Gandalf a "steward?"

[tom bombariffic]

That's a very good point, 1,000 reader. Of course the only thing was that he was a steward without anyone knowing it, which meant that other big cheeses like Denethor did not recognise him as such.

And yet that is the role that he plays anyway, undercover as it were. Which I think is what Rhod is getting at, saying that they should influence, not govern. But taking everything into account, even if he's not supposed to govern, he effectively does. As I said he does it subtlely, but at various points in the book he does straight out order people around in the defence against Sauron - who could argue that he didn't govern the defence of Minas Tirith?

In the case of great people like Aragorn, Gandalf's help tends to be more of a shove in the right direction, but at points of emergency he is not afraid to take control. In this way he is a steward, or caretaker, whose policy (and duty) is to guide rather than dictate, but who sometimes is forced to take a more governing role out of necessity.

bombariffic

[edit: underlining is good. It clarifies things.]