Who was the old man?

[Inziladun]

CSteefel

This suggests to me an interesting interpretation of the old man, although one that I am hard pressed to provide any evidence for. The thought does arise, however: Why would Saruman bother to personally visit the campsite on the borders of Fangorn if he has a Palantir at his disposal? Now it may not always be straightforward to bend the Palantir to one's will, but given Saruman's intense desire to know what happened to his raiding party, it is actually hard to imagine that he was not busy using the Palantir he possessed to this end.

Now why the use of the Palantir by Saruman, if successful in locating and seeing the three on the borders of Fangorn, would result in a vision, I don't know, and there is no direct support to this. But it seems likely that in one way or another, he was "bending his thought" in that direction, so an evanescent phantom of him might be reasonable, whether aided by the Palantir he held or not...

I wonder if Saruman might not have been afraid to utilize the Palantír of Orthanc at that point. He had been communicating with Sauron for some time, and Sauron had been able to dominate him through it. Saruman had to have been well aware that Sauron could wrest control away from him at any time and demand an account of his doings. Recall what Pippin reported his Questioner saying during his glance at the Stone.

So you have come back? Why have you neglected to report for so long?

TT p. 219
Sauron at first thought the surveyor was Saruman, and it appears Saruman had avoided using his Stone for some time.
As to the theory that Saruman had somehow been able to conjure a phantom of himself through the Palantír, it is said, I think, in UT that on their own the Stones could only see. No actual communication was possible with anyone by use of a Stone unless the surveyor could find someone who was also using one at the same time. I don't see how any type of image projection would have been possible.