The old wizard often is seen as the giver of wisdom. Gandalf, of course, is a famous and prolific giver of wisdom. But how does the old wizard become wise?
It is not from just being old, from sitting in his tower and studying texts and scrolls through the long seasons. In fact none of his wisdom comes from sitting in a tower and studying ( or whereever else he may live ). Wisdom, as I think most will agree, is not the same as deep knowledge or expertise. It is a practical kind of knowledge that comes with experience. The deepest wisdom arises when experience is paid attention to, and learned from, and integrated into one's perpective. Without listening to others, and striving to understand others, there is no wisdom. The wise man, therefore, can not spend his time in the tower.
I suppose anyone reading this post can see where I am headed with Saruman and Gandalf. Saruman sits in his tower, brooding, calculating, thinking, reading. He reflects his own perpectives off of the walls and thinks them the foundation of wisdom. Saruman hoards his perverted idea of wisdom in his tower, and shares it with no one. The tower is the place of command, of giving the speech to set the men in motion. It is never a place of listening. From the tower the soldiers look like pieces on a board, moved at will and sacrificed easily. Nearly all wars, I suppose, are begun from a tower, at least metaphorically.
Gandalf has no tower. He, in fact, has no fixed home. His home is Middle-Earth. He moves about in the same level as everyone else, conversing with them, listening to them, gathering wisdom, and new perspectives, and many friends ( as well as a few enemies ). Gandalf goes to the most useless place in Middle-Earth and even listens there, and so finds his Ringbearer. Gandalf's wisdom is shared with all.
Gandalf and Saruman meet twice. Both times they meet Gandalf is prepared to listen to Saruman, and to share his wisdom. And both times Saruman is too proud to even think of listening to Gandalf, and wishes only to gives commands. Moreover, Saruman has shut himself into a perspective in which he believes Gandalf will only give commands as well. It is the only sort of communication he knows anymore.
The first time they meet, Saruman is the more powerful, and so he is able to command Gandalf, and forces him into imprisonment. Gandalf is saved, of course, by the friends he has made during his travels through Middle-Earth.
The second time they meet, Gandalf tries to communicate with Saruman, but Saruman will only hear the language of command, and so Gandalf, now being the more powerful, is forced, to his sadness, to command Saruman. Gandalf, however, has no need to imprison Saruman, for Saruman has already done that to himself.
Why, exactly, is Gandalf more powerful the second time they meet? There are reasons, of course, in the story, but what I am interested in are the underlying philosophical reasons that this should be so. If any reading this will permit me to frame the question this way, why in Tolkien's Moral Universe does the truly wise man become more powerful than the false wise man? Why does the old man of the earth become taller and more far seeing than the old man of the tower?
This question, I suppose, I shall examine in a later post.