Did Gandalf Really Die after Killing the Balrog?

Gandalf faces the Balrog of Moria on the Bridge of Khazad-dum in the 'Fellowship of the Rings' movie from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. — G.R.R. Martin suggests that Gandalf’s death wasn’t legitimate. But he misunderstands what J.R.R. Tolkien’s story implies about death, even for a Maia (an angelic being) like Gandalf.

Q: Did Gandalf Really Die after Killing the Balrog?

ANSWER: I am going to answer two questions here because it would, I think, be redundant to address them separately. The other question is: “Should Tolkien have brought Gandalf back to life?” Or, put another way, “Was Tolkien cheating when he brought Gandalf back to life?”

Plot device? CHEAT? — Was Gandalf’s death really a cheat? No – but some people don’t understand why Gandalf came back as a more powerful character.

George R.R. Martin fans should recognize the allusion in the last variation (although I had to do some research to figure that out because I don’t follow Martin’s career). I guess at some point Martin expressed a dissatisfaction with Gandalf the White and people have asked him about it again and again through the years (Cf. this interview from 2011). That’s probably not the best reference for this question but I’ll use it for expedience’ sake:

GEORGE R.R. MARTIN: I do think that if you’re bringing a character back, that a character has gone through death, that’s a transformative experience. … Much as I admire Tolkien, I once again always felt like Gandalf should have stayed dead. That was such an incredible sequence in Fellowship of the Ring when he faces the Balrog on the Khazad-dûm and he falls into the gulf, and his last words are, “Fly, you fools.”

What power that had, how that grabbed me. And then he comes back as Gandalf the White, and if anything he’s sort of improved. I never liked Gandalf the White as much as Gandalf the Grey, and I never liked him coming back. I think it would have been an even stronger story if Tolkien had left him dead.

My characters who come back from death are worse for wear. In some ways, they’re not even the same characters anymore. The body may be moving, but some aspect of the spirit is changed or transformed, and they’ve lost something…

So let me begin by saying I am not going to be drawn (willingly or easily) into any sort of “Tolkien vs. Martin” debate. I’ve never read Martin’s books and could not begin to analyze or criticize or explain his writing, much less cite anything meaningful about his motivations. Both writers have stories to tell and there the resemblance ends, as far as I can see (which admittedly isn’t far).

Gandalf’s death was certainly transformative, even in a diminishing capacity, which seems to be what Martin feels should be a consequence of returning from death. I cannot comment on any influence on Martin from Judeo-Christian teachings but in Tolkien’s view The Lord of the Rings was a very Catholic work and while not allegorical it was nonetheless incorporating the idea of a direct intervention by God to make right a plan that had failed. I’ll explain why Gandalf’s death was transformative below but I want to point out that the questions I cite above (and maybe a few similar ones) should probably be rephrased as, “Does Gandalf’s resurrection achieve any necessary purpose in the story?”

You know, I should leave it right there because I suspect a lot of people who teach Tolkien classes have put this very point to their students. How can you avoid talking about why Gandalf should come back for the story? In another quote (that I cannot source, so I don’t want to share it, in case Mr. Martin did not actually put it that way), George R.R. Martin allegedly says that the characters could have gone on without Gandalf (and that is why his resurrection was a cheat, or so it has been explained to me). So, without getting into who actually said what or why anything was said, let’s address the question in the context of where the story CAN or MUST go without Gandalf.

In other words, if Gandalf stays dead, will Sauron still be defeated? At one level it’s all about story mechanics. If you don’t have contributions from Gandalf you can still argue for a story where, say, Aragorn finds his way to Edoras and unmasks Wormtongue and helps Theoden lead the Rohirrim to Gondor. But Aragorn was heading in the wrong direction; he had just entered Fangorn Forest and would have followed the hobbits (Merry and Pippin) straight to Isengard. In my opinion if Tolkien were to bring Aragorn that far without finding Merry and Pippin he would have to show Aragorn tracking the hobbits all the way to Isengard because Aragorn is one of the very few characters who is not permitted to break his word.

