The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Different systems of scripture in M-E

William Cloud Hicklin · 01-06-2008, 10:11 AM

Oh, come on. Gandalf was speaking metaphorically- to the extent 'signs' can be taken as identical with 'letters' at all: he wasn't inscribing glowing words in the air like Tom Riddle, for goodness sake!

What he's expressing is the observation that he's just performed some very flashy trademark Gandalf magic, which anyone suitably familiar with the field would recognize as his.

(Although one wonders how far, really, his flash of fire would be visible, performed as it is in the middle of a raging blizzard. Surely his nighttime pyrotechnics during the Warg attack before would have carried far better- his blast-fest with the Nazgul on Weathertop was after all visible as far as Midgewater.).

01-06-2008, 10:11 AM	#3
William Cloud Hicklin Loremaster of Annúminas Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,330	Oh, come on. Gandalf was speaking metaphorically- to the extent 'signs' can be taken as identical with 'letters' at all: he wasn't inscribing glowing words in the air like Tom Riddle, for goodness sake! What he's expressing is the observation that he's just performed some very flashy trademark Gandalf magic, which anyone suitably familiar with the field would recognize as his. (Although one wonders how far, really, his flash of fire would be visible, performed as it is in the middle of a raging blizzard. Surely his nighttime pyrotechnics during the Warg attack before would have carried far better- his blast-fest with the Nazgul on Weathertop was after all visible as far as Midgewater.). __________________ The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it. Last edited by William Cloud Hicklin; 01-06-2008 at 10:15 AM.