Where did Gandalf live?

[The Squatter of Amon Rûdh]

Perhaps Elrond was receiving complaints about the smell of sulphur from an impromptu fireworks factory. After all, Rivendell is as good a place as any.

Returning to your point, Essex: the fact that Gandalf didn't really settle anywhere doesn't mean that he didn't live somewhere on a temporary basis, although I don't remember any mention of that. To my mind he had his work cut out for him inspiring and guiding the enemies of Sauron throughout North-Western Middle-earth, travelling thousands of miles on horseback or on foot and still managing to attend meetings of the White Council. No wonder he tried to get out of it by claiming to be afraid of Sauron.

[A_Brandybuck]

I agree with you, that Gandalf hadn't really a 'home' in his time in Middle-Earth. He was wandering and helping and wandering and helping all the time, so it is understandable, that there was no need to build, buy or whatever a house to live in.

But I've ever thought, that the Shire was the home of Gandalf in a far sense. The Shire is a place, where Gandalf can find diversion from the sorrows of Middle-Earth. The Shire with its merry folk is a place Gandalf loves. There exists a special binding between Gandalf and the Shire.

There is a quote from UT, The Quest of Erebor, which seems to underline my theory:
"Those were my dark thoughts as I jogged along the road. I was tired, and I was going to the Shire for a short rest, after being away from it for more than twenty years. I thought that if I put them out of my mind for a while I might perhaps find some way of dealing with these troubles. And so I did indeed, though I was not allowed to put them out of my mind.

It sounds like coming home after a long time being absent.

[Raynor]

Originally Posted by A_B

It sounds like coming home after a long time being absent.

Interesting indeed; it could also reffer to a cottage where you retire for taking a break...

[The Mouth of Sauron]

Maybe he couldn't get a mortgage .

[CSteefel]

Originally Posted by A_Brandybuck

I
There is a quote from UT, The Quest of Erebor, which seems to underline my theory:
"Those were my dark thoughts as I jogged along the road. I was tired, and I was going to the Shire for a short rest, after being away from it for more than twenty years. I thought that if I put them out of my mind for a while I might perhaps find some way of dealing with these troubles. And so I did indeed, though I was not allowed to put them out of my mind.

It sounds like coming home after a long time being absent.

This is the quote that struck me. It really does sound like he is going home for his rest. He meets up with Thorin in Bree, but I assume he was heading west from there? In fact, he did continue on to Thorin's place in the mountains.

The other thing is that Gandalf was apparently hanging around in the Shire even well before there was any obvious need to do so (i.e., the Ring). He helped the hobbits out in the Great Famine and knew Bilbo as a young adult, so it seems he was there off and on much earlier than the events that take place in LOTR...

Still, if he hasn't been back in 20 years, one could hardly think of the Shire as his "home base". I would guess that Rivendell would be closer to that. Gandalf seems to be very much at home when Frodo first sees him sitting next to Elrond and Glorfindel at the banquet...

[Mattius]

Home is where the pipe weed is...

[JennyHallu]

How old does one have to be before he or she can be away from home for twenty years? I'm sure Gandalf hit that aeons ago.

The essential thing to remember is that Olorin was at root an exile, doomed to wander far from his true home until his task was complete. But so are all the rest of the Valar: their home is not Valar, but wherever Eru is, and they are exiled on Arda until their own task is complete: the remaking of the world. Exiled from his own land of exile, I think Olorin must have made his home where he could, whenever he could. Home was a concept impossibly far gone from him.

Perhaps that explains Melian's quickness to attach herself to the Elves, and her zeal in protecting the Greenwood: rather than 'Melian's girdle' being a sign of her strength, it could easily be a sign of her weakness, that she is unable to live as the other Maiar and Valar, as an exile.

[A_Brandybuck]

I agree here with JennyHallu. We must think in other dimensions talking about the behaviour of Gandalf. And of course, not only in things which concerns Gandalf, Elvish things are also 'different'.

Gandalf is really old in thge measurement of Men. So, I think it is just normal for an Istar and for any immortal person, respectively, being absent from home for some decades.

Remember the marriage of Galadriel and Celeborn. It was not a big thing, that they are physically divorced for years as she went to Lothlorien. And after the War of the Ring Galadriel departed into the west and Celeborn remained in Middle-earth.

Of course, love is a diffenrent thing, but I think that is still comparable here for the measurement.

[Alcuin]

Return of the King, “Appendix B”, just before the Tale of Years of the Third Age, there is a passage discussing the Istari which states that

Mithrandir was closest in friendship with the Eldar, and wandered mostly in the West, and never made for himself any lasting abode.

This passage is cited in Unfinished Tales in the essay “The Istari”, which says that

...the last-comer [of the Istari] was named among the Elves Mithrandir, the Grey Pilgrim, for he dwelt in no place, ... but ever went to and fro in the Westlands ...., befriending all folk in times of need. ... Mostly he journeyed unwearingly on foot, leaning on a staff...

Gandalf was in particular alliance with Elrond in Rivendell and Galadriel in Lórien: when he was returned to Middle-earth after his battle with the Balrog of Moria, he had Gwaihir the Windlord take him to Lórien. But the two texts (in Return of the King and Unfinished Tales) would seem to indicate that these were places of rest and recuperation, much as was the Shire in the passage cited by A_Brandybuck.