My favorite arc in LotR is actually “Gandalf & Pippin’s Questions.”
The core of this relationship is that Pippin likes asking questions and Gandalf only sometimes has the leisure to answer them:
‘What are you going to do then?’ asked Pippin, undaunted by the wizard’s bristling brows.
‘Knock on the doors with your head, Peregrin Took,’ said Gandalf. 'But if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions, I will seek for the opening words.’
(“Undaunted” is such a good word for Pippin re: Gandalf. He’s clearly never feared an authority figure in his life. Meanwhile, Gandalf is like “Pippin is a good kid but if someone doesn’t squelch him when necessary he’s going to do something REALLY stupid.”)
Later, the continuing saga of “Gandalf doesn’t like unnecessary questions” returns as soon as he does:
'Then Gandalf came back to us, and he seemed relieved, almost merry. He did say he was glad to see us, then.
’"But Gandalf,“ I cried, “where have you been? And have you seen the others?’
’"Wherever I have been, I am back,” he answered in the genuine Gandalf manner. “Yes, I have seen some of the others. But news must wait.”’
Note Pippin’s tolerant familiarity with “Gandalf giving useless answers.”
After Isengard and Pippin’s first sight of the palantir, we see its influence showing itself in Pippin’s stronger and angrier irritation at Gandalf’s uncommunicative ways:
'You had the luck, Merry,’ said Pippin softly, after a long pause. 'You were riding with Gandalf.’
'Did you get any news, any information out of him?’
'Yes, a good deal. More than usual. (…) But you can go with him tomorrow, if you think you can get more out of him–and if he’ll let you.’
'Can I? Good! But he’s close, isn’t he? Not changed at all.’
'Oh yes, he is!’ said Merry, waking up a little (…)
'Well, if Gandalf has changed at all, then he’s closer than ever that’s all,’ Pippin argued.
We all know how that ends. Boy steals rock, boy looks into rock, boy gets his mind filleted by the Enemy, Gandalf evacuates with him to Minas Tirith.
But then! While Gandalf is quite clear that Pippin should have known better/talked to him before resorting to stealing (and he’s right, obviously), he also responds to this incident by changing his own behavior. He starts talking more.
'What did the men of old use [the palantiri] for?’ asked Pippin, delighted and astonished at getting answers to so many questions, and wondering how long it would last.
And he seems to make it clear that this IS in response to the palantir incident, and is him attempting to take Pippin’s desire for information more seriously.
'But I should like to know–’ Pippin began.
'Mercy!’ cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?’
'The names of all the stars, and of all living things, and the whole history of Middle-earth and Over-heaven and of the Sundering Seas,’ laughed Pippin. 'Of course! What less? But I am not in a hurry tonight. At the moment I was just wondering about the black shadow.’
(I love that Pippin laughs and says “If I have the option, I want to know everything, obviously,” partly because he’s making a joke so soon after that nightmare incident and partly because it’s the first time we see Pippin expressing a desire for real, comprehensive knowledge. Even if it’s a joke, this is also the point in the narrative where—having lost both Merry and Frodo—Pippin’s horizons start being forcibly widened, and we’re about to see him taking in an unfamiliar world by himself.)
Despite Gandalf’s “How much more do I have to say?” protest, Gandalf keeps talking and telling his passenger stories, even when Pippin’s falling asleep. <3
Pippin became drowsy again and paid little attention to Gandalf telling him of the customs of Gondor, and how the Lord of the City had beacons built on the tops of outlying hills along both borders of the great range, and maintained posts at these points where fresh horses were always in readiness to bear his errand-riders to Rohan in the North, or to Belfalas in the South.
After we get to Minas Tirith, they both have less time and less peace, but we still get a glimpse of Gandalf trying to balance Pippin’s questions with his other, weightier duties:
'There are evil days ahead. To sleep while we may!’
'But what?’ said Gandalf. 'Only one but will I allow tonight.’
(I don’t remember the exact question, but it was after they’d seen Faramir, and Pippin was disturbed by the fact that Frodo and Sam were traveling with Gollum. He wanted Gandalf to give an explanation, which Gandalf didn’t really have.)
Finally, two notes on the subject after the destruction of the Ring. Firstly, there’s this exchange when Frodo and Sam are first reunited with Merry and Pippin in their knightly armors:
'But I can see there’s more tales to tell than ours.’
'There are indeed,’ said Pippin turning toward him. 'And we’ll begin telling them, as soon as this feast is ended. In the meantime you can try Gandalf. He’s not as close as he used to be, though he laughs now more than he talks.’
And later in Minas Tirith (when Aragorn is keeping them around for his wedding, but he and Gandalf both refuse to tell them that’s why) Frodo teasingly recalls that line.
'Pippin,’ said Frodo, 'didn’t you say that Gandalf was less close than of old? He was weary of his labors then, I think. Now he is recovering.’
(Frodo, of course, also has a great deal of experience in “Gandalf not answering your questions even when he thinks he IS.”)
I don’t really have a point to this, I just love the shift in Gandalf & Pippin’s relationship over the course of the books, and I also love the change from Pippin’s sulky “if Gandalf has changed at all, then he’s closer than ever >:/” to his merry, affectionate “He’s not as close now as he used to be, though he laughs now more than he talks.”
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