Quote:
Originally Posted by Galin
Why can't Tolkien have intended this to be a visit from Olorin, not Gandalf the Istar, at a time when the power of the Elessar jool could be employed, but not Nenya. In other words, not necessarily in the Third Age, when of course Galadriel can and does employ Nenya for preservation power, notably in Lothlorien.
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I'm inclined to doubt the Elessar would have been brought by Olórin prior to the Third Age. I can't at the moment recall the reference to Olórin physically visiting Middle-earth; only that
The Silmarillion credits him with walking unseen among the Elves at times, or in the form of one of them. It doesn't seem likely to me that he would have been allowed to go to Middle-earth alone, seeing what havoc had been wrought by some of his fellow Maia (Sauron and Balrogs). The coming of the Istari also seems such a monumental event in the history that I think it would have been cheapened by the notion of Olórin having been to Middle-earth and spoken to some there already.
The recurrence of the naming "Olórin" could be explained by the idea that the Istari had only recently arrived and had not yet been given their Middle-earth names. Also, "Olórin" would likely have been known to Galadriel from her time in Valinor.