It is significant that Tolkien makes a point of emphasizing the word sacrifice in his description of Gandalf’s laying down his life for his friends. It is also significant that Gandalf’s death is described as “a humbling and abnegation”; an emptying of himself in submission to the rules of Providence; and the handing of himself, his fellows, and the fate of Middle-earth into the hands of “the Authority that ordained the Rules”—that is, God himself. It is difficult to read this description of Gandalf’s death without seeing parallels with Christ’s submission of Himself to the will of the Father
...more
