Two Gandalfs

[littlemanpoet]

And I'm not speaking of his change from grey to white.

The Structure thread brought this to mind.

Sorry if this has already been discussed. I searched and did not find a similar thread.

The Gandalf in The Hobbit is different from the one in LotR, don't you think? I mean, the characterizations verge on being two different individuals! Especially at first.

Or am I mistaken? Is there a steady growth in Gandalf from the beginning of The Hobbit to its end, then LotR picking up where TH left off, with continued growth? I don't think so, but if you think so, please show me.

I see a much more Norse saga-influenced Gandalf in TH, complete with the trickery Gandalf uses to cajole Bilbo into the Dwarves' Quest for Erebor (with appropriate apologies and acknowledgements to Mithalwen). Then Gandalf uses the same trickery on Beorn! (Not to mention, the Elves in TH or more Norse than in LotR - or am I being unduly influenced by images from a very awful cartoon?)

Maybe in Tolkien's early drafts Gandalf started out in LotR as the same character as in TH, but once Tolkien realized he had a different kind of story on his hands, he knew he had to make the changes, and could not completely rewrite TH to achieve the consistency of his new vision? After all, it was published and extant for a good 20 years by then!

Suffice it to say that in TH the reader has no inkling of Gandalf as a Maia. He's a wizard straight out of the Norse sagas.

LMP