Who was the old man?

[alatar]

Originally Posted by CSteefel

Good allusion here. I think it does lend further credence to the idea that it was Saruman, although whether himself (I doubt it) or a phantom/vision is not 100% clear...

Again, we have no evidence that 'phantoms' and 'visions' are things that occur in Middle Earth. Though as explanations they may be possible, how much more probable that it simply was the old man himself, with his colour-changing cloak, and his ability to 'just appear' (and assuming then the opposite ability).

The harder issue to explain was his reason for leaving so rapidly, and my only hypothesis there is that he thought he had found himself within a bad joke, and so decided to get out as soon as possible.

"An Elf, a Ranger and a Dwarf are sitting in a forest..."