Why did Gandalf save Faramir?

[Beanamir of Gondor]

This might just be me being a n00b... but the first time around, reading Lord of the Rings, I had no clue as to Gandalf's semi-divinity. I really don't think Tolkien ever intended us to see Wizards as transcendental beings in FotR, TTT, or RotK.

I agree with Son of Numenor (to a point) that when you look at the situation knowing Gandalf's position via the Silmarillion and what it has to say, there are some aspects that feel like Arjuna going out into battle instructed by Lord Krishna... but then I don't remember an avatara of Eru (perhaps Orome?) ever waltzing up to Gandalf and saying "Get on with the battle, you've got a destiny." Either Tolkien intentionally left that out, because he didn't feel a need to have use see someone instructing Gandalf, or there was no instruction whatsoever. I didn't read it in the Silm, or in RotK.

Ahem. Anyway, to make a short story long, if I hadn't read the Silmarillion, I would never have guessed that the Wizards were anything more than... well... wizards. I did several very close readings of LotR and until I started Silm, I never knew that Tolkien intended any sort of transcendental beings to enter on the scene.
Therefore, I put the blame for Gandalf's decision about Faramir solely on the political, personal, and social level that this thread started off with.

If you're bored, just read this part. Personally, I have to ask myself where Eowyn would have been if Faramir hadn't been in the Houses of Healing to convince her that life was worth living again. It's a moot point, because she would never re-enter the scene as a key player... but all the same. Maybe that's what Gandalf had in mind!

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by Beanamir of Gondor

I never knew that Tolkien intended any sort of transcendental beings to enter on the scene.

The guy returns from the dead. It's not hard to make the connection, with all due respect.

[Raynor]

I really don't think Tolkien ever intended us to see Wizards as transcendental beings in FotR

Since they actually inhabit Arda, their transcendental aspect exists no more. The only time it existed was up to entering Ea.

[Guinevere]

Well, after the Squatter's brillant post which covers everything, there's really nothing left to say.

Just a note to Beanamir of Gondor about Gandalf being a "trandescental being" .
While reading LotR for the first time one doesn't know about Eru and the Valar, of course. There are just hints every now and then that there is some power behind it all, like MatthewM said.
And Gandalf the White does say "Naked I was sent back - for a brief time, until my task is done."
Most information about this is found in "Unfinished tales" in "The Istari" and "The Quest of Erebor".

[Beanamir of Gondor]

*sigh* I just meant that for silly n00b5 or those who have never read Silmarillion or The Lost Tales, etc., they would have to do an extremely close reading of the texts to get anything about a higher power. Since you don't even know about Arda or where the Wizards came from, you don't know that their transcendence ever existed, much less that it ended when they left Ea.
It's obviously another thread topic, but I think the idea of Gandalf as a Messianic figure is going a bit far, MatthewM. "Coming back from the dead" is sticky terminology... did he really enter the halls of Mandos? (Agh! More Valar!) Or was it just a transitional phase?

This thread has gone drunken-Mr.-Rochester on me, so here I make my exit to ME Mirth.

[Raynor]

did he really enter the halls of Mandos?

No, because he went "out of thought and time".

Originally Posted by Letter #156

Gandalf really 'died', and was changed... He was sent by a mere prudent plan of the angelic Valar or governors; but Authority had taken up this plan and enlarged it, at the moment of its failure. 'Naked I was sent back – for a brief time, until my task is done'. Sent back by whom, and whence? Not by the 'gods' whose business is only with this embodied world and its time; for he passed 'out of thought and time'.

[MatthewM]

Originally Posted by Beanamir of Gondor

It's obviously another thread topic, but I think the idea of Gandalf as a Messianic figure is going a bit far, MatthewM. "Coming back from the dead" is sticky terminology... did he really enter the halls of Mandos? (Agh! More Valar!) Or was it just a transitional phase?

Well, I didn't say that Gandalf was a Messianic figure, but there is no doubt a connection with the transcendental here. As Raynor quoted Letter #156, Gandalf really "died."

I always thought it was a deliberate diversion by Tolkein to ensure Gandalf & the Witch King do not meet in direct battle. He wanted the glory of felling the Witch King to belong to a lesser folk.