I know that there have been many topics about the istari, but I could not find one that talked specifically about this, sorry if it has been done before!
Basically, I want to know whether Gandalf died. Maiar are imortal, but he clad himself in the body of a Men, so does that change anything? I think that his body was killed, but his spirit lived. What do you folks think?
Here are some quotations to help us out:
Quote:
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Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell. Naked I was sent back - for a brief time, until my task is done. And naked i lay upon the mountain-top. The tower behind was crumbled into dust, the window gone; the ruined stair was choked with burned and broken stone. I was alone, forgotten, without escape upon the hard horn of the world. There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over, and each day was as long as a life-age of the earth.
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~Gandalf, TTT - The White Rider
Quote:
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For with the consent of Eru they sent members of their own high order, but clad in bodies of Men, real and not feigned, but subject to the fears and pains and weariness of earth, able to hunger and thirst and be slain; though because of their noble spirits they did not die, and aged only by the cares and labours of many long years.
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~UT, The Istari