Tamim wrote:
>
> None <none.DeleteThis@none.com> wrote:
> snip
> > "And how it draws one to itself! Have I not felt it? Even now my heart
> > desires to test my will upon it, to see if I could not wrench it from
> > him and turn it where I would-to look across the wide seas of water and
> > of time to Tirion the Fair, and perceive the unimaginable hand and mind
> > of Fëanor at their work, while both the White Tree and the Golden were
> > in flower!' He sighed and fell silent."
>
> > While I found it odd that Gandal should wish this, since he had been in
> > Aman whike Feanor was alive,
>
> You think Feanor let the likes of Olorin to watch him work?
I think Feanor and other Elves benefitted from Olorin's presence to a
huge degree. His was the power of inspiring fair imaginings.
From UT
II
THE ISTARI
extract:
================================================================
There is much here that bears on the larger question of the concern of
Manwë and the Valar with the fate of Middle-earth after the Downfall of
Númenor, which must fall quite outside the scope of this book.
After the words "But of Olórin we shall never know more than he revealed
in Gandalf" my father added later:
save that Olórin is a High-elven name, and must therefore have been
given to him in Valinor by the Eldar, or be a "translation" meant to be
significant to them. In either case, what was the significance of the
name, given or assumed? Olor is a word often translated "dream", but
that does not refer to (most) human "dreams," certainly not the dreams
of sleep. To the Eldar it included the vivid contents of their memory,
as of their imagination: it referred in fact to clear vision, in the
mind, of things not physically present at the body's situation. But not
only to an idea, but to a full clothing of this in particular form and
detail.
An isolated etymological note explains the meaning similarly:
olo's: vision, "phantasy:" Common Elvish name for "construction of the
mind" not actually (pre)existing in Ëa apart from the construction, but
by the Eldar capable of being by Art (Karmë) made visible and sensible.
Olos is usually applied to fair construction having solely an artistic
object (i.e. not having the object of deception, or of acquiring power).
Words deriving from this root are cited: Quenya olos "dream, vision,"
plural olozi/olori; őla- (impersonal) "to dream;" olosta "dreamy." A
reference is then made to Olofantur, which was the earlier "true" name
of Lórien, the Vala who was "master of visions and dreams," before it
was changed to Irmo in The Silmarillion (as Nurufantur was changed to
Námo (Mandos): though the plural Fëanturi for these two "brethren"
survived in the Valaquenta).
These discussion of olos, olor are clearly to be connected with the
passage in the Valaquenta (The Silmarillion pp.30-1) where it is said
that Olórin dwelt in Lórien in Valinor, and that
"though he loved the Elves, he walked among them unseen, or in form as
one of them, and they did not know whence came the fair visions or the
promptings of wisdom that he put into their hearts."
In earlier version of this passage it is said that Olórin was
"counsellor of Irmo," and that in the hearts of those who hearkened to
him awoke thoughts "of fair things that had not yet been but might yet
be made for the enrichment of Arda."
=================================================================
end extract
Gandalf, a Maia, was counsellor to the God of Dreams, Irmo [or Lórien].
Gandalf's power was the power to inspire "fair visions", the power of
inspiration, of spurring creativity.
But to go back to your question:
Would Feanor have let Gandalf look over his shoulder?
Probably not, the arrogant bastard, but while Tolkien tells us that his
work was all his own, we know he benefitted from the advice of his wife.
I suspect he also benefitted from all the creative energies flying
around Valinor at that time. Nothing occurs in a vacuum, and I doubt if
Feanor would have conceived either the Silmarils or the Palantírí if he
had been born under a rock in Middle Earth, far away from Gandalf,
Galadriel [the light of her hair allegedly inspired him to create the
Silmarils] and Valinor.
M.
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