Books about Gandalf from Amazon.com

Hobbits and wizards and Sauron--oh, my! Mild-mannered Oxford scholar John Ronald Reuel Tolkien had little inkling when he published The Hobbit; Or, There and Back Again in 1937 that, once hobbits were unleashed upon the world, there would be no turning back. Hobbits are, of course, small, furry creatures who love nothing better than a leisurely life quite free from adventure. But in that first novel and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the hobbits Bilbo and Frodo and their elfish friends get swept up into a mighty conflict with the dragon Smaug, the dark lord Sauron (who owes much to proud Satan in Paradise Lost), the monstrous Gollum, the Cracks of Doom, and the awful power of the magical Ring. The four books' characters--good and evil--are recognizably human, and the realism is deepened by the magnificent detail of the vast parallel world Tolkien devised, inspired partly by his influential Anglo-Saxon scholarship and his Christian beliefs. (He disapproved of the relative sparseness of detail in the comparable allegorical fantasy his friend C.S. Lewis dreamed up in The Chronicles of Narnia, though he knew Lewis had spun a page-turning yarn.) It has been estimated that one-tenth of all paperbacks sold can trace their ancestry to J.R.R. Tolkien. But even if we had never gotten Robert Jordan's The Path of Daggers and the whole fantasy genre Tolkien inadvertently created by bringing the hobbits so richly to life, Tolkien's epic about the Ring would have left our world enhanced by enchantment. --Tim Appelo.
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While the success of J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is remarkable, it's certainly no mystery In a culture where truth is relative and morality is viewed as "old-fashioned," we eagerly welcome the message of these tales: we have free will, our choices matter, and truth can be known. Matthew Dickerson investigates the importance of free will and moral choices in Tolkien's Middle Earth, where moral victory, rather than military success, is the "real" story. He explores Christian themes throughout, including salvation, grace, and judgment. Following Gandalf will delight veteran Tolkien fans and offer new fans an impressive introduction to his major works. Engaging and theologically thought-provoking, it will interest pastors, students, seminarians, and layreaders..
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Here is the book that Tolkien fans have needed for half a century--a detailed, book-length chronology of J. R. R. Tolkien's complex tale. Whether you are a serious Tolkien fan or simply someone who enjoys reading the story over and over again, this is the book for you. It's the first totally new reference for The Lord of the Rings since the 1970s.

Beginning over 1400 years before the major events in Tolkien's epic, it describes, year-by-year, the amazing and imaginative background history that Tolkien created for his masterpiece. Then for the main narrative, it becomes a day-by-day reference, describing what each character does on that day and all the places where those events are described in Tolkien's writings. You can find out, for instance, what Merry and Pippin are doing as Sam perpares rabbit stew on the morning of March 7.

Probe deeper into Tolkien. See why someone as serious as Gandalf was interested in fun-loving Hobbits. Discover an exciting new plot, based on Tolkien's notes, that begins when Aragorn captures Gollum. Follow along as the Black Riders and Gandalf race for the Shire. Decide for yourself whether Sauron and the Ring have any ties to Hitler and Stalin. Explore what Tolkien believed about nature and technology.

A few facts illustrate how helpful this chronology is. Most of narrative is a deliberately confusing sea of next days and third days that leave readers as confused as the tale's main characters.The middle 60 percent of The Lord of the Rings gives the current date only once. In the narrative as a whole, the date is given only 23 times, or once for every 43 pages, and most of those come when the plot is moving slowly. That's why those who want to dig deeper and understand better what Tolkien was saying will find this book a must-have..
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This monograph is a collection of analytic articles on J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit," written by Tolkien scholar and Comparative Translationist Mark T. Hooker, most famous, perhaps, for his application of Comparative Translation to the study of Tolkien in his book "Tolkien Through Russian Eyes". All of the articles in the book have been reviewed and revised to take into consideration the materials newly made available in "The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion." "Beyond Bree" says that there is "something here for everyone with even a passing interest in Tolkien. All of the articles are well researched, insightful, and highly informative." "Amon Hen" (September 2006) says: "Highly recommendable." "Tolkien Studies" (No. 4) says: a "pleasantly eccentric volume" . . . "Hooker has a wide variety of things to say that have not been heard before." Includes bibliographic references and index. B&W illustrations..
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Part of Ramtha's Fireside Series collection library on the topic of the Observer Effect in terms of J.R.R. Tolkien's scene of Gandalf and the Balrog from "The Lord of the Rings."
In the great books called The Lord of the Rings, there is a great story about the Observer that I am teaching you here. If you really want to read about the Observer versus humanity, you should read them because they are about truth. When the master teacher stands upon a very thin bridge and says You cannot pass to a monstrous necromancer so ominous and dreadful it would cause you to shudder the Observer and the voices of the necromancer are captured in myth more brilliantly than any other piece that was ever written.
This is the deeper message of that story. The necromancer could surely tear to pieces the master on the bridge because it is a thousand times larger than the master, but the master has something the necromancer doesn t will. Do you know how uncommon will is in humanity and in necromancers? It is one of the rare qualities that makes greatness. Ramtha.
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This book is designed for human resources managers and directors of personnel who are concerned with labor productivity It gives benchmarks and gap analyses used to gauge a company's performance vis--vis firms competing firms in the same sector, at the global level. In particular, this report covers GANDALF TECHNOLOGIES INC., NEPEAN, CANADA.

With the globalization of markets, greater foreign competition, and the reduction of entry barriers, it becomes all the more important to benchmark a company's performance against other firms on a worldwide basis. Doing so, however, is not an obvious task. First, one needs to find firms competing in the same sector. Second, one needs to control for exchange rate volatility. Finally, one needs use comparable financial standards. This report overcomes these issues and gives full human resources benchmarks vis--vis worldwide competitors who are present in the same narrow industrial classification. Benchmarks cover labor-asset ratios, labor-liability ratios, and labor-income ratios. Since our reports are printed on demand, the figures available are for the latest quarter and are the most up to date available (4 updates are produced each year)..
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Though we heavily rely on historical performance, the figures reported in this report are not historical but are forecasts and projections for the coming fiscal year. The forecasts are updated quarterly. The source(s) for the various raw statistics include public filings, corporate releases, and various other data sources.
Given a company's financial structure, the resulting figures are benchmarked across "leading competitors". In choosing the leading competitors, Icon Group chooses only those firms with sound financial situations or those not undergoing radical restructuring, or where random volatility, mergers, or bankruptcy affects financial performance.
Since the calculation of competitors' labor ratios proceeds in a similar fashion, but are aggregated across all competitors, one can directly conduct a gap analysis. Here, Icon Group graphically reports, for each labor productivity area the larger gaps that the firm has vis-a-vis the leading competitors. A gap need not be a bad sign. Rather, it is simply a substantial difference that might merit further attention or signal a firm's relative strength or weakness for the coming fiscal year....
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