If Aragorn breaks faith all is lost in Middle-earth. Why? Because he will have failed to redeem the Line of Isildur. If this interpretation sounds familiar it’s because you have seen it in Peter Jackson’s movies. Aragorn’s character is one of the most complex characters in Jackson’s story, which is not Tolkien’s story, but it’s Tolkien’s story told from someone else’s point of view. While Peter Jackson’s Aragorn struck some hard-core purists as weak compared to the Aragorn of the book, I will defend Peter Jackson and his co-writers by saying that in a dramatic presentation you don’t have a lot of time to show all the intricacies of the politics behind a character’s decisions. In fact, Tolkien moved the history and politics behind Aragorn’s situation to the appendices.

If someone were to write The Lord of the Rings today it would be a 10-15 book extravaganza that explores every character’s motivations and complications, leaving almost nothing to the imagination (and there would probably be a few elf orgies along the way). The Lord of the Rings is first and foremost a morality play. As Tolkien put it, “it’s about death … and the pursuit of deathlessness”. I’m not sure the full moral implication of that theme is really understood by all readers.

Put another way, The Lord of the Rings is about the consequences of moral falls — making God-defying choices that up-end the laws of nature. The Elves of Middle-earth decided they didn’t want to fade and they didn’t want to leave Middle-earth, so they sought for a means to stay in Middle-earth and to preserve it as their delightful playground. As a consequence of their self-authorized extended stay in Middle-earth Sauron was able to run amok and corrupt a lot of other creatures. He would have committed evil anyway, but once he devised the plan of teaching the Elves how to make Rings of Power Sauron made himself more powerful by creating the One Ring.

Gandalf and the other Istari were an attempt by the Valar to self-police one of their own kind (Sauron) without creating havoc in the world (as they had when they policed Morgoth). By the time the Istari arrived in Middle-earth both the Elves and the Numenoreans had been corrupted by Sauron and their greatest realms destroyed. There was little hope in the ability of Elves and Men to defeat Sauron, but the Valar gave them an opportunity to find a means to do so.

It was God, however, who provided the means. Or so Gandalf suggests when he explains the history of the Ring to Frodo. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and Frodo was meant to inherit the Ring. The way Tolkien tells the story you cannot destroy the Ring unless Gollum goes into the fire; Gollum goes into the fire because he has lost his sense of self to his lust for the Ring. Frodo will never go into the fire. Bilbo will never go into the fire. It takes the Ring 600 years to bring Gollum to the brink; by the time Frodo is ready to destroy himself Sauron will have long since taken back possession of the Ring.

So The Lord of Rings is not just about moral corruption but also redemption. The Elves are redeemed by finally releasing their hold on Middle-earth. The Numenoreans are redeemed by Aragorn’s virtue and willingness to sacrifice himself (a sacrifice he is not called upon to make because, like Noah, he survives the end of the world while everyone else around him dies). I submit that Aragorn’s is the only peaceful death in the Fellowship. Merry and Pippin may have had peaceful deaths but they, in fact, left the Shire much as Frodo and Sam had before them. So there was something incomplete in their lives that drew them away from their families.

Legolas and Gimli did not have peaceful deaths because they, too, left Middle-earth. Of all the Fellowship only Gandalf was supposed to NOT die. As one of the Ainur he existed before the universe and therefore death was something very different for him. Death was in fact diminishing in much the way George R.R. Martin feels it should be (for a human character). And yet Gandalf was sent back with greater strength, given more authority, and told to complete the mission.

