Gandalf

Gandalf is the overall main protagonist of the Middle-Earth series. He is one of the deuteragonists of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the tritagonist of The Hobbit trilogy.

In the 1978 animated film, Gandalf was voiced by William Squire. In The Hobbit and The Return of the King film adaptations produced by Rankin and Bass by the late John Huston. In the film trilogy, Gandalf was portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen.Gandalf was originally Olórin, one of the Five Istari (or Wizards as they were called in Middle-earth. He was chosen by Eru to go to Middle-earth and serve as protector of the Realm. However, Olórin was terrified of Sauron, which Eru explained he had to go to rid his fear of the dark lord. As soon as he entered Middle-earth, Olórin was renamed Gandalf and given the Red Ring of Power by the elf, Cirdan.

While Radagast obtained a duty of taking care of animals and Saruman obtaining the tower of Orthanc, Gandalf became a traveler.

Background
Gandalf was created with the name Olórin and is one of the Istari/Maiar, those who were chosen to be Valar's messengers. Sometime during the First Age, Gandalf voices his opinion of being sent there and is scared of Sauron. However, after he talks with Manwë understanding, he takes on the name "Gandalf" and arrives at Middle-Earth as the second wizard there. Upon arriving in Middle-earth, Gandalf meets Cirdan the elf lord, who gives Gandalf the ring of Fire. He befriends many individuals of the country, such as Galadriel, Thráin, Gerontius Took, Aragorn, and several other denizens of Middle-earth.

Gandalf becomes one of the White Council members, while he and the group are betrayed by Saruman eventually At some point, Gandalf meets Thráin before the Battle of Moria and pressures him to take back the Mountain from Smaug and reclaim the Arkenstone. However, Thráin refuses, and instead entrusts his father's map and key to Gandalf for safe keeping. Eventually, Gandalf overhears news of Thráin's disappears him and believes him for dead ( Gandalf develops a strong friendship with the Old Took, the grandfather of Bilbo Baggins. He was known to have set off fireworks on Mid-summer's eve and Gandalf became well acquainted with Bilbo's mother and father, and Bilbo himself. (An Unexpected Journey, Desolation of Smaug)

Gandalf becomes one of the White Council members, while he and the group are betrayed by Saruman eventually At some point, Gandalf meets Thráin before the Battle of Moria and pressures him to take back the Mountain from Smaug and reclaim the Arkenstone. However, Thráin refuses, and instead entrusts his father's map and key to Gandalf for safe keeping. Eventually, Gandalf overhears news of Thráin's disappears him and believes him for dead.

Gandalf develops a strong friendship with the Old Took, the grandfather of Bilbo Baggins. He was known to have set off fireworks on Mid-summer's eve and Gandalf became well acquainted with Bilbo's mother and father, and Bilbo himself.

During an unknown amount of time, Gandalf travels to Breeintending to find Thorin there. However, on the way there, he comes across servants of Sauron who mistook him from a vagabond. A fightbreaks out and Gandalf fights off the unsavory characters while also taking one of the messages that the messengers carry. He later meets Thorin at Bree and literally saves his skin before the dwarf king is assassinated. When the wizard introduces who he is, Thorin claims that he knows who Gandalf is. The latter of the two asks why the former is in Bree, to which the dwarf prince claims he is looking for his father.Gandalf suddenly falters, with Thorin realizing that Gandalf is "like the others' and think that Thráin is dead.

He retells his tale of how he tried searching for his father until the last body and found no sign of him. After Thorin tells his tale the wizard curiously asks what happened to the Ring that Thrór once wore. The dwarf king recounts that his grandfather gave it to his father before they went into battle. Getting onto other business, Thorin states that Thráin came to Gandalf before the battle and inquires what Thráin and Gandalf had discussed. Gandalf claims that it is not a coincidence and claims that he fought men who mistook him for a vagabond, to which Thorin sarcastically remarks the messengers probably regretted that. Gandalf shows the dwarf king the message and states that it is a promise of payment for Thorin's head. The King in horror decides that its time to act now as Gandalf suggests. Thorin reminds the wizard that they will only answer to the king and whoever wields the Arkenstone. As they watch the Squint and Bill Ferny, Sr. leave Bree, Gandalf claims that he will help Thorin reclaim Erebor and the Arkenstone. When the dwarf king states how he will help them and points out that the Arkenstone is guarded by a fire breathing dragon and buried beneath the gold, Gandalf states that they will need a burglar. (The Desolation of Smaug)

