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To say that the fight between Gandalf the Grey and the Balrog of Morgoth inThe Fellowship of the Ringis etched verbatim in the mind of everyLord of the Ringsfan would be an understatement. But other than the iconic “You shall not pass!” line, there’s plenty that Gandalf says in this scene that’s worth deconstructing. For example, what is the ‘Secret Fire’ that he claims to be a servant of?
In the firstLord of the Ringsfilm, it is easy to mistake the humbly-cloaked grey wizard for merely a wise old man with a few tricks up his sleeve. But there’s more to Gandalf than meets the eye. When the Fellowship is faced with the Balrog known as Durin’s Bane in the mines of Moria, they see Gandalf reveal his true self. A powerful wizard, he refers to himself as a servant of the Secret Fire and a wielder of the Flame of Anor. But even those who’ve only read the Lord of the Rings books might not know what those two epithets mean. For that, we must look at Tolkien’s The Silmarillion and Christopher Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales.
What is the Secret Fire that Gandalf Mentions?
The Secret Fire that Gandalf name-drops in the Moria scene speaks of his origin story and is a roaring hint to his divinity because it ties him directly to the one true God of the universe—Eru Ilúvatar. In the “Ainulindalë” chapter ofThe Silmarillion, Tolkien writes about Eru Ilúvatar, the One God or Father Almighty, who brought about the creation of the physical universe, Eä, and at the center of it, he placed the Secret Fire, also known as the Flame Imperishable.
In the Void, where at first there’s nothing, Eru’s thought birthed the Ainur (Holy Ones), who were further classified into the Valar (Lords of Arda)and the Maiar (lesser angelic beings). He taught the Ainur different themes of creation. And together, they sang the “Great Music” through which the universe and its many components came into existence. But before they could do that, Tolkien mentions that Eru had to kindle within them the “Flame Imperishable,” which would allow them to imbue the Music with their own thoughts and creativity. Only once the vision of the world was sung into existence and the Ainur were happy with its beauty, Eru “gave Being to their vision” by sending “the Secret Fire to burn at the heart of the World.”
‘Therefore I say: Eä! Let these things Be! And I will send forth into the Void the Flame Imperishable, and it shall be at the heart of the World, and the World shall Be; and those of you that will may go down into it.’ And suddenly the Ainur saw afar off a light, as it were a cloud with a living heart of flame; and they knew that this was no vision only, but that Ilúvatar had made a new thing: Eä, the World that Is.
The Flame Imperishable, thus, clearly implies a soul or a divine spark of being that only Eru can ignite to bring a creation to life. It is mentioned in the Ainulindalë that the strongest of the Ainur, Melkor (who eventually becomes the Dark Lord Morgoth), tried to seek this flame but couldn’t find it for the Flame was in Ilúvatar, and it was with him. This is why Morgoth or Sauron cannot create any dark beings from scratch; they have no power of creation and can only twist Eru’s creations for their dark purposes, like turning elves into orcs. Similarly,when the Vala Aüle created the dwarves, they were mere hollow puppets with no spark of life, until Eru ‘ensouled’ them and gave them free will and creativity.
Tolkien was a devout Catholic and disliked allegory. However, his work is full of themes borrowed from Christianity and other religions, and this could very well be his version of the Genesis story, with the Secret Fire as the Holy Spirit or Holy Fire that gives life to God’s creations and comes only from Him. It speaks of the traits of free will, creativity, and imagination that God has granted to human beings so that they may have a say in the paths of their destiny.
When a Servant of the Secret Fire Fights a Flame of Udûn
The fight between Gandalf and the Balrog inThe Lord of the Ringssymbolizes the fight between good and evil, light and shadow. Both Gandalf and the Balrog are Maiar. But one is the uncorrupted Maia Olórin, the servant of the One God and associated with Manwë, the King of the Valar. And the other has been twisted into a monster by the fallen Vala Melkor. Gandalf wields the Flame of Anor or the ‘Flame of the Sun’, a symbol of life and the enemy of darkness.The Balrog is a Flame of Udûn,i.e., a fiery monster from Udûn (meaning ‘hell’), the underground fortress of Morgoth.
So when Gandalf says he is a Servant of the Secret Fire, he is invoking his loyalty to the divine spirit of Eru Ilúvatar, pitting the power of creation against the Balrog’s power of destruction. No wonder, then, that when Gandalf died while vanquishing the Balrog, he was sent back to Middle-earth and resurrected as Gandalf the White!
