Por que Gandalf ficou fora do tempo?

Nós não sabemos precisamente, mas isso estava relacionado à sua encarnação.

Morte na Terra Média

No legendário de Tolkien, a morte tem um significado muito particular: é a separação do espírito ( fëa ) e do corpo ( hröa ). Isso é verdade tanto para os elfos quanto para os homens; na verdade, sem conhecimento especial, a morte de um Elfo parece idêntica à morte de um Homem:

[I]n the days when the minds of the Eldalië were young, and not yet fully awake death among them seemed to differ little from the death of Men.

[...]

It was in Aman that they learned of Manwë that each fëa was imperishable within the life of Arda, and that its fate was to inhabit Arda to its end.

^{_{History of Middle-earth X Morgoth's Ring Part 2 "The Second Phase" Chapter 3: "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar" Of Death and the Severance of Fëa and Hröndo [> Hröa]}}

É claro que esta definição não faz sentido quando se discute seres como o Maiar, porque seus corpos não são partes críticas de seu ser:

[T]heir shape comes of their knowledge of the visible World, rather than of the World itself; and they need it not, save only as we use raiment, and yet we may be naked and suffer no loss of our being.

^{_{The Silmarillion I Ainulindalë}}

Então, quando dizemos que os Valar e Maiar não podem morrer, é isso que queremos dizer.

E os Istari?

Os magos eram diferentes:

For with the consent of Eru they [the Valar] sent members of their own high order, but clad in bodies of as of Men, real and not feigned, but subject to the fears and pains and weariness of earth, able to hunger and thirst and be slain; though because of their noble spirits they did not die, and aged only by the cares and labours of many long years.

^{_{Unfinished Tales Part 4 Chapter II: The Istari}}

Ele formula isso de maneira diferente na Carta 156:

By 'incarnate' I mean [the Istari] were embodied in physical bodies capable of pain, and weariness, and of afflicting the spirit with physical fear, and of being 'killed', though supported by the angelic spirit they might endure long, and only show slowly the wearing of care and labour.

^{_{The Letters of J.R.R> Tolkien 156: To Robert Murray, SJ (Draft). 4 November 1954}}

A identificação explícita de Gandalf como um "encarnado" é interessante, porque é o que elfos e homens são. A implicação, então, é que o espírito angélico de Olórin, a Maia, estava de alguma forma ligado ao corpo de Gandalf. A mecânica precisa de como isso funciona não é clara, e não temos uma boa idéia do que teria acontecido a Olórin se Gandalf não tivesse ressuscitado, mas existe algo fundamentalmente diferente entre os dois seres. . Morte significa algo diferente para Gandalf do que para Olórin, embora não saibamos o quê.

Ok, então por que Gandalf deixou Eä?

Esta pode ser uma opinião controversa, mas não acho que ele tenha feito isso. Considere como Gandalf descreve sua morte:

I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin. Then darkness took me; and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell.

^{_{The Two Towers Book III Chapter 5: "The White Rider"}}

Quando as pessoas sugerem que Gandalf deixou Eä em sua morte, elas geralmente apontam para a linha "Eu perdi o pensamento e o tempo" ¹ . No entanto, acho interessante como a palavra "tempo" está escrita: não são capitalizados . Agora considere dois trechos de O Silmarillion :

Vairë the Weaver is [Mandos'] spouse, who weaves all things that have ever been in Time into her storied webs, and the halls of Mandos that ever widen as the ages pass are clothed with them.

^{_{The Silmarillion II Valaquenta}}

E:

[T]he sons of Men die indeed, and leave the world; wherefore they are called the Guests, or the Strangers. Death is their fate, the gift of Ilúvatar, which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy.

^{_{The Silmarillion III Quenta Silmarillion Chapter 1: "Of the Beginning of Days"}}

Observe como o "tempo" é capitalizado aqui. Parece-me que o "tempo", em Tolkien, é uma referência ao universo material; Assim, afirmo que há uma diferença entre Gandalf dizendo "Eu perdi o pensamento e o tempo" e "Eu perdi o pensamento e o tempo". Eu não acho que é uma coincidência que ele escolheu o primeiro.

Finalmente, considere a morte de Saruman:

To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire, as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.

