[Dininziliel]

Woo hoo—I checked in and found some delightfully intriguing notions (as well as the expected erudition!)

Lathspell wrote:

"Yes, I knew," said the wizard. "I bent my thought upon him, bidding him to make haste; for yesterday he was far away in the south of this land. Swiftly may he bear me back again'

[Dininziliel casts eyes down, laments her ADD, and makes small circles in the dirt w/left foot] I’d hastily glossed over this bit of information earlier—the horse action happened because Gandalf was around & needed Shadowfax. Thanks!

Also lathspell:

but there are other old people, however unlikely it may seem.

Saucepan-Man offered a suggestion on this:

Radagast?

Probably not Radagast (his color is brown), though it is an intriguing thought about someone else altogether. Sadly, it is unlikely because that would be even more of a departure than the one being discussed. However, it is fun to play with! What if Radagast had undergone the same death & transfiguration [nod to Strauss] as Gandalf? How might that have happened? What if all the wizards—even the ones in other regions of ME—had undergone the same experience and were returned arrayed in white by the Valar (Ainur?) to help deal with and heal the damage done by evil?

Daisy Brambleburr wrote:

It would have been easy for Saruman to get a Gandalf-style hat . . . A disguise, perhaps? . . . Saruman's voice has many powers . . . I think that Saruman would be interested in spying on Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, and by taking their horses he was effectively slowing them down.

Kransha supported this:

Deception is Saruman's specialty, second only to his voice.

These observations made me wonder if Saruman was perhaps sending a shadow of his present self to spy instead of actually being there in the flesh. I can see him being anxious to know what’s going on w/Aragorn & Co., yet being loath to leave his lair of safety as well risking losing control of his army.

However, Squatter offers convincing evidence to the contrary (of which this is a snippet):

. . . Éomer's words concerning Saruman . . . "He walks here and there, they say, as an old man hooded and cloaked, very like to Gandalf, as many now recall."

Still, it could be a Saruman spirit-self. I just like the fun of that idea.

Saucepan-Man brings up an excellent point:

That depends upon whether you want to believe that he did or not.

Squatter's comment relates to this:

I think that Tolkien is deliberately ambiguous about this point. He is putting the reader into the same frame of mind as the Three Walkers: that of not knowing what is happening so that they are distrustful of hooded and cloaked old men.

I had never thought of this before—Tolkien deliberately departed from his narrative pattern in order to have fun with us and provide us with some fun as well, with the added richness of an empathic connection to the characters. We get specifically “invited” to do what we are doing now—using clues and our scholarly skills to solve an amusing mystery! I like this "solution" a lot!

But just as we begin to feel all warm and resolved, Lathspell writes:

I would think he [Saruman] would sneer something to the three Hunters when they meet him at Orthanc.

Agreed--this lack of taunting was another puzzling addition to the mystery! I recall thinking the same when studying the matter before I met you bright, shiny dead people!

This has been a lot of fun for a small topic, and, as ever, instructive. Thanks!
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