The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has finally stopped playing coy about one of its biggest mysteries: the identity of the Stranger (Daniel Weyman).
Ever since the Stranger fell to Middle-earth in Season 1, he and his Harfoot traveling companion, Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh), have been trying to figure out who he is. But while they’ve been in the dark, viewers familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien’s work and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies will have recognized several not-so-subtle hints at the Stranger’s true nature. From his gray robes and beard to his status as an Istar, or wizard, the Stranger has been giving off Gandalf vibes since day one. Need more proof? How about his affection for Harfoots, aka ancestral Hobbits? Or the fact that he full-on quotes Gandalf from The Fellowship of the Ring in the Season 1 finale?
Now, in its Season 2 finale, The Rings of Power finally confirms what the audience has guessed for quite some time, officially revealing that he is Gandalf.
How do we know the Stranger is Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power?
Daniel Weyman in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”
Credit: Courtesy of Prime Video
The Gandalf name reveal comes after the Stranger defends the Harfoots and Stoors from the still-mysterious Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds). While the Dark Wizard claimed to know the Stranger from their time before arriving in Middle-earth, even promising to tell him his true name, it’s the Stoors who give the Stranger his new name as thanks for his help.
Stoor leader Gundabale Earthauler (Tanya Moodie) kicks things off, thanking him as “Grand-Elf.” As the thanks continue down the line of Stoors, “Grand-Elf” gets warped into something closer to “Gandalf.” Think of it like one big game of Tolkien telephone.
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Gundabale calling the Stranger “Grand-Elf” didn’t come out of nowhere. In episode 4, when Nori and Poppy (Megan Richards) first encounter the Stoors, they describe the Stranger as a giant.
“What, like an Elf?” Merrimac (Gavi Singh Chera) asks.
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“Bigger than that,” Poppy says.
“So he’s a great big Grand-Elf,” a skeptical Gundabale retorts.
This exchange isn’t the first time The Rings of Power hinted at the Stranger’s name being Gandalf. A discussion in episode 2 about him needing to find a “gand” — from the Old Norse “gandr,” meaning “staff” or “wand,”— pays tribute to the fact that the name “Gandalf” means “Elf with a wand.”
Of course, Gandalf isn’t actually an Elf, but in The Rings of Power, like in Tolkien’s legendarium, he doesn’t seem to mind the name. “That’s what they’re going to call me,” he tells Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear), realizing that Gandalf is the given name he’s been searching for all season. (He also found the perfect “gand” in the aftermath of the fight, so it’s a great day of discovery all around!)
Like many elements of The Rings of Power, the Stranger’s — let’s just call him Gandalf now, shall we? — name reveal differs from Tolkien’s lore, while still keeping its spirit alive. In Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales, he writes that “Gandalf” is the name given to the wizard by the Men of Middle-earth. Other names he has include Mithrandir, from the Elves; Tharkûn, from the Dwarves; and Olórin, his original name in Valinor, and likely the name the Dark Wizard wished to share with him.
However, given Gandalf’s deep connection to Hobbits in The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, him receiving a name from their ancestors is a sweet gesture towards what’s to come. The added focus on the linguistic journey of his name, from the hints at “gand” to the evolution of “Grand-Elf” to “Gandalf,” also feels like a further tribute to Tolkien, himself a language nerd.
Gandalf’s official arrival in The Rings of Power still raises a few questions. First off, this isn’t the Gandalf we know from the Third Age, at least not yet. What will the rest of his journey look like before we takes on the mantle of Gandalf the Grey? Will the next few seasons of The Rings of Power basically be Gandalf: Origins?
Second, according to Tolkien lore, Gandalf and the other Istari weren’t present in Middle-earth during the Second Age. The Valar sent them there centuries into the Third Age. The Rings of Power has already highly compressed Tolkien’s timeline, so this is par for the course for the show. But how will Gandalf’s presence in Middle-earth now impact — or hinder — Sauron’s (Charlie Vickers) rise? For that matter, how will the presence of the rest of the Istari, including the Dark Wizard, shift the battles to come?
We’ll have to wait until Season 3 to see. For now, I’m happy to no longer wonder, “When will we learn the Stranger is Gandalf?” Instead, my biggest Rings of Power question has officially become: “When will we learn whether the Dark Wizard is a Blue Wizard?” Bring on the answers!
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is now streaming on Prime Video.