White Beards of Power: A Comparison between Gandalf and Dumbledore

Essay from the year 2012 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2,3, University of Paderborn (Institut fur Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: ClC Advanced Essay-writing, language: English, abstract: All mighty wizards we encounter in literature usually possess one feature that immediately indicates their status as powerful sorcerers to the reader: a long, mostly white (occasionally grey) beard. A wizard simply can't be that powerful if he isn't depicted as an old man - very old to be precise - with a beard so enormous that he can effortlessly tuck its end into his belt. This cliche of the wise old man with magical abilities derives to a large extent from the depiction of Gandalf the Grey in J.R.R. Tolkien s fantasy novel The Hobbit and it s even more famous successor The Lord of the Rings. The character of Gandalf became not only the iconic prototype for the description of wizards in literature but it influenced a whole genre, making Gandalf the uber-father of all wizards, on whose typical features many authors still rely on. This also counts for the famous headmaster of a certain school for witchcraft and wizardry. Invented more than half a century after The Hobbit, J.K. Rowling s Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter-series heavily relies on the well-known image of how a versed magician has to act and look like.