I am glad now that I never got around to starting this thread when Voronwë suggested I do so several weeks ago. I'm also glad it took me a week to find it. Now that I hear everyone else speaking I can finally expand on my original thought.
Except what I had in mind wasn't working, so I'll do this instead, a rambling thought poem, a wild Quidditch flight through the world of wizards.
Gandalf Is Now Here
If there are any to see, then I at least am revealed to them. I have written Gandalf is here in signs that all can read from Rivendell to the mouths of the Anduin.
A wizard writes his sign everywhere he goes. That is part of his nature. A wizard is powerful and persuasive in both the natural world and in the halls of men.
Gandalf's sign is a rising music in others. His theme is a pattern of hope played from one end of Middle Earth to the other. Theoden is dead before Gandalf comes. When Gandalf leaves Theoden is alive. Theoden shines forth. Theoden is now here. That is the sign of Gandalf. Theoden carries the pattern of Gandalf to others, and they shine forth, and they are now there.
Gandalf's Entish Name
a-lalla-lalla-rumba-kamanda-lind-or-burúmë ...
Gandalf pushes people to the hilltops to see new horizons.
Gandalf meets Bilbo and pushes him out the door. Bilbo is now here. Bilbo is elder friend to Merry and Pippin and pushes their minds out of the Shire. Merry and Pippin are now here. Merry and Pippin go on a great journey. Merry and Pippin meet Treebeard and push his mind out of the forest. Treebeard is now here. Treebeard pushes the trees out of the forest. The trees are now here.
All over Middle Earth the themes of Gandalf are sung by others in their own voices and woven into their own songs. Gandalf becomes a part of them and they shine brighter and become more themselves.
Gandalf's true name is as long as the names of everyone he has touched.
The sign of Gandalf is new roots growing in the earth.
Gandalf is an enchantment spoken in the earth.
Saruman Is Nowhere
You have doomed yourselves, and you know it.
Saruman writes his music to drown all other music. His pattern is for no one else. Others do not shine in the presense of his music. He will not suffer their own small patterns. They will not be themselves, but instruments for Saruman to play his own set patterns. Saruman leaves an empty space where Theoden once was.
Saruman hates death. This means he hates to lose control of his own pattern. To him those that lose control of their own music are doomed. The only life he sees is to hoard his pattern unchanged forever in his tower. He has doomed himself, and he does not know it.
The sign of Saruman is an empty pit in the earth where roots once were.
Saruman is a magic spoken against the earth.
Illuvatar Is Now Here
dhspgt: Gandalf was the presence of the spirit (the music) of Iluvatar in the earth.
Focus on Theoden. There he is, shining brightly, himself. Pull out. Now, in the background, there is a web of white in harmony with all the other colors around it. This is Gandalf. We see where he touches Theoden, where they both leave their bright signs. Follow the strands of Gandalf's life, and we find the webs of others woven through his and then reaching into places Gandalf's does not. Here is Faramir's web, the glowing strands of his life, touching Gandalf's here and there, but also reaching into places Gandalf's does not.
Faramir has his own entish name, of which Frodo is a part. Between them there is a pattern in the music that is much like the pattern kindled by Gandalf in others. But these patterns are not the same, and one does not inspire or beget the other. Look at them again and see that they contain a common foundational theme, a common inspiration.
Pull out even more, until we see all of Middle Earth. Now, in the background, is another web touching all the rest, singing a pattern to all those who will hear it. Here it flares into brilliance when Gandalf become the white. And there again when Frodo is rescued by the Eagles. But mostly it is in the background, a foundational hum, heard by some and spoken by some to others and spread like a good rumour. We are all wizards. Illuvatar is now here.
Hope for Saruman
Will you not come down?
There is one story, but many threads left to be woven together. Nothing is certain. Saruman weaves his own patterns. That is the gift of Illuvatar. There are other Sarumans in the story. They can still come down.
Faramond