What does Gandolf say when he's falling?
 

At the beginning of two towers, within Frodo's dream. Right before that huge lizardy beast (i like to think of him as the devil) pulls Gandolf with his tail. He says something.

it sounds to me like "Fly you fools?". But that doesnt really make sense.

Not that it matters, but i have a certain bet with my gf.

So can anyone confirm what it is??

I'm pretty sure its "Fly you fools." Meaning get the fuck out of here before its too late.

The subtitles confirm that it says "Fly you fools!" I was curious about that a while ago, so I had to check.

ah i guess i was right after all..

Doesnt make much sense, run would be much more suited, then fly. But who am i to mess with the man

So what was the bet?

One of my favorite quotes of the entire series actually! Yeah he said "fly you fools!" The last time I watched the movie I noticed that he says "fly" more than saying something like "run." Pretty interesting, might have some deeper meaning.

I think its just because of the intensity of the situation. I've heard "fly" in the context of "run" before. Don't just run, you better fly. Actually take a look at my sig, its got an example from an old blues song. Its about escaping from a work camp/chain gang. If he asks if I was runnin' tell him I was flyin'. Flying insinuates much more of an emergency.

don't have the DVD here with me.. but Closed Caption or Subtitles are your friends...

Yeah, fly is used as slang for general "fast movement" all the time over here (Ireland).
If your alarm clock doesn't go off in the morning, then you'll have to "fly to work in your car".
I never noticed how strange it sounded until now! I guess this particular piece of slang never took hold stateside?

I'm from an Irish/Scandanavian background, and we use 'fly' here in Texas quite a bit. :)

just one of those silly 'your on top' tonight bets.


the more i think about it, it begins to make more sense.
the whole fly=move quickly.

Maybe I should start some new slang around here

The line is definitely "Fly, you fools!" and it comes straight from Old Man Tolkein himself.

Fly was used in that context in olde england- see it in a lot of old texts, simmilar to the term "Flee"

Doesn't he pull him over the edge with a whip, not his tail?

i hear people say fly in context of run all the time here in shitty New Mexico.

It was a Balrog and he used his whip to bring Gandalf down.

Balrog or FireGiant? Though, I'm thinking you're right.

Ya know, If I was a powerful wizard that could cast "Flight".. I'd say "Fly" before "Run" as well. :D

Yeah, I did the subtitles check as well. That was one of the first things I did when I got the DVD was went to that scene just to see what it was that he said.

one of the more memorable lines from the novel... i'm ashamed that more of you have not read it! ;)

i've read a bit of the backstory on balrogs in some of the other Tolkien books... kinda interesting. Man, that guy sure had a great imagination as well as an eye for detail.

Fly definitely means run in this case.

As another poster says, "fly" is often used to mean "moving very fast".

As in "the train was flying along" = the train was moving very fast.
As in "time flew" = time passed very quickly


I'm surprised at the confusion this caused at all.

BTW, it was a Balrog who are extremely powerful evil creatures. Maia [sp?] I believe. They are the same kind of beings that Gandalf and Sauroman are, but evil.

Read the books. They are superb.


Mr Mephisto

Geek alert:
The Balrog was a Maiar, kind of a Junior god, particularly associated with fire. A fire Demon, if you will. I believe they were Melkor's smiths, or those of the witch king of Angband (one and the same?)

Gandalf was also a Maiar, as was Saruman and Rhadagast (sp?) and two others whose names elude me at the moment. (You don't find this out, I think, in the <i>Lord of the Rings</i>, but rather in Tolkien's other writings, which Chris Tolkien has drained every bit of fun out of, the hack bastard.) There is a special name for them, and IIRC they were specifically sent forth from Westernesse by the Vaniar to counteract the Maiar that had gone feral for lack of a better term. Gandalf was the one particularly concerned with fire, as Saruman was with enchantment and persuasion, and Rhadgast was with birds and animal. They were all wizards, though, from the get go, so Gandalf does that thing with his voice to keep the trolls yapping till the sun comes up, and Saruman has his crows and orcs and does some weather witching, and I am sure Rhadagast gets by generally as well.

