I say Dumbledore all the way! I know Gandalf is a great wizard but really.... Dumbledore has done so many amazing things for so many people and hes much more powerful and smarter than Gandalf!!

I like some of the reasons that Gandolf would be considered more powerful, BUT I like Dumbledore more than Gandolf. SO I chose Dumbledore.

I have no idea who Gandalf is, is he the guy from LoTR? Because if he is, I haven't properly watched the movies. I chose Dumbledore because he had the Elder Wand until he died.

I would have to say Dumbledore, mostly because i like that HP series more and they aren't really comparable. But also, Dumbledore is just so smart and..... I dont know. Gandalf is extremely powerful, dont get me wrong, but Dumbledore is more understanding which is something I think is very important. But then again they're actual powers are pretty equal.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if its which character is better and is more important to their respective stories, then I deinatly say Dumbledore. However, if its a question of who would win if they were pulled out oif their worlds and fought eachother, I agree with E.Austen, they would be fighting til the next millenia because they are equally powerful.

~jyliiibean

Gandalf hands down. He isn't seen using magic as often as Dumbledore but that might have something to do with the fact that most of the time we see him he is surrounded by at least a few fully trained soldiers, and the fact that most every enemy the fellowship meets knows little magic so nothing more than sword-fighting is needed. but he can certainly use magic if he wanted to. I recall Gandalf being able to destroy Saruman's staff, which is probably more powerful than the elder-wand, so he could surely break DD's wand (Hermione manages to accidently destroy a wand, so imagine what a near-god wizard can do when intending to break one.).

I'm surprised at how many people don't know who Gandalf is.

you guys are kind of way off saying that gandalf is immmortal. remember how saruman died from a human? the only reason gandalf didnt die from that balrog(which was sweet) was because he didnt complete his task on Earth.duh... jk

as a maia he was yavanas cheif herald making him the equivelent of a vice captain
it also made him saurons equal in his true form

on earth how ever manwe basically told him and the istari "yes you could walk into mordor punk saurons army out..rip sauron from the etheral and basically rip him apart"

"but if you do that the mortals wont lean the lessons needed to take the elves place as the chosen few" "oh and i'll get angry and put a stop to it"

so gandalf and the rest of the istari formed human shapes...shapes that could die

but that they themselves would still carry on..they as maia could just fashion another body and move along..since it was limiters imposed to keep him held back

when gandalf and galadriel raided the necromancer (saurons) stronghold in the woods during the hobbit (if you read tolkiens other materials)

him and galadrial by themselves basically rip the doors down..break magical seals and lay a brutal brutal smack down on everything in their path...destroying everything

then contesting saurons power in direct magical fighting thingy what ever it is exactly that they did

sauron basically was like "what ever i;m done here" and noly held them off long enough to basically book it to mordor

so that's not exactly indicative of big G's skills

still him and the pretty lady basically cleaned house and stomped on an entire army

after that in the book any ways

he takes on all nine ring wraiths in magical combat...the sheer power their putting out causes a lighting storm that can be seen for miles around

as aragorn frogdo and sam see their battle at amon sun..from i think some dozen or so league away

again in the book when he faces off against the balrog

part of the battle is spiritual

"i know not what it was the orks became silent and fearfull i heard them utter in their sick tongue "gnash" which means fire..then i felt him threw the door and he perceived me..and the utterance of his counter spell was so great it nearly broke me...i held onto it with all i could and the force shattered the door and threw me down the stairs"

thats not the exact qoute from the book mind you

but basically him and gandalf felt each other and durins bane imediatly recognized what gandalf was..and let off a huuugggeee attack which andalf could barely contain

then he falls..

get into a huge physical beat down with the balrog..thousands of feet under the ground..running threw ancient tunnels

and aparently running from giant..earth worms.or something outragious like that (i forgot exactly what they where..safe to say they served neither the darkness or the light and basically could of cared less just wanted them both gone)

the battle continues i think for an entire week straight

until both gandalf and the balrog recover their powers(because the actual seven day long fist fight in which they fell thousands of feet then scaled..a huge mountain..was done when they where basically..at half power and reduced to nothing but their hands..and what ever meele weapons they had on hand...how awesome is that by the way?)

they start getting into an actual mystical duel

the sheer power they out put causes a hurricane like storm to rage across the entire mountain range...that can be seen

from as far away as gondor (which is i think..like on the other side of middle earth)

at this point gandalf gets desperate and channels every single ounce of his life force into a lighting bolt...projected from his sword

and slams at durins bane with the full weight of all the power of gandalf the grey (all of his angelic powers he was allowed to call upon..at the time)

the force destroys a peice of the mountain top brining these ancient stairs down and a small fort on them (i think or just an observatory)..and toppling a small chunk of the top of the mountain

the balrog falls back essentially coming down on gandalf the giant coprse then drops to the side of the mountain..dead

gandalf at this point..passes out from hypothermia..exhaustion and lack of sleep/eating/drinking and doing nothing but fighting..and his injuries from the fall...

gandalfs body dies..not because of the balrog..it didn't kill him

his final attack and cumilative injuries..(like i dunno falling off the bridge a few thousand feet into the base of the mountain deep in the earth) and the constant combat..

