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Originally Posted by The 1,000 Reader
As for identifying with Essex, he thinks (or at least thought in the days when I first came here) that the confrontation at the gates was never hinted to be one-sided by the way Tolkien wrote it or any other sources, like I do. He can have his personal opinions on who would win, but he does acknowledge that it was not portrayed to be one-sided.
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Yes, that is correct. Even when reading the book for the first time, and in the many re-readings of the book I've had, I still get the feeling that Gandalf is not so sure of himself than Obluquy and others are. It really doesn't seem that cut and dried as some here stubbornly believe it to be.
Like a bad scientist, people take on board texts that Tolkien has written that helps their side of the argument, but forget the odd bit of evidence that refutes this and brush it under the carpet. As I said on my last post, the Istari had bodies that could be SLAIN. They were not supernatural in that sense (as perhaps the WK was) - so the WK could get a lucky strike in (as Merry did of course) and injure or kill Gandalf.
My "99% certain" quote was a bit over the top - it was just to make my point that what we are trying to say is that it is not certain that Gandalf would have been victorious against the WK, and to me, the evidence points this way as well.