The Wise in Middle Earth

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Mansun

It is made clear by Gandalf in the Council of Elrond that Sauron is a very wise & powerful adversary, perhaps too wise for his own good. This then provides the Ring bearer a great hope, by using the arts of folly to deceive him. Even still, Sauron & Gandalf are the real masters of Middle Earth.

Which goes to show that Tolkien was telling us that 'wisdom aint all that' so to speak - that even the cleverest can still be outwitted.

How far would you say Gandalf gets by on luck though? For example, he goes to Isengard because he is tricked by Saruman and manages to get himself out of this sticky situation. Do situations like that show he was not quite so clever or do they show his superior wisdom in being able to work out how to get himself out of a tight spot? Another situation might be when he was trying to get into Moria - why could he not work out the 'password'? Was that genuine? I often suspect not. But was this a misguided delaying tactic as he did not want to go in there?

And just another question that occurs - what about the way Tolkien calls his least lettered main character, one Mr Gamgee, Samwise? This Hobbit is to my mind not so dumb as he makes out.