The Maiar

[Sarumian]

Originally Posted by TheLostPilgrim

2) Would Gandalf still have been Gandalf? What I mean is, once he returned to the West, would he still have retained his personality, emotions and his memories of Middle Earth, of Frodo, etc? Would his spirit, his nature, still be recognizable as "Gandalf" in his natural form as Olorin? I don't mean who Gandalf was physically; I mean who he was in terms of his personality, his traits, etc?

I think the memories and the experience were going to stay with Gandalf, though he could obtain a different view on them. I believe, he would cease to be explosive and impatient; that feature was the way to make him more human and reasonably 'imperfect'. It probably was also accelerated by the fact that he often had to adjust his enormous wisdom to the silly ways of ME dwellers such as Pippin for instance.

On the other hand, I think, Gandalf's powerful sense of humour was something Olorin had not had initially. It looks to me highly likely that he developed this talent in ME and would retain it after returning to the West.