers and deeds. Typically these wizards served as a guide to the heroes and frequently helped them advance against impossible odds by using their supernatural powers.
In the first drafts of The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien had not chosen Thorin Oakenshield as the leader of the Dwarves. Surprisingly, the original name of the leader was Gandalf; a Dwarf-name that also appears in the Dvergatal.
It was not until later drafts that Gandalf the Dwarf was transformed into Gandalf the Wizard. Undoubtedly, the literal meaning of Gandalf~ which has usually been translated as “sorcerer elf”~had something to do with inspiring Tolkien to dispose of an extraneous Dwarf, and introduce an absolutely essential Wizard.
However, looking more carefully at the elements of Gandalf’s name, it is obvious that there are several ways of translating it. Its meaning shifts about just as much as the wizard’s identity. Indeed, it is easy to see how the name Gandalf itself might have been used as the inspiration for the twist in the plot of The Lord of the Rings wherein Gandalf the Grey is transformed into Gandalf the White.
GANDALF comes from a name in the Icelandic Dvergatal: Gandalfr. The Old Norse elements of Gandalfr, when translated, are Gand~meaning a magical power or the power of Gand, that is, “astral travelling.” Alternatively, the elements may be GANDR~an object used by sorcerers or the enchanted staff or the enchanted crystal of a wizard; and ALF~elf or white.
Therefore the three best translations of ELF SORCERER, WHITE STAFF, or WHITE SORCERER.
All three translations are admirably suitable for a wizard’s name. (Wizard itself simply means wise man.) However, each has a hidden meaning within it, which influenced the fate of the character.
GANDALF~Elf Sorcerer
The translation Elf Sorcerer or Elf Wizard applies descriptively, because Gandalf is the Wizard who becomes most closely associated with the Grey Elves of Middle-earth. Also, although not an Elf, Gandalf was a supernatural spirit from Aman, the realm of the Light Elves. Thus the name Gandalf seems to have suggested a plot that would eventually return the Elf Sorcerer to his Elvenhome across the Western Sea.
GANDALF~White Staff
When Gandalf first appears in The Hobbit, he is described as an old man with a staff. The staff is the primary symbol by which a wizard is known, for it is the ancient sceptre of power in disguise (sceptre being the Greek word for staff). The staff is also the vehicle by which all wizards wield power. The fact that the staff is white suggests a wizard who commands white or good sorcery rather than black or evil sorcery.
GANDALF~White Sorcerer
The translation White Sorcerer or White Wizard is probably the best and simplest translation of Gandalf. Initially disguised as Gandalf the Grey, a rather ragged old conjurer, throughout his many adventures he uses only white or good sorcery. And, in the end, his true nature is revealed when he is reincarnated as Gandalf the White Wizard.
The translation of Gandalf as White Wizard demonstrates precisely how influential the meaning hidden within a name could be for Tolkien. Initially Gandalf was given the title and rank of Grey Wizard, and another individual named Saruman was the White Wizard.
We are told that Saruman the White Wizard’s Elven name was Curunir, which means Man of Skill~a reasonable name for a white wizard. However, the name Saruman* is an Old English construct meaning Man of Pain, a name which could only be given to an evil (black) wizard.
Similarly, we are told Gandalf the Grey Wizard’s Elven name was Mithrandir, which means Grey Wanderer~a reasonable name for a grey wizard. However, as we have seen, the name Gandalf is an Old Norse construct meaning White Sorcerer, a name that could only be given to a good (white) wizard.
As we have come to appreciate, the hidden meaning of names often predicts the fate of Tolkien’s characters: Saruman the White Wizard became the evil sorcerer of Isengard, while Gandalf the Grey Wizard was reincarnated as Gandalf the White Wizard.
Once again, Tolkien is acting the part of a magician and has set us up for a conjurer’s trick with language: a little verbal “hocus-pocus” wherein white becomes black, and grey becomes white. **
________________________________________
* Another example of Tolkien’s Old English puns: Saromann means Man of Pain; however the similar Searomann means Man of Skill.
