GANDALF Biography - Fictional, Iconical & Mythological characters

 
 

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GANDALF

Name: Gandalf                                                                       
                                                                                   
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Gandalf is a central character in The Hobbit     
and The Lord of the Rings, where he appears as an archetypal wizard, taking a       
key role in the latter books' War of the Ring. He is a member and later the head,   
after Saruman's betrayal and fall, of the order known as the Istari, as well as     
leader of the Fellowship of the Ring and the army of the West.                     
                                                                                   
The name Gandalf was originally ascribed by Tolkien to the character who would     
later become known as Thorin, and is taken from the same source as all the other   
dwarf names - the Völuspá. The wizard character that was to become Gandalf was   
originally named Bladorthin. Throughout the early drafts, and through to the       
first edition of The Hobbit Bladorthin/Gandalf is described as being a 'little     
old man', distinct from a dwarf, but not of the full human stature that would       
later be described in The Lord of the Rings.