Gandalf - geat or a joke of a wizard?

[Aiwendil]

As I said before, he showed his power to many men. Maybe not all of it, though. Someties he had to do it or fail his mission, that's true. But if it wasn't for Gwaihir, he'd fail the current mission that he had with the Dwarves. He was planning to jump off and basically commit suicide when the Eagles came (at least that's what my translation says. Maybe the original is different). In LOTR, in every battle there's something special said about Gandalf - shadows avoid him, or something like that. And it said that he was afraid! - again, maybe it was translator's fault. But AFRAID?!?! It is possible that he was afraid for the mission, but in my book, it was pretty clear that Gandalf was afraid for himself.

I think the translation is perfectly accurate. Why shouldn't Gandalf be afraid? Fear is not within the purview of the weak only. And what makes one courageous is not so much the absence of fear as the strength of will to overcome that fear. Gandalf was a powerful being, but he was not a Vala - and we know that even one of that great order (Melkor) was subject to fear. Moreover, Gandalf was incarnated in human (or at least "humane") form and was, I would say, subject to the weaknesses, both of mind and of body, that necessarily come therewith.