** Not content to let even the most obscure association go unjested, Tolkien appears to have further linked his wizards’ fates to a couple of alternative translations of the first element in Gandalf’s name: gandr as an enchanted crystal; and gand as astral travelling. For, strangely enough, we find that Saruman’s downfall comes through his use of an enchanted crystal called the palantir, while the salvation of Gandalf comes through a form of astral travelling that permits his resurrection.
XIV. TROLLS & GIANTS
The obstacles to Bilbo Baggins and Thorin and Company developed out of Tolkien’s investigations into the fragments of Anglo-Saxon literature. The language itself was Tolkien’s way into this world; often phrases or single words suggested whole chapters and scenarios. He also began to define clearly and standardize the elusive forms of mythic creatures inhabiting the Anglo-Saxon language.
Tolkien insisted on clarifying definitions and forms in language, such as altering Dwarfs to Dwarves and Dwarfish to Dwarvish, while Elfs became Elves and Elfin became Elven. In Old English and Norse tales there is considerable confusion between the definitions of Elfs, Dwarfs, Giants, Hobs, Ents, Fairies, etc. Tolkien wished to put an end to this. In the case of Elves in particular, Tolkien defined the Elf as a distinct and singularly important race.
In its etymological history, he also found that Elf was an extraordinarily strong and consistent word through many languages, meaning both Elf and white (the Latin alba and Greek alphos both mean white), and also retaining an association in all languages with Swan.
ELF~English
AELF~Old English
ALFR~Old Norse
ALP~Old High German
ALBS~Gothic
Many aspects of various beings and monsters in Tolkien’s world have evolved from Old English and Germanic words. In the epic poem Beowulf, for instance, Tolkien’s imagination was fired by one phrase that described the tortured races who were thought to be the descendants of the cursed biblical brother, Cain. In this one phrase we have three of Tolkien’s invented species. The Old English wording is eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas, meaning “ettens and elves and demon-corpses” or more simply “trolls and elves and goblins.”
Elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon literature we have a jumble of words for a confusion of creatures that Tolkien shaped and standardized:
ORCNEAS~demon-corpses or goblin zombies in Old English
ORCPYRS~demon-giants or goblin giants in Old English
WARGS~Vargr (wolf) in Old Norse +
Wearh (human outlaw) in Old English, suggestive of “skin-changers” or werewolves
BERSERKERS~Bear + Sark (bear-shirt warrior cult) in Old Norse, suggestive of “skin-changers” or Werebears
EOTEN~giant or ent in Old English
JOTUNN~giant in Old Norse
TROLL~giant or monster from Norse
BILBO BAGGINS THE BUNGLING BURGLAR
At the beginning of The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins appears to be totally incompetent as a mercenary burglar. Why would Gandalf the Wizard insist on the Dwarves hiring such an absurd creature for this job? Indeed, Bilbo Baggins is only shamed into attempting the role as master burglar or thief. Unfortunately, he is caught first
time out trying to steal from three Trolls of the Trollshaws (literally troll-woods).
Although immensely stupid by Human and Hobbit standards, these monsters~Bert, Tom, and William Huggins (rhymes with Muggins, meaning fool, idiot)~were capable of speech. This made them geniuses among Trolls, and smart enough almost to end Bilbo Baggins’s career before it began.
The episode with the Trolls is rather imitative of the Grimms’ tale The Brave Little Tailor, and other trickster tales from Icelandic mythology. However, it is the Wizard Gandalf who uses his wits to keep the Trolls arguing until the sun rises and turns these creatures of darkness to stone.
The point of the story of The Hobbit is that it traces the initiation and education of the Hobbit from everyday person into epic hero. In this, Gandalf the Wizard is the Hobbit’s mentor.
The episode with the Trolls is Bilbo Baggins’s first lesson in using his wits to outsmart the large and powerful. After passing this first test he wins a prize from the Trolls’ treasure hoard: a magical Elven dagger with the name Sting. Aside from being an extremely effective weapon with an ancient heritage, Sting is Bilbo’s bilbo: it is emblematic of his new-found power of a sharpened wit, and also emblematic of his true self or spirit, which is bright and more than a little dangerous.
BILBO BAGGINS THE HOBBLER
The key to Bilbo Baggins’s education and the model for the kind of heroic master burglar the Hobbit becomes can be conjured up from one of our Hocus-Pocus Dictionary words: Hobbler.
