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the sack of Erebor he had been too young to bear arms, but at Azanulbizar he
had fought in the van of the assault; and when Thráin
was lost he was ninety-five, a great Dwarf of proud bearing. He had no Ring,
and (for that reason maybe) he
seemed content to remain in Eriador. There he laboured long, and gained such
wealth as he could; and his people were increased by many of the wandering
Folk of Durin that heard of his dwelling and came to him.
Now they had fair halls in the mountains, and store of goods and their days
did not seem so hard, though in their songs they spoke ever of the Lonely
Mountain far away, and the treasure and the bliss of the Great Hall in the
light of the Arkenstone.
The years lengthened. The embers in the heart of Thorin grew hot again, as he
brooded on the wrongs of his House and of the vengeance upon the Dragon that
was bequeathed to him. He thought of weapons and armies and alliances, as his
great hammer rang in the forge; but the armies were dispersed and the
alliances broken and the axes of his people were few; and a great anger
without hope burned him, as he smote the red iron on the anvil.
Gandalf had not yet played any part in the fortunes of Durin's House. He had
not had many dealings with the Dwarves; though he was a friend to those of
good will, and liked well the exiles of Durin's Folk who lived in the West.
But on a time it chanced that he was passing through Eriador (going to the
Shire, which he had not seen for some years) when he fell in with Thorin
Oakenshield, and they talked together on the road, and rested for the night at
Bree.
In the morning Thorin said to Gandalf: "I have much on my mind, and they say
you are wise and know more than most of what goes on in the world. Will you
come home with me and hear me, and give me your counsel?"
To this Gandalf agreed, and when they came to Thorin's Hall he sat long with
him and heard all the
tale of his wrongs.
From this meeting there followed many deeds and events of great moment: indeed
the finding of the
One Ring, and its coming to the Shire, and the choosing of the Ringbearer.
Many therefore have supposed that Gandalf foresaw all these things, and chose
his time for the meeting with Thorin. Yet we believe that it was not so. For
in his tale of the War of the Ring Frodo the Ringbearer left a record of
Gandalf's words on this very point. This is what he wrote:
In place of the words "This is what he wrote" A, the earliest manuscript, has:
"That passage was omitted from the tale, since it seemed long but most of it
we now set out here."
,
After the crowning we stayed in a fair house in Minas Tirith with Gandalf,
and he was very merry, and though we asked him questions about all that came
into our minds his patience seemed as endless as his knowledge. I cannot now
recall most of the things that he told us; often we did not understand them.
But I
Page 248
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
remember this conversation very clearly. Gimli was there with us, and he said
to Peregrin: "There is a thing I
conversation very clearly. Gimli was there with us, and he said to Peregrin:
"There is a thing I must do one of these days: I must visit that Shire of
yours. Not to see more Hobbits! I doubt if I could learn anything about
*
them that I do not know already. But no Dwarf of the House of Durin could fail
to look with wonder on that land. Did not the recovery of the Kingship under
the Mountain, and the fall of Smaug, begin there? Not to mention the end of
Barad-dûr, though both were strangely woven together. Strangely, very
strangely," he said, and paused.
Then looking hard at Gandalf he went on: "But who wove the web? I do not think
I have ever considered that before. Did you plan all this then, Gandalf? If
not, why did you lead Thorin Oakenshield to such an unlikely door? To find the
Ring and bring it far away into the West for hiding, and then to choose the
Ringbearer and to restore the Mountain Kingdom as a mere deed by the way:
was not that your design?"
Gandalf did not answer at once. He stood up, and looked out of the window,
west, seawards; and the sun was then setting, and a glow was in his face. He
stood so a long while silent. But at last he turned to
Gimli and said: "I do not know the answer. For I have changed since those
days, and I am no longer trammelled by the burden of Middle-earth as I was
then. In those days I should have answered you with words like those I used to
Frodo, only last year in the spring. Only last year! But such measures are
meaningless. In that far distant time I said to a small and frightened Hobbit:
Bilbo was meant to find the
Ring, and not by its maker, and you therefore were meant to bear it. And I
might have added: and I was meant guide you both to those points.
"To do that I used in my waking mind only such means as were allowed to me,
doing what lay to my hand according to such reasons as I had. But what I knew
in my heart, or knew before I stepped on these grey shores: that is another
matter. Olórin I was in the West that is forgotten, and only to those who are
there shall I speak openly."
A has here: "and only to those who are there (or who may, perhaps return
thither with me) shall I speak more openly."
Then I said: "I understand you a little better now, Gandalf, than I did
before. Though I suppose that, whether meant or not, Bilbo might have refused
to leave home, and so might I. You could not compel us. You were not even
allowed to try. But I am still curious to know why you did what you did, as
you were then, an old grey man as you seemed."
Gandalf then explained to them his doubts at that time concerning Sauron's
first move, and his fears for Lórien and Rivendell (cf. p.336). In this
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