the body as i mentioned was nothing..manwe was like "okay dude..nice but your not done..time to go back to earth and finish this quest" "oh and would you mind taking saruman powers and whooping his but for me?"

so they unsealed him restored him to like seventy percent of his maia abilities

and sent him on his merry way

stuffed him back in his exhausted mangled body

he then..totally wiped out half naked climbs down a freezing mountain goes to galadriels house

where he chills for like a couple weeks gets some food and some rest

and some new clothes

then goes back out to kick some tail and look awesome as gandalf the white

also to poeple talking about the witch king beating him

in cannon the books..this never happened

the witch king..arrived channeling alll of his (formidable ) power

and basically told gandalf to run

gandalf flicked him off and was about to kill him

when rohan did their cavalry charge and started massacreing the witchkings troops

forcing his majesty to turn tail and run away and bail his army out before they got curbstomped by the cavarly..and the army of ghosts

it never happened..the only person who thought gandalf might loose was denethor

who by that time had gone completely insane and was artificially aged..and under extreme stress from using the palantir to peer into saurons brain (trying to invade the mind of a being like sauron is really really stupid)

and gandalf's reply was basically "maybe there are some powers in this world greater then me..but i'm not sure the witchkings one of them" "or when pigs fly" or something to that effect


dumbledore only has two advantages over gandalf

versaility..in human form gandalf was limited

and frankly dumbledore did a bunch of things like transmutation and other things that gandalf never did

and speed dumbledore was much much faster then him

that being said he's out gunned..out ranged...(what with the top tier mages on middle earth being able to cast spells and affect beings across continents)

he's physically out classed on a level thats unreal...be it strength or durability


dudes best hope is to use his speed to blitz the holly heck out of gandalf and destroy his mortal body before gandalf..so much as looks at him and gets the chance to open his mouth

what ever spell dumbledore casts it better be his most powerful and he better prey it gets threw gandalfs own formdiable defensive magic and his own durability

which i can't see happening most of the time

i dunno out of ten fights

i see gandalf taking eight or seven and a half

with dumbledores victory's essentially being catchimg him off gaurd..and hitting him with everything he has before gandalf counters and butchers him like cattle in a texas slaughter house

truth is though both these guys would more then likely sit down and have tea together..and just hang out..

I'm going to say almost the same thing I said over on the comparison thread between Sauron and Voldemort... I don't know much about Lord of the Rings... I know enough to know that Gandalf is a character in the Lord of the Rings but that is it. So I picked Dumbledore.

Well let's see. Gandalf is a Maiar. That means he is immortal. He could charge at dumbeldore again and again until dumbeldore gets tired or breaks a nail. Then Gandalf could slice dumbeldores head off.Or Gandalf could use his staff to blind dumbeldore and then Gandalf could finish him off. If you dumbeldore fans read about Gandalf and the Maiar you'll know that they helped shape the world and its creatures. So if Gandalf wanted to he could make a tree burst out of dumbeldore's head. With brains gushing out, dumbeldore would be soon dead. Gandalf could also create an ent for every tree in the world (how many trees is that? uh... a few billion? probably more) which would continue to attack and soon kill dumbeldore. And those are only two examples. Dumbeldore's "magical abilities" shrivels up in a corner and is then burned to millions of tiny pieces compared to Gandalf's superiority over magic and wizardry. Dumbeldore is a joke compared to Gandalf. dumbeldore's power is the radius of an atom compared to Gandalf's which is like the distance from Earth to the farthest star in the Andromeda Galaxy. It's simple, Gandalf would win.

Ps: Dumbledore means "white hat".
Gandalf means "cain elf".
In my opinion, I would rather be a cain elf than a white hat. And I would rather support a cain elf than a white hat.

Gandalf doesn't use his full Maiar powers in the movies or book trilogy, you guys should read the tolkien wiki on it if you believe that Gandalf had his full power in the film/books (excluding Silmarrillion or any other book besides the trilogy).

And unlike Dumbeldore, Gandalf is much more active in movement. All dumbeldore does is points his little wand at people casting blue lightning over and over again and also doing some other stuff. Gandalf rides a horse, uses a sword like a middle aged man and uses his staff which is much better than a wand because staffs can be used for spells and close combat, and pretty much everything else dumbeldore can do.

Gandalf is a god (Maiar), dumbeldore is a mortal being. You can't debate these two and expect and god to be weaker than an old mortal being.

plus since gandalf is a maiar, he could be in the sky and would just shoot down dumbeldore without dumbeldore noticing it's him.

Gandalf definately has more powerful magic than any of the wizards in HP. Magic in Middle-Earth is of another kind, and could easily whipe out most of the wizards in HP.

Truth be told, I haven't read the Lord of the Rings so I'm not aware to the extent of Gandalf's powers.

I only know that Dumbledore has proved his abilities from being the professor at Hogwarts and his known past. (Which I haven't read yet but have heard).

No doubt that when asked in a HP forum it can be assumed that many would choose to pick their favorite Headmaster as opposed to the other wizard.

From what I could tell from the movies of LotR. Gandalf didn't seem particularly powerful.

Recently seen the Half-Blood Prince and Dumbledore's wonderful light-show against the Inferi.

My vote's on our Headmaster.