Alan Sisto

If that were unavailing, he would deliver Gandalf up to them.

Then Soderman hastened to the summit of Orthanc and found Gandalf gone.

Away south against the setting moon, he saw a great eagle flying towards Edoras.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Bad news, buddy.

Bad news.

That's right.

And here, Tolkien starts by saying, look, we cannot know with any surety what actually happened to him in the halls of Moria.

Now, this isn't just because Gollum hasn't done a proper debrief.

It's simply because he is always an unreliable source.

Right.

I mean, having lived under the roots of the Misty Mountains for, oh, half a millennium, he is, as the text says, peculiarly fitted to survive.

Certainly better than I could say for either of us.

What, three days tops?

Okay, but how does that square with what we experience when the company gets in there?

I mean, it feels like the numbers are a little greater there.

I mean, I know the big threat comes from the Balrog.

Right.

And perhaps if the Balrog wasn't there, they might not have had the courage to attack.