Gandalf then plots to have the company to make sure Smaug is destroyed before the dragon can ally himself with Sauron and also plans to have Bilbo in the company to give the wizard courage while secretly afraid, but also decides that Bilbo will be a calming influence on Thorin. However, things take an unexpected turn when Thorin begins to remain skeptical of Gandalf's decisions for allowing a hobbit burglar into their company, but nevertheless accepts to meet Bilbo. '' (An Unexpected Journey). ''

Personality
Gandalf is a wise and caring wizard who is dedicated to protecting Middle-earth. could manipulate events in ways he saw fit, but rather out of malice, more out of the benefit of protecting Middle-earth. He immediately sought out Bilbo to being the burglar for the job because he could be a calming influence on Thorin with the addition that the scent of a hobbit was unknown to Smaug. Gandalf was also aware of how dangerous Sauron would have been with a dragon at his side and sought to help the dwarves reclaim Erebor so Middle-earth's defenses in the east would strengthen against Sauron and to bring their wrath about the dragon. Thranduil describes wizards' coming as a storm and that sometimes a "storm is just a storm", meaning he does not take Gandalf's warnings seriously when he comes to tell the armies amassed by Azog were on their way to wipe them out and that their armies should band together.

As the white wizard, Gandalf's personality changed, however, he remained very grandfatherly and wise to younger figures, especially to those like Frodo Baggins or Pippin TOok. Gimli even pointed out that the White Wizard Gandalf now represented is "grumpier than the old one." According to both Merry and Pippin in the books, while it is easy to make Gandalf laugh, it is also easy to make him furious. It is shown that Gandlaf was fed up with some of their antics and Thorin making the wrong choices. According to Aragorn, Gandalf though reborn would slip into his old habit of speaking in riddles. also with Thorin being too stubborn to seek help from the other elves. He became frustrated when Pippin once asked what Gandalf would do if he could not get the door open, furiously stating he would use the Hobbit's head to bash it open, but quickly had calmed down when he saw Pippin's facial expression.

Gandalf was known to be a very trustful of his friends and allies, putting his trust is put in them. Gandalf also entrusted the One Ring to Frodo and knew he would keep it safe in Bag End. He took Legolas' warning that Orcs were coming from the North when he was fighting in the Battle of Five Armies and entrusted Aragorn to lead and protect the hobbits to Rivendell and to look after the Fellowship to the bridge. In the third film, he entrusted the task of lighting the beacon to Pippin to call for aid for Rohan while Denethor refused to do so. Gandalf thought he could seek guidance from Saruman and believed he could assist in Frodo hiding the Ring, but was not aware that his old friend had already fallen into Sauron's side.

He was protective of those he loves and cares about. He would not have Bilbo go back to the Lonely Mountain because he knows Thorin would kill Bilbo if he found out who gave the Arkenstone to Bard and Thranduil. He would not allow Bilbo to go to Ravenhill in fear the Orcs would kill him. The wizard apGandalf would also protect the younger members of the Fellowship if necessary and stood behind to fight the Balrog so the Fellowship could escape and told Treebeard to look out for Merry and Pippin as well. He also took Pippin to Gondor to protect him from Sauron's wrath. Because of his love and dedication to his friends, Gandalf would become agitated when someone wronged them. This happened in ''The Desolation of Smaug when he fought Sauron head-on for destroying Thrain and infuriated when Denethor insulted Aragorn upon first meeting him and came to defend Pippin from Denethor's anger when they were rescuing Faramir.

Powers and abilities
Both as the grey wizard and the white one, he was said to be quite powerful by other races. Saruman even feared that Gandalf was more powerful than he was, and even defeated a Balrog single-handedly. Returning as the white wizard, he survived Saruman's blow when he was on Shadowfax and put a protection spell around both of them and let the fire surround them. However, Gandalf was not able to stand up against the Witch-king nor Sauron.