But what was the mission? It wasn’t to destroy the Ring. In fact, after he dies there is only one scene where Gandalf plays a critical role in preserving Frodo’s life and mission. When Frodo puts the Ring on at Amon Hen and he sits atop the hill in the High Seat, he has an “other” vision that shows him (through the Ring’s power) what is happening across Middle-earth. And as he gazes out across the world Frodo sees Barad-dur and as he looks upon Sauron then Sauron senses Frodo (and the Ring) and he begins searching frantically for the Ring. At this point Frodo wants to hide but the Ring calls to Sauron. It is only through Gandalf’s intervention that Frodo takes off the Ring.

Was this scene necessary to the story? It’s hard to say. Frodo ended up on the High Seat because Boromir’s betrayal made him fearful and confused. He had thought he would go to Mordor with companions to help and protect him; but now he understood that the Ring would attempt to corrupt everyone around it, and therefore the longer he stayed with the Fellowship the more danger they would be in. Worse, the greater the danger of the mission failing would become. So Frodo had to be driven away from the Fellowship by something, and that something was the realization that the Ring was too dangerous to be left near good people. Boromir was not evil. He was proud and haughty, even arrogant, but he was a good man who fell prey to the Ring’s corrupting influence (and that, of course, is why the story grants him redemption through a noble death).

You can’t have Frodo realize just how bad the Ring is without someone falling prey to it. So far in the story everyone has managed to resist the Ring: Gandalf (when Frodo offered it to him), Bombadil (when he asked Frodo for the Ring), Aragorn (when he told Frodo if he wanted the Ring he could take it), presumably Elrond when he was healing Frodo (he spoke of his unwillingness to take the Ring with a resolution that only matches the choices of other characters who resist the temptation), and Galadriel also resisted the Ring. Up to this point the Ring doesn’t seem like much of a threat because everyone turns it down. So someone had to give in before Frodo, not only to separate Frodo from the Fellowship but also to show the reader that sooner or later everyone gives in to the Ring. And that is why even Gandalf feared it.

After Frodo sets out for Mordor Gandalf concedes that he can no longer help Frodo. But he helps Theoden and restores the Rohirrim in time to defeat Saruman’s army. Had the Rohirrim fallen prey to Isengard there would have been no hope for Minas Tirith. Aragorn could not have taken the Paths of the Dead to reach Erech and he therefore could not have driven the Corsairs out of Gondor and brought reinforcements to Minas Tirith. The Rohirrim would not have been there to break the siege of the city. Maybe Frodo would have saved Middle-earth but how much of Middle-earth would have been saved?

Gandalf’s mission upon his return is not to confront Sauron or ensure that the Ringbearer’s mission succeeds. Gandalf’s mission upon his return is to ensure that there are people left after the war is finished. Sauron could have seized control over everything and then been defeated in exactly the same way as is told in the story; but the Middle-earth that Gandalf helped to save would no longer exist. Frodo and Sam would have died in Mordor.

So Gandalf has to come back in order to restore hope among Men (there is no hope for Elves — they must sail over Sea or fade). If Gandalf doesn’t come back then you have to have someone else enter the story, someone with the power and authority to intervene at just the right moments to keep everything from falling apart. The Ringbearer’s journey doesn’t depend on Gandalf’s help after Amon Hen. His mission would unfold as desired because Frodo was receiving aid more directly from a higher authority.

Now, turning to the question of Gandalf’s death, is it the same kind of death as that of an Elf or Man? In the sense that Gandalf’s body stopped breathing, yes, there was a physical death. But Gandalf’s spirit did not remain trapped in a state of emotional turmoil. In one of his post-LoTR essays (Cf. “Myths Transformed” in Morgoth’s Ring, Volume X of The History of Middle-earth) Tolkien wrote down his ideas of what physical (unexpected) death meant for one of the Ainur. He made no distinction between the good and bad Ainur. An Ainu who was slain would be thrown into a state of irrational anger and sense of loss, unable to concentrate and focus. This inability to achieve focus again would prevent the Ainu from taking shape within the universe and interacting with other beings. It would be trapped in a self-contained prison of rage.

