Move aside Balrogs-wings for...Gandalf's boots

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Originally Posted by Feanor of the Peredhil

You know what they say about big gloves and big boots...

Maybe this here is the key. Gandalf, being an elderly chap, perhaps felt a growing need to accentuate his manliness by getting himself the right attributes? While some gents buy themselves a Porsche, Gandalf has chosen the oversized boots so he can make his point without uncloaking too often, a gesture which rarely is appropriate in such a conservative society.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

And Bilbo suspected the Sackville-Bagginses of swiping things from Bag End, underneath their coats probably: how naive! Next time, check the old man's shoes before he leaves, Baggins!

[narfforc]

There were no boots...he wore slippers and merely gave the impression of wearing boots by magic.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

And if Gandalf had to go off and figuratively fill a bigger pair of boots, it was because Saruman literally had become the carbuncle on Gandalf's big toe.

[narfforc]

Now we have established the ambiguity of these psuedo-boots, were they wedge soled or have the traditional instep.......... I go for the wedge....because Tolkien mentions a wedge somewhere else in the book.



P.S I also wonder.....when Gandalf the White was sent back........... did his boots have wings to enable him to get back from Valinor.

P.P.S Only a thought!

[narfforc]

Originally Posted by narfforc

....because Tolkien mentions a wedge somewhere else in the book.

Or was it an hedge?

[Pitchwife]

I think we can safely rule out hedge soles, as they would have made walking rather thorny.

As for the wings, the fact that he still relied on Gwaihir for aerial transportation seems to indicate the contrary; also note that when the time for him to return had come, he went home by ship, not by air. So if there were any wings at all on his boots, they would have been purely decorative.

Or maybe his boots were so highly polished that the highlights from the shoeshine created an illusion of white wings?

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by narfforc

P.S I also wonder.....when Gandalf the White was sent back........... did his boots have wings to enable him to get back from Valinor.

No, but he stole a pair of unexistent wings from the Balrog just before he threw the poor guy off the mountain cliff.

As for the boots... why do you think Gandalf was always so nice to Aragorn?