or very foolish, person who underated Gandalf. I agree with you all: Gandalf most probably had a general sort of idea about how things would go, but did not have any way of predicting or forcasting what certain individuals might take into their heads to do: witness Peregrine's abstraction of the Numenorean palantir, and Aragorn's decision to wrestle with Sauron through its medium. That even the Wise cannot see all ends, Gandalf himself observed...