The point of this virtual dissertation is Gandalf's final instruction to the company before the balrog snares him with the firey whip and pulls him into the abyss, "Fly, you fools!" refers to his earlier admonishment, "This is a foe beyond all your powers. Run!"

Since Gandalf and the Balrog are, at the base of it, the same type of being, they have some sort of power parity. (Of course, Sauron is also of that class of being, but he is the most powerful, long the servant of the only evil Vaniar, and has forged and is linked to the one ring of power to boot. No parity there.)Of course, you should feel free to call bullshit on me. I'm working from decade old memory.

Tophat665, you have described it better than me. God bless your memory. I even got the spelling of Maiar wrong!

Mr Mephisto

I have read all of the novels. In fact, I was really disappointed with TTT because of all the scenes that they cut out, and all of the other scenes that they could have shortened to fit those scenes. Thank god for the collector's edition.

gotta fly
gotta jet
eh?

I think he says "fuck, you fools". Summing up both his mindset about being snared and his anger at them not helping him before he is yanked into the abyss.

Is Rhadgast in any of the movies? this name is kinda funny because there is a Czech beer called Radegast which is named after an old Czech god of agriculture. i dont know if this is just a coinsidence or not. kinda interesting though

oh yeah, and there is no way that he said "fuck you fools".

Fly is used a lot in classical English literature (where Tolkein got much of his inspiration). The quote that is most readily available in my mind is from Macbeth when Banquo says, "O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!". It just has a more sophisticated, urgent, and wise ring to it then using run or something like that. I think it fits Gandolfs character perfectly.

Paeder,
Rhadaghast is mentioned twice in the books, not at all in the movies.

Tophat... you are the man... you just saved me having to write something similar (explaining the Balrog not the post above about Rhadaghast).

I would also like to voice my dismay that not enough of you have read this great trilogy... The scene where Gandalf defeats the Balrog is one of my favourites of the all three books...

I think the film did a good job of really showing just how much power is seething under that old man's robes... Gandalf can kick major ass.

I agaree with Charlatan it is an imparative that you read the books they are spetacular, the detail that you miss in the movies is quite extensive. I made a point to read the novels before the movies came out and was glad I did.

That scene in the film got my heart racing and my body more tingly than from any other film! It still does to this day. I read the book shortly after and I love how they did it.

Geek alert:

The wizards who were sent out by the Valar were the Istari - Olorin the gray (Mithrandir/Gandalf), Curunir the white (Saruman), Aiwendil (Radagast) the brown, and two "blue" wizards (Alatar and Pallando) who apparently ran off into the east. It's speculated that they may have gone "rogue" and joined forces with Sauron but there's no real evidence for that in anything I've read.

Olorin was sent by Manwe and Varda (essentially king and queen of the Valar) as their "champion;" Aule (the "maker" Vala) sent Curinir (interesting that Aule was also the Vala to whom Sauron was originally connected); Aiwendil was sent by Yavanna; the other two by Orome.

The Valar sent the Istari back to middle earth when the first shadow of Sauron started to reappear in Greenwood/Mirkwood. Their job was ostensibly to kick his ass back to Aman, but as we saw Curunir was corrupted, Radagast was really only concerned with the beasts of the earth, the blue wizards went AWOL. Which left Olorin to do all the dirty work, aided by the ring of fire (Narya) which was given to him by Cirdan when he arrived at the Gray Havens. Cirdan apparently saw through the earthly disguise, recognized him as Maiar, and thought that he'd be able to use the elvish ring better in his battle against Sauron.

In this era of Google searches, I find that very commendable.

However, does that mean it's been ten years since you've re-read the trilogy?

The information about the Istari, Maiar, Valar, etc. aren't found in the Trilogy, they are found in the Silmarillion which I am currently reading when I'm not reading Hardball by Chris Matthews. So it doesn't necessarily mean that he hasn't re-read the trilogy in the past ten years it just means that he hasn't read the Silmarillion in the past ten years.

Fly means run so fast your feet dont touch the god dam ground


and yes he says fly you fools


it makes more sense in the book


if you have not read the trilogy for the love of god do its worth the time