Examples Of Gandalf In The Hobbit '

Characterization and Geomyth of Gandalf in The Hobbit

Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit protagonist, lives in a community called, Hobbiton in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel. Before the interruption from a wizard named Gandalf, he led a very dull, quiet life. Baggin’s and Gandalf are faced with a challenging effort as they must retrieve missing treasure. Not only do they have to retrieve it, but the treasure is protected by a fire-breathing dragon, Samug. Along this journey they meet many different kinds of creatures like: trolls, hobbit like creatures, dragons, dwarves, elves, and last but not least, a Wizard named Gandalf. This paper will center on Gandalf: his outstanding characteristics, powers and abilities, and how Gandalf is relates to the phenomena

to geomythology.
Middle-earth has been described in a variety of versions of Tolkien's work. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are the most popular. “It was a large continent of Arda to the west, situated between Aman and the Land of the Sun to the East.” (Tolkien Gateway). It is here where inhabitants like a dragon, a hobbit, elves, Gollum, a black bear, dwarves, and others lived. Gandalf is a wizard who appears in The Hobbit occasionally, though he has a more continuous presence in the first novel of The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. Gandalf is a friend of Bilbo's mother, Belladonna Took, and he formulates the gathering of Bilbo and the dwarves that initiates the adventure to recover the lost treasure at the Lonely Mountain. According to the character analysis from Cliff Notes: “Gandalf is a respectable wizard whose powers and abilities are beyond those of other characters” ( The Hobbit By J.R.R. Tolkien Character Analysis Gandalf).
J.R.R.

Tolkien wrote that Gandlalf as “...an old man with a staff. He had a tall pointed blue hat, a long gray cloak, a silver scarf over which a white beard hung down below his waist, and immense black boots.” (PAGE #). Which later, Tolkien wrote “...a figure strongly built and with broad shoulders, though shorter than the average of men standing about 5’6. His broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend. In his aged face under great snowy brows, his eyes were set like coals that could suddenly burst into fire.” (PAGE #). He was dressed in all grays from head to toe which later turns to white. He's a guider and a protector. An older man, Gandalf has much wisdom, which earns him respect among his subordinates (The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien Character Analysis Gandalf). For example, “he would use his powers for entertainment, by blowing glowing smoke rings that moved around the room. He created blinding flashes and other explosives to distract the goblins of the Misty Mountains, helping the dwarves in their escape from Goblin-town” (Tolkien

Gateway).
He can't see the future, but he can see a lot more than all the other characters in the novel.

He sometimes uses a magic staff and he seems able to appear and disappear suddenly on his own quest. He has kind of a psychic side to him as well; he seems to sense Bilbo’s courage before Bilbo knows it himself. He is also more powerful than everyone else in the book: he's able to help the dwarves escape from the goblins with his fancy magic powers, and he even stops the opposing human, elf, and dwarf armies with a single shot and a warning that the goblins and wargs are coming. He is the guide that keeps Bilbo and mostly the dwarf’s safe through their first adventures with the trolls and the goblins. On the eastern slopes, he turned pinecones into flaming projectiles that threw hot spark and started fires that would not go out easily. He was also able to come and go from the presence of Thorin and Company without being noticed. When he was angered or triggered for battle, he seemed as if he grew in height and would come off as a very terrifying individual ( PAGE #).

So as you are wondering, what is Geomythology? According to the article Geomythology by Adrienne Mayor, Geomythology is a term first created in 1968 by the geologist Dorothy Vitaliano “It is best defined as the study of etiological traditions of pre-scientific cultures to explain […] geological phenomena” (Mayor 1). The concept behind was originated by, Euhemerus, a Greek philosopher, around 300 BC. It explained,

“that myths about divinities and their activities were poetic account of real people and events” (1).
Adrienne Mayor published The First Fossil-hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times in 2000. She uncovered the thought that traditional mythological creatures could be proven on the mis-interpretation of paleontological remains. The thought Mayor had on metaphorical explanations of fossil discoveries is not an original idea. She did however, press for new lanes to open in the exploration in Geomythology. She gave evidence that many paleontological findings were discovered from sites where they originated. (Chronicon Mirabilium).
In class we watched a History Channel movie called, History's Mysteries - Ancient Monster Hunter’s. The documentary mainly shows and explains what Ancient Europeans recorded fossil discoveries. From researching, it seems Mayor has also worked with ancient weaponry and Native American myths. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that a lot of mythical beasts, dragons, etc. were in fact ancient people finding fossils. I wonder how many of these ancient works have a basis in reality. A lot of myths and religious stories do have a basis in reality, whether you believe it or not. There is a lot of imagination involved, but also superstition and lack of scientific knowledge that correlate to create the stories we know and love. Myths were told to explain the world and the things that happened in it. They are explanations of how things came to be, why they are the way they are, and why things happen the way they do.
Myths are based on the things the Ancient Europeans, and even paleontologists today found and are continuing to find and observe. They had to have a basis in fact for one simple reason: without a something to explain, there is no way to explain it. It is easy to imagine that trolls, hobbit like creatures, dragons, dwarves, elves, ents, or even a wizard could have been thought up from dinosaur bones and other fossils. Cuvier discusses in Adrienne Mayor’s Enclopedia of Geology “that there is a collection of ancient Greek interpretations and North and South American Indian traditions about the discoveries of petrified bones of remarkable size to demonstrate the worldwide distribution of longstanding observations of the fossilized remains of immense creatures” (2). Edward Tylor was another developer of geomythology. He named traditional legends about natural history “myths of observation.” This was to accentuate the hard work to explain the unknown physical evidence (2). Fossil remains created a range of geomyths examining the creatures’ identity and cause of their destruction. Tales of dragons, monsters, and giant heroes have been told in many ancient cultures, such China, India, Greece, America, and Australia for the explanation of fossils of animals that had never been seen alive. The giants and monsters were destroyed and buried underground by the Gods from Ancient Greek. The fossils of the large extinct Tertiary mammals were uncovered in the “battlefields of the giants” in the Mediterranean area.
Andrienne Mayor has done extensive research and has gathered evidence to support that maybe these so called myths may have actually existed when dinosaurs once did. When you map out the "fossil" sites of the ancient culture they overlap with modern day fossil sites that have known to be filled with fossils.
It can be interpreted that trolls, hobbit like creatures, dragons, dwarves, elves, etc. or even a wizard didn’t directly come from dinosaur bones, but one can also infer that Tolkien imitates them to reflect the characteristics of dinosaurs and other creatures during that time. It is hard to really determine what these creatures originated from or what they could have been related to, but the mystery will live on.