We take pleasure in prominently answering the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of TheOneRing.net™:

–Elanor Gamgee
Bag-End, Hobbiton across The Water

Elanor, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All mortal minds, Elanor, whether they be Men’s, Dwarves’ or Hobbits’ are little. In this great universe of ours one Hobbit is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Elanor, there is a Gandalf. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary the world would be if there were no Gandalf! It would be as dreary as if there were no Elanors. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Gandalf! You might as well not believe in Elves! You might get your Papa to bring in the Bounders to watch all the chimneys on Yuleday Eve from here to Michel Delving to catch Gandalf, but even if you did not see Gandalf coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Gandalf, but that is no sign that there is no Gandalf. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor stout Men can see. Did you ever see an Oliphaunt dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not real. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest Hobbit, nor even the united strength of King Elessar and all the strongest Dúnedain that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, and romance can push aside that curtain and view the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Elanor, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Gandalf! Thank Eru he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Elanor, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Much too hasty,

Quickbeam