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Originally Posted by Alfirin
Hi all,
A though just ocurred to me with regards to Gandalf and his post "re-incarnation" trip to Lothlorien. Might this be the one time that Gandalf actually used Naria's power on himself. Much talk has been made about the possiblity that Cirdan gave Gandalf Naria to combat the weariness Gandalf would suffer in trying to complete his mission in ME, however the trip to Lothlorien may be the one time Gandalf may have actually needed that power. If he truly was sent back naked (as the text says) then he would have had to deal not only with any roving orcs he might meet but with the sheer cold of the mountain. Much as some have suggested that Galadriel got some of her abilty to make Lothlorien flourish from Nenya and Elrond may have used Vilia to call the torrent, I'm wondering if Naria migh have had some external preservative power besides is abiity to rekindle men's hearts, namely the power to keep the wearer from freezing to death (i.e. there was a a kind of physical fire it controlled along with the spiritual one). Granted Gandalf the newly reborn is now mightier, but he is still in a human body (and the fact that he still has Naria indicates its is likey the same body, unless he found the ring lying by his side when he was sent back) and so seems likey to be as liable to frostbite and hypothermia as any other human form. Gandalfs trip to Lothlorien was a grueling trial, but I'm incined to think that if I am right, had he not had Naria it might have been impossible.
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I believe Narya was definitely a life-saver for Gandalf at that very moment. He was trapped in the peak of Silvertine without hope of escape. And he describes each day as though it were a life-age of the earth. That to me indicates his feelings of extreme weariness. And if sent back literally naked, then he would have been frozen to death, for even as Gandalf the White, his body is as real as that of a man, not feigned, but subject to weariness, cold and death. So I definitely don't doubt that Narya supported him not only physically, but as well as mentally from that wearisome three-day trance. And though Narya supported him, he still needed to go through Lothlorien for Galadriel's healing (frostbites, perhaps? hehehe). I just can't see him making it without Narya in his Istari form.