Who says he’s not a wizard? All the wizards in middle earth are descended Angel-like beings. There’s only 5 of them. But they’re not just old men who figured out magic. They’re a counterbalance to their evil counterparts like Morgoth, Sauron and the Balrogs, who are all effectively fallen Angel Spirit things.
It’s possible that those memes were about attempts to map the fellowship to DnD classes, which is (1) something lots of people have tried to do (2) an exercise in futility, because only some bits of DnD have ever been based on LotR. Gandalf is too skilled at fighting to be a typical dnd wizard, and his magic is mostly limited by the rules he was given when sent to middle earth, so we don’t see him casting spells the way a game wizard would.
It sounds like you might be confusing him with Tom Bombadil? Tom seems to be the embodiment of the spirit of the land – he’s ancient and is totally unaffected by the Rings of Power, but he’s tied to his domain.
He doesn’t appear in the movies, but Treebeard in the extended editions takes on some of his lines and characteristics.
Oh? Is that why they say Gandalf isn’t a wizard and no one knows what he is? He’s like Yoda in that sense? Or yoda is like him, rather?
Who says he’s not a wizard? All the wizards in middle earth are descended Angel-like beings. There’s only 5 of them. But they’re not just old men who figured out magic. They’re a counterbalance to their evil counterparts like Morgoth, Sauron and the Balrogs, who are all effectively fallen Angel Spirit things.
Sauron was also a Maier, originally.
I thought Morgoth was a god and Sauron was an angel.
I had forgotten there was a separate level of demigod things above the maiar. You’re right.
Saw a bunch of memes a few … ago where they were claiming we don’t even know what Gandalf is.
They were incorrect. I’ve never seen any confusion on his origin.
It’s possible that those memes were about attempts to map the fellowship to DnD classes, which is (1) something lots of people have tried to do (2) an exercise in futility, because only some bits of DnD have ever been based on LotR. Gandalf is too skilled at fighting to be a typical dnd wizard, and his magic is mostly limited by the rules he was given when sent to middle earth, so we don’t see him casting spells the way a game wizard would.
It sounds like you might be confusing him with Tom Bombadil? Tom seems to be the embodiment of the spirit of the land – he’s ancient and is totally unaffected by the Rings of Power, but he’s tied to his domain.
He doesn’t appear in the movies, but Treebeard in the extended editions takes on some of his lines and characteristics.
Gandalf is a Maiar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiar
Of course, but no one that I’ve ever come across says that he “isn’t a wizard”.