Hobbler is a nineteenth- and early twentieth-century underworld term for a specialized type of criminal who, through a combination of confidence tricks (or stings) and burglary, acquires a great deal of loot. He is an example of “dishonour among thieves,” for his victim is usually another criminal who acquired his booty by theft in the first place.
The term hobbler comes from hobble, in the sense of “to perplex or impede.” This can be done physically, but more often is done through trickery or mental process; in Tolkien’s world we often see superior force “hobbled” by trickery in the form of perplexing riddles or legally binding word play that almost amount to legal contracts, whether dealing with Dwarves, Orcs, Gollum, Elves, or Dragons.
Gandalf the Wizard had decided that, despite appearances, Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit was the perfect candidate for a hobbler. Being a Hobbit, there is little opportunity for Bilbo to intimidate physically, so he is more likely to learn how to “perplex, impede, and confuse” his foes, rather than confront them. If he is to survive, he must quickly learn to use his wits and a few tools of his profession to relieve other criminals of ill-gotten loot.
Bilbo Baggins’s technique is perfectly described in criminal-world slang that was first recorded in Britain in 1812 (and has been used ever since): to hobble a plant~“to find booty that has been concealed by another; to spring the loot by deception or theft.”
The phrase means roughly: “the finder hobbles the planter.” This is the technique employed in each major encounter; whether the planter is a Troll or Goblin or Ghoul or Dragon. In each case, after tricking and evading the creature, the hero-burglar gets “to spring the loot”.
Under the tutorship of Gandalf the ineffectual Hobbit seems rapidly to learn how to become a first-class hobbler. His reward for surviving the first test is his sword Sting. His reward for surviving the much more demanding test of the cannibal ghoul Gollum is the One Ring that allows him to be invisible. With these two tools of his trade, and a wit sharpened by desperation and necessity, Bilbo Baggins becomes a master thief without compa-rison: a Hobbit hobbler.
Bilbo’s apprenticeship to Gandalf the Wizard is over with the hobbling of Gollum and the theft of his One Ring: “Thief! Thief! Thief! Baggins!” We hates it, we hates it for ever!” High praise indeed from a monster colleague who has been stealing and murdering for centuries.
When Bilbo Baggins rejoins the Company of Dwarves, he becomes a master thief beyond compare and the real hero of the expedition. His transformation is remarkable. In the forests of Mirkwood, Bilbo turns into a ferocious hero of the most aggressive kind who ruthlessly slaughters the evil giant spiders with his Ring and his Sting. From the trials of the spider webs and Elven prisons of Mirkwood, it is a short journey to the abandoned Dwarf Kingdom Under Mountain at Erebor, where the ultimate test of Bilbo Baggins’s skills as a Hobbit hobbler lies waiting: the Dragon of Lonely Mountain.
THE QUEST FOR THE TREASURE OF THE LONELY MOUNTAIN OF EREBOR
The Quest to steal the lost treasure of Lonely Mountain from the Dragon of Erebor was guided by the Wizard Gandalf the Grey and led by the rightful heir to the Dwarf Kingdom-under-the-Mountain, Thorin Oakenshield. The Wizard and the Dwarf King were accompanied by twelve quarrelsome Dwarves, and assisted by one Hobbit of the Shire who went by the name Bilbo Baggins of Bag End. The Company of Adventurers: GANDALF THE WIZARD, BILBO BAGGINS THE HOBBIT, THORIN OAKENSHIELD, DWALIN, BALIN, KILI, FILI, BIFUR, BOFUR, BOMBUR, DORI, NORI, ORI, OIN, and GLOIN.
XV. A Conspiracy of DWARVES
The quiet life of Bilbo Baggins of Bag End is for ever disturbed by the unexpected arrival of thirteen conspiring Dwarves. Known as Thorin and Company, these conspirators recruit the respectable Hobbit as a specialist burglar and entice him off on their adventure.
Who and what are these Dwarfs or Dwarves? And how and why did they become involved in this adventure or quest?
