Gandalf's whole "power" is the ability to see into the hearts of those that he encountered, and inspire them to rise up against the Dark Lord. In any event, he would have seen the hidden strength in everyone he encountered, due to his mission and his possession of Narya. True, Barliman seemed rather butterbrained, but if he had been brilliant, the story might have gone differently. If he had remembered to give the hobbits Gandalf's letter, then they might have left before meeting Aragorn, and that would not have been good at all.
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But Melkor also was there, and he came to the house of Fëanor, and there he slew Finwë King of the Noldor before his doors, and spilled the first blood in the Blessed Realm; for Finwë alone had not fled from the horror of the Dark.
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