Frodo's Journey: Discover the Hidden Meaning of The Lord of the Rings

by Joseph Pearce

In the same letter, Tolkien stated that Gandalf “is not, of course, a human being (Man or Hobbit).” Although there were “no precise modern terms to say what he was,” Tolkien described Gandalf and the other wizards as incarnate angels akin to the Greek messengers sent from the gods to men (or, we might add, the herald angels sent by God to man). “By ‘incarnate,’” Tolkien continued, “I mean they were embodied in physical bodies capable of pain, and weariness, and of afflicting the spirit with physical fear, and of being ‘killed’, though supported by the angelic spirit they might endure long, and only show slowly the wearing of care and labor.” The wizards were “those who know”—adding ominous potency to Gandalf’s description of himself as the servant of the Secret Fire—emissaries from the supernatural order, “sent to Middle-earth, as the great crisis of Sauron loomed on the horizon.”10