Wizards' Pupils

[Hot, crispy nice hobbit]

Wormtongue was a coward. Faramir may have abhorred violence, but he fought anyway, for his people, for everybody

Gandalf seems to imply something else...

"Nay, Eomer, you do not fully understand the mind of Master Wormtongue," said Gandalf, turning his piercing glance upon him. "He is bold and cunning. Even now he plays a game with peril and wins a throw. Hours of my precious time he has wasted already. Down snake!"

[Elianna]

Originally Posted by Hot, crispy nice hobbit

Gandalf seems to imply something else...

Indeed, Gandalf does say Gríma is bold, but that boldness is only in his skill with words, and only where he knows he'll most likely win. Faramir is bold in battle, something that not even I will pretend to say for Gríma, with his sword rusting away in his room.

When it comes to physical prowess, Gríma is definately a coward. He even lets an old man beat him up. (Saruman was only an old man, sharku, by the time of the Shire.)

In pairing this with Faramir and Gríma's respective wizards: Saruman's main power was in his voice, the only place where Gríma was bold. Saruman makes minions to go and do his dirty work, his physical work; from this Gríma learned to only rely on his words and found (perhaps) others to fight for him.

Gandalf is not allowed to match Sauron force for force, but counsils others to act against Sauron, from this Faramir learned to rather use words than his sword. Also, Gandalf is capable of fighting, if he must, just as Faramir fights valiantly when he must.

[Hot, crispy nice hobbit]

Actually, I felt that Frodo seems more like Gandalf's pupil than Faramir; There were too few examples of Gandalf actually communicating with Faramir, whereas Frodo and Gandalf always took counsel together. Even when Gandalf was assumed 'killed', Frodo still took the wizard's words to heart.

I wonder how much of Frodo is actually Elvish and how much of him is really 'Gandalf'? Hardly any hobbit-sense though...