Only Melkor (Tolkien thought) would have the strength to eventually come back from that point of unthinking solitude. Any lesser Ainu, perhaps even Manwë, would be rendered impotent until Ilúvatar decided otherwise. And assuming Melkor would be slain a second time, he might not come back from that state of impotence, either. Sauron survived two deaths because the Ring preserved his strength and gave him the ability to master his thoughts and feelings again. Hypothetically had he been slain a third time (without the Ring being destroyed at the end of the Third Age) then maybe it would have been thousands of years (rather than one thousand) before he could restore his composure and self-incarnate again.

Gandalf must have been rendered impotent in just the same way by his death. Unable to collect his thoughts and focus on any specific task he would be incapable of helping even himself. Ilúvatar restored Gandalf’s strength and made him stronger. His choice of messenger does not have to be explained in any way. It is simply the choice Ilúvatar made within this story. Anyone (including George R.R. Martin) could argue that Ilúvatar had an abundance of options from which to choose (maybe even dragging Radagast back into the tale), but how much time would it have taken Aragorn and his companions to learn to trust someone as deeply as they trusted Gandalf?

When you think about it, who but Gandalf could have commanded Aragorn to abandon his quest for the hobbits? Aragorn needed exactly that kind of adjustment in his task because he was heading in the wrong direction, and he was much too strong a character to be overruled by any Elf or Man. He would have faced all of Eomer’s Riders to defend Gimli had he felt it necessary.

Gandalf’s death was not really necessary to show the reader that Middle-earth was filled with powerful evil things. We already knew that from having read about Smaug. Nor was Gandalf’s death necessary to move the story forward. The plot did not change much once Gandalf was dead. Aragorn led the Fellowship to Lothlorien as Gandalf intended. From there Celeborn bought him enough time to get the Ring closer to Mordor until Frodo was ready to do what needed to be done. As far as Celeborn was concerned everyone else could have remained in Lothlorien to help defend it against the inevitable assault from Dol Guldur. The main plot goes on without Gandalf, just as Martin points out.

So why did Gandalf die? Because he was too powerful. Either his presence would make it too easy for Frodo to complete the mission (thus weakening the story) or he would eventually fall prey to the Ring’s influence just like Boromir, in which case the Ringbearer’s mission would fail. Gandalf had to be diverted from the main plot to deal with other issues that arose as a consequence of the whole premise behind the story: Sauron had become too powerful and there was literally no hope for the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.

Gandalf’s original task had been to inspire Elves and Men in their resistance. His new mission became the same thing (with greater emphasis on Men than on Elves). So Gandalf’s death, while very real, provided the means for a reset in his path. His own journey was never supposed to lead him toward Mordor. He had been sent to Middle-earth to help Sauron’s enemies, but not to directly help them defeat Sauron.

I don’t think Gandalf’s resurrection is a cheat. I think it’s a necessary step in setting things right after they have gone so wrong for thousands of years. The Valar’s plan, as Tolkien pointed out, had failed. They were outmaneuvered by Sauron, who had spent two thousand years weakening and dividing his enemies so that they could not mount a successful military campaign against him again. It wasn’t the Valar who figured out that sending the Ring to Mordor by a hobbit would be the way to end the problem; that was Ilúvatar’s plan all along. Gandalf played a positive role in that plan but he did not play a major role in it. The plan was always to save Middle-earth and not to just defeat Sauron.

Hence, Gandalf had to come back so that he could complete his mission AND to set Aragorn on the right path as well. In that, I think, I have therefore answered my own question: “Does Gandalf’s resurrection achieve any necessary purpose in the story?” Yes. Now, does Tolkien explain all this in the story? Most of it can be found in The Lord of the Rings, but sometimes only in symbolic form (such as the impotent wispy spirits of Sauron and Saruman after they are slain). I don’t think anyone should be faulted for not putting all these pieces together without having read the entire History of Middle-earth series (and maybe a few other books as well).

And I hope no Starks die because of this article.

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