Wielder of Anduril
The Shire
Dec 19 2012, 1:46am
Views: 2918
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He is Maiar, and has not diminished so that should be that. Philippa Boyens said this, however: The most powerful being in Middle Earth at this time as he wrote was Galadriel. Huh? I'm not sure if she meant at the time of The Hobbit, when Gandalf was Gray, or if she means LotR too, when he becomes White. But either way, Saruman was a white wizard and more powerful than Gandalf the Grey. So I'm not sure where PJ's team is coming from. Clearly in the movie they are playing Galadriel to be the ring leader (pun intended) of the White Council. They all seem to answer to her. That's not right. I see 2 possible explanations: One, PJ's team only has the rights to The Hobbit and LotR. I believe most of the info about Maiar and Middle Earth hierarchies comes from his other writings. So they maybe afraid of getting themselves into trouble with the Tolkien Estate by saying "Gandalf is Maiar and therefore more powerful". or Two, read the rest of Boyens' quote: You do feel the weight of it, the lack of feminine energy. And it’s interesting because Professor Tolkien actually wrote brilliantly for women. He had a real respect for women. The most powerful being in Middle Earth at this time as he wrote was Galadriel. And so, we have her story as it develops, as he wrote it. It informs “The Hobbit” – it’s actually quite powerful and it’s going to get good for the girls, I think. So they very well could be altering things to bring in "feminine energy". Similar to the need they felt to expand significantly on the Aragorn/Arwen romance in LotR. They almost had Arwen become an Elven warrior, so it wouldn't be that surprising to see them take some liberties now to expand Galadriel's influence.
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