First of all they are Dwarves, not Dwarfs. Tolkien wanted specifically to address the issue of the Dwarfs as a race of bearded stunted people, rather than Humans of a vertically challenged stature. He began his attempt to define and standardize the race by recognizing a proper plural term for these people. Tolkien came up with Dwarves, although he acknowledged that in proper linguistic terms it would be more correct to call them Dwarrows.
DWARF (Modern English)~plural is Dwarfs
DWEORH (Old English)~plural is Dwarrows
DWEORH (Westron)~plural is Dwarrows
DWARF (translated Westron)~plural is Dwarves
So you find in Tolkien’s books Dwarf (Modern English) becomes Dwarfs in plural; Dweorh (Old English and Westron) becomes Dwarrows; and Dwarf (translated Westron, the common speech of the Westlands of Middle-earth) becomes Dwarves. Furthermore, the origin of Dwarf is in the Indo-European root word dhwergwhos meaning something tiny.
DWARF is derived from:
DWEORH (Old English)
DVERGR (Old Norse)
TWERG (Old High German)
DVAIRGS (Gothic)
DWERGAZ (Prehistoric German)
DHWERGWHOS (Indo-European) meaning “something tiny”
In The Hobbit, the Dwarves making up Thorin and Company are largely of the comic fairy-tale variety. These Dwarves would not be out of character if found in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Rumpelstiltskin. Here we find all the vague associations with hoarding gold, digging mines, and the Dwarf’s sullen and stubborn character.
However, by the time of The Lord of the Rings Dwarves have become a species unique to Tolkien’s epic world of Middle-earth. In their own language they are the Khazad. They are a rather dark and brooding race with the fatalistic, foredoomed nature of the Dwarf Smiths of Viking mythology.
The names of the individual Dwarves are not, of course, drawn from our Hocus-Pocus Dictionary List, but another list altogether. Tolkien took the names directly from the primary source of Viking mythology: the text of Iceland’s twelfth-century prose Edda. The Edda suggests a crude account of the creation of the Dwarfs, then lists their names; this list is usually called the Dvergatal or the Dwarfs’ Roll.
All the Dwarves in The Hobbit appear in this list: Thorin, Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, and Gloin. Other names of Dwarfs which Tolkien found in the Edda and used later include: Thrain, Thror, Dain, and Nain. The Edda also gives the name Durin to a mysterious creator of the Dwarfs which Tolkien uses for the first Dwarf of Durin’s Line.
Tolkien took the Dvergatal and speculated on why it was created. E
ssentially, Tolkien saw the list of Dwarfs as one of his Hobbitish riddles.
The answer was that it was a riddle about a lost epic of the Dwarfs; or perhaps an epic about the Langobards (meaning Longbeards, an alternative name for Tolkien’s Dwarves), a long-lost Germanic tribe who, legend tells us, lost their treasure and kingdom to Dragons.
RIDDLE: “What was the Dvergatal?”
ANSWER: “The lost epic of the Dwarfs.”
To discover something of that lost epic tale that the Dwarves once recited “in their halls of stone,” Tolkien used such clues as he could find.
Once again he delved into the language to answer his questions. Primarily he used the list of Dwarfs names to recreate the Quest of the Dwarfs.
Not surprisingly, the name of the leader of the Dwarf Company of Adventurers is Thorin, which means Bold. However, Tolkien also gave him another Dwarf-name from the list: Eikinskjaldi, meaning “he of the Oakenshield.” This name was responsible for a complex piece of background history wherein, during a battle in the Goblin Wars, Thorin broke his sword but fought on by picking up an oak bough that he used as both a club and a shield.
Thrain, meaning Stubborn, was the name of Thorin’s father, who was slain by Dragons when he stubbornly resisted the Dragon’s invasion of his realm. Thorin’s sister was Dis, which simply means sister. Thorin’s heir and avenger, who led the Dwarves of Iron Mountain, Dain Ironfoot, meaning Deadly Ironfoot, proved to be true to his warrior name.
The names of other members of the Company were instrumental in shaping them. Bombur, meaning Bulging, was certainly the fattest of the Dwarves, and Nori, meaning Peewee, was the smallest; Balin, meaning Burning One, was fiery in battle, but warm with his friends; Ori, meaning Furious, fought furiously before he was slain in Moria; and Gloin, meaning Glowing One, won glory and riches.
