[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Legate

Back to Gandalf-Odin, I also remember that the scene before the Battle of Five armies when a clooked figure shows Thorin the Arkenstone, I always imagined Gandalf there as Odin...

Of course in Norse myth, there's also the Brisingamen, the magical necklace wron by Freyja, which was forged by four Dwarves (one is called Dvalin) and which she gives to those warriors who she favours in war. It appears in the story of Beowulf, where the uncannily named Hama appears.

Another slightly random link is the Bifrost Bridge between Asgard (Aman) and Midgard (Middle-earth) which makes me think right away of Helcaraxe. But in the myths Bifrost Bridge is a rainbow, which would make it unlike Helcaraxe, but rather like the notion of the Straight Road. It makes me think of what Frodo sees as he goes that way:

And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Originally Posted by Rune

I would very muched have liked to have this kind of charachter in Tolkiens books, it would be a nice change from all the "Good guy" "Bad guy" stuff there is going on.

I am not saying that there are not charachters with both good and bad traits in tolkiens books, there are. I just would really have loved to see a complex person, that one would not know where to place. . . Is he good or is he bad?

I don't know. I think that almost all of the characters we see are anything but perfect. Of course we all know they are on the 'good' side from our advantage as readers, but it doesn't seem that way from the point of view of someone in Middle-earth. Would you for example, as an ordinary person in Rohan really know Eomer was innocent after your King had condemned him? Would you as an ordinary Dunlending know that Saruman was using you? If you were Sam, would you trust Frodo on Gollum? If you were one of Denethor's loyal Men would you trust Gandalf?