please solve my confusion

in the Chapter 'Minas Tirith' Pippin is musing to himself:

Treebeard had said something about wizards, but even then HE had not thought
of Gandalf as one of them

(the capitalization of HE is mine)

who is the "he" ? Pippin or Treebeard? Treebeard in the eponymous chapter
refers to Gandalf as "the only wizard that cares about trees"

but could Pippin have not thought of Gandalf as a wizard?

In message
"Chris Hoelscher" spoke these staves:
>
> in the Chapter 'Minas Tirith' Pippin is musing to himself:
>
> Treebeard had said something about wizards, but even then HE had
> not thought of Gandalf as one of them
>
> (the capitalization of HE is mine)
>
> who is the "he" ? Pippin or Treebeard? Treebeard in the eponymous
> chapter refers to Gandalf as "the only wizard that cares about
> trees"

The 'he' is certainly Pippin himself, there cannot be much doubt
about that.

> but could Pippin have not thought of Gandalf as a wizard?

This appears in the context of Denethor and Gandalf's staring
contest, and Pippin suddenly wondering about Gandalf's background:

Yet by a sense other than sight Pippin perceived that
Gandalf had the greater power and the deeper wisdom, and a
majesty that was veiled. And he was older, far older. 'How
much older?' he wondered, and then he thought how odd it
was that he had never thought about it before.
[LotR V,1 'Minas Tirith']

Given the context, I believe that Pippin is referring (mostly) to the
following of Treebeards explanations:

I have not troubled about the Great Wars,' said Treebeard;
'they mostly concern Elves and Men. That is the business
of Wizards: Wizards are always troubled about the future.
I do not like worrying about the future.
[LotR III,4 'Treebeard']

and

'Saruman is a Wizard,' answered Treebeard. 'More than that
I cannot say. I do not know the history of Wizards. They
appeared first after the Great Ships came over the Sea; but
if they came with the Ships I never can tell. Saruman was
reckoned great among them, I believe.
[LotR III,4 'Treebeard']

The capitalization of 'Wizard' is Tolkien's throughout.

So, I think it is likely that what Pippin means here is that he has
never wondered about Gandalf's background, and even when Treebeard
spoke about the background and policies of the Wizards (capitalized),
he didn't think of this as applying to Gandalf -- not that he didn't
know that Gandalf was a wizard as such, but he had never thought of
him as 'a Wizard' (to use Tolkien's capitalization as applied to
Saruman). I don't know if there were more than one word in Westron
that is 'translated' as wizard, but I believe that the capitalized
version refers to the Istari and the non-capitalized version would
then refer to magic-users in general. Thus the Mouth of Sauron would
have been a wizard, but not a Wizard. In the passage from V,1 Pippin
suddenly realizes that Gandalf is not just some 'old wandering
conjuror'. I think we are meant to take this as a sign of Pippin's
own growth and ennoblement.

--
Troels Forchhammer
Valid e-mail is <troelsfo(a)gmail.com>
Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.

Your theory is crazy, but it's not crazy enough to be true.
- Niels Bohr, to a young physicist