^{_{Return of the King Book VI Chapter 8: "The Scouring of the Shire"}}

Como Gandalf e Saruman são a mesma classe de ser (anjos encarnados, como Tolkien coloca), presumivelmente as regras que governam o que "morte" significa para elas são semelhantes. De fato, a principal diferença entre suas mortes são as circunstâncias. E a implicação dada pela morte de Saruman é que ele queria retornar a Valinor ² , mas foi proibido, provavelmente devido a seus muitos fracassos como agente dos Valar. / p>

Então, para (finalmente) responder à pergunta: por que Gandalf deixou o universo quando morreu?

Eu não acho que ele fez.

¹ Você poderia talvez também fazer um caso para "Eu vaguei longe em estradas que eu não direi", mas eu não acho isso particularmente atraente. Gandalf é vago ao longo de contar sua história, e atribuindo significado especial a um exemplo de imprecisão parece preocupante para mim.

De fato, Tolkien diz que o desejo de voltar para casa foi um dos principais motivadores de todos os Istari:

[T]hough they knew whence they came the memory of the Blessed Realm was to them a vision from afar off, for which (so long as they remained true to their mission) they yearned exceedingly. Thus by enduring of free will the pangs of exile and the deceits of Sauron they might redress the evils of that time.

^{_{Unfinished Tales Part 4 Chapter II: The Istari}}

    

A única resposta é encontrada na mesma letra que você citou. Aqui está uma parte maior da carta:

"For in his condition it was for him a sacrifice to perish on the Bridge in defence of his companions, less perhaps than a mortal Man or Hobbit, since he had a far greater inner power than they; but also more, since it was a humbling and abnegation of himself in confirmity to 'the Rules': for all he could know at that moment he was the only person who could direct the resistance to Sauron successfully, and all his mission was in vain. He was handing over to the Authority that ordained the Rules, and giving up personal hope of success.

...So Gandalf sacrificed himself, was accepted, and enhanced, and returned. 'Yes, that was the name. I was Gandalf.' Of course, he remains similar in personality and idiosyncrasy, but both his wisdom and power are much greater. When he speaks he commands attention; the old Gandalf could not have dealt so with Theoden, nor with Saruman. He is still under the obligation of concealing his power and teaching rather than forcing or dominating wills, but where the physical powers of the Enemy are too great for the good will of the opposers to be effective he can act in emergency as an 'angel' - no more violently than the release of St. Peter from prison....

Gandalf really 'died', and was changed: for that seems to me the only real cheating, to represent anything that can be called 'death' as making no difference... He was sent by a mere prudent plan of the angelic Valar or govenors; but Authority had taken up this plan and enlarged it, at the moment of its failure. 'Naked I was sent back- for a brief time, until my task is done'. Sent back by whom, and whence? Not by the 'gods' whose business is only with this embodied world and its time; for he passed 'out of thought and time'. Naked is alas! unclear. It was meant just literally, 'unclothed like a child' (not disincarnate), and so ready to receive the white robes of the highest. Galadriel's power is not divine, and his healing in Lorien is meant to be no more than physical healing and refreshment."
- The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #156

A "Autoridade" (sempre em letras maiúsculas) de quem Tolkien fala não pode ser outra senão Eru Ilúvatar. Neste caso, como em todos os outros, quando Eru exerce o Seu poder, é porque é assim que Ele determinou que as coisas deveriam ser. Eru enviou Gandalf de volta à Terra-média porque Ele sempre pretendeu fazê-lo. Este sempre foi seu plano. Gandalf é o escolhido por Eru para supervisionar a destruição de Sauron, e a decisão de Gandalf de se sacrificar para salvar a Irmandade é o ato que o tornou digno de ressurreição aos olhos de Eru.

Esta é uma função das convicções religiosas profundas de Tolkien. Para ele, Eru é essencialmente outro nome para o deus cristão. Provavelmente não faria sentido para Tolkien perguntar por que Deus faz o que ele faz. A ressurreição de Gandalf foi o que Tolkien chamou de "eucatástrofe":

For it I coined the word 'eucatastrophe': the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth, your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back. It perceives – if the story has literary 'truth' on the second plane (for which see the essay) – that this is indeed how things really do work in the Great World for which our nature is made. And I concluded by saying that the Resurrection was the greatest 'eucatastrophe' possible in the greatest Fairy Story – and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love.
- ibid, #89