[littlemanpoet]

In some traditions, including early English ones, some of the angels exiled from Heaven with Satan became devils, but others, more undecided or more neutral, became elves. At Judgement Day some of these may regain forgiveness and salvation and return to their old home, as Galadriel does at the very end of The Return of the King. This still does not make Galadriel into an angel, even in the sense of a messenger, in the way that Gandalf is; but one can imagine how a human being, looking back at the events of the Third Age and the First Age 'from a historical distance', .... could be confused, could put together Galadriel the Noldo exiled by the Valar and Gandalf the Maiar sent by the Valar (both of them allowed in the end to return) and no longer be able to see much difference.

Tom Shippey, from J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century