Gandalf suspected early on that the Necromancer of Dol Guldur was not a Nazgûl but Sauron himself.

After the group left Isengard, Pippin took the palantír from a sleeping Gandalf, looked into it, and came face to face with Sauron himself.

Gandalf would have ridden to their aid, but he too was suddenly required elsewhere — to save Faramir from Denethor, who sought in desperation to burn himself and his son on a funeral pyre.

When Gandalf first told Frodo Baggins about the Rings of Power in The Fellowship of the Ring, he said, " The Nine he had gathered to himself ; the Seven also, or else they are destroyed.

The Hobbit relates how Bilbo Baggins, in comfortable middle age at 50 years old, is hired in spite of himself as a " burglar " by the wizard Gandalf and 13 dwarves led by their king Thorin Oakenshield on a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain and its treasure from the dragon Smaug.

Saruman had cause to regret this when, following the confrontation between Saruman and Gandalf, Gríma mistakenly threw a " heavy rock " — which was actually the palantír of Orthanc — at the Rohirrim accompanying Gandalf, or even at Saruman himself.

Gollum and Frodo could only become invisible, while Gandalf and Galadriel mentioned that, if they wanted, they could use the " full " power of the Ring, becoming even more powerful than Sauron himself ( though they also mention that this in the end will corrupt them ).

Denethor attempts to immolate himself and Faramir on his funeral pyre, but Gandalf and Pippin succeed in saving Faramir, who is subsequently healed by Aragorn.

He slew the Balrog but perished himself at the same time — to be sent back as the more powerful Gandalf the White.

Aside from Elves, Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins also went to Valinor from the Grey Havens, and a family tradition held that Samwise Gamgee, having been himself a Ring-bearer, albeit briefly, did likewise, in the year 1482 of the Shire Reckoning, Fourth Age 61.

Only the intervention of the Hobbit Peregrin Took, a guard named Beregond, and Gandalf saved Faramir, but Denethor immolated himself before they could stop him.

They only inherited Vestfold because Alfgeir took Vingulmark for himself and made his son Gandalf Alfgeirsson its king.

The nine companions manage to get to the exit, but on their way to the Bridge of Khazad-dûm they are confronted by Durin's Bane, and Gandalf sacrifices himself to allow the others to get out of Moria.

( This is when Gandalf found Thráin II imprisoned in Dol Guldur and recovered the map and key to Erebor before Thráin died.

In the Rankin-Bass adaptation of The Return of the King, Denethor revealed a future that may be in his palantír to Gandalf, some time before he died.

Thráin II the Dwarf died after giving Gandalf a map and a key.

At the end of the sixth season, TV's Frank died ( and was guided to ' Second Banana Heaven ' by ' Torgo The White ', a reference to the reborn Gandalf the White from Lord of the Rings ).

Together with Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth, Gandalf led the defenders during the siege of the city.

Gríma Wormtongue's plans were not revealed until Gandalf arrived in Edoras during the War of the Ring.

An eagle from the Misty Mountains that helped Gandalf before and during the War of the Ring ; his name means Windlord in Sindarin, and he is said to have been a descendant of Thorondor and the greatest and the swiftest of the Eagles of the North by the end of the Third Age.

Also during his rule, many lives were lost in the Long Winter of 2758 ; Gandalf and the Rangers had to help the Hobbits of the Shire survive .</ div >

The Wizards arrive during this period to aid the Free Peoples, most importantly Gandalf and Saruman.

Gandalf and Aragorn lead an army to the Black Gate of Mordor and lay siege to Sauron's army.

Thus, while Gandalf exerts a parental influence over Bilbo early on, it is Bilbo who gradually takes over leadership of the party, a fact the dwarves could not bear to acknowledge.

Humphrey Carpenter in his 1977 biography relates that Tolkien owned a postcard entitled Der Berggeist (), and on the paper cover in which he kept it, he wrote " the origin of Gandalf ".

Tolkien discusses the characteristics of Gandalf in his essay on the Istari, which appears in the work Unfinished Tales.

He describes Gandalf as the last of the wizards to appear in Middle-earth, one who: " seemed the least, less tall than the others, and in looks more aged, grey-haired and grey-clad, and leaning on a staff ".

It was on this Quest of Erebor that Gandalf found his sword, Glamdring, in a troll's treasure hoard, and that Bilbo found the One Ring, in a chance meeting with the creature Gollum ( though at the time it was thought to be a lesser ring ).

As explained in The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf spent the years between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings travelling Middle-earth in search of information on Sauron's resurgence and Bilbo's mysterious ring, spurred particularly by Bilbo's initial misleading story of how he had obtained it as a " present " from Gollum.

After Bilbo, as a prank on his guests, put on the Ring and disappeared, Gandalf strongly encouraged his old friend to leave the Ring to Frodo, as they had planned.

Alarmed, Gandalf impressed on Bilbo the foolishness of this accusation.

Returning to the Shire, in, Gandalf confirmed his suspicions by throwing the Ring into Frodo's hearth fire and reading the writing that appeared on the Ring's surface.

Gandalf said he would attempt to return for Frodo's fiftieth birthday party, in order to accompany him on the road thereafter ; and that meanwhile Frodo should arrange to leave quietly, as the servants of Sauron would be searching for him.

As his friends looked on in horror, Gandalf fell into the pit, crying " Fly, you fools!

Gandalf arrived just in time to shatter Saruman's attack on Helm's Deep.

When the forces of Mordor finally broke the main gate, Gandalf alone on Shadowfax confronted the Witch-king of Angmar, Lord of the Nazgûl.

Thus, upon recovery from the wound inflicted by Angmar on Weathertop, Gandalf speculates that the Hobbit Frodo " may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can ".

While the Ring did not initially corrupt him as it had its previous owners, it was beginning to affect him ; over the years, it had begun to prey on his mind when out of his sight, and he lost sleep and felt " stretched out and thin ", as he said to Gandalf.

When the quest to destroy the Ring was fulfilled in The Return of the King, Bilbo accompanied Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, and Frodo to the Grey Havens, there to take ship for Tol Eressëa across the sea, on 29 September, T. A.

* Alexander M. Bruce Maldon and Moria: on Byrhtnoth, Gandalf, and heroism in The Lord of the Rings Article from " Mythlore ", September 22, 2007.

In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins stopped off at Rivendell with the dwarves on the way to the Lonely Mountain and also on the way back to the Shire with Gandalf.

When Gwaihir saw that Gandalf was imprisoned on the top of the tower he carried him off to safety before Saruman realized he was gone.