[Galadriel55]

Hmm. When I started reading this thread, my first impulse was #4 (which I seem to forgive much more easily than you too). However, Inzil makes a good case for #1, and might have me convinced. Although I feel that #4 is the simplest and most logical explanation based on what we know, Inzil does make a good case for what we don't explicitly know but might infer, and that option is truer to both Gandalf and Tolkien's characters.