LotR -- Book 3 - Chapter 05 - The White Rider

[Aiwendil]

Fordim wrote:

I've perhaps always just taken Gandalf at his word when he says that he is no longer Gandalf the Grey -- i.e. he truly is a new person or being: Gandalf the White is Saruman as he was meant to be. Given that he is literally a new person, it would make sense that he has forgotten much that was close to Gandalf the Grey, who died in Moria.

Now this is an interesting point. What does it mean to say that Gandalf the White is a "new person"? An entirely new person, as distinct from Gandalf the Grey as is Aragorn or Frodo? Surely not. He is called by the same name, he has the memories of Gandalf the Grey (even if here they are at first distant or difficult to access), and he largely acts like Gandalf the Grey. But if not a wholly distinct person, then what?

To put it another way, surely the spirit, the eala, of Gandalf the White is the same entity as that of Gandalf the Grey. If so, then it seems to me that the changes seen in his character after his death and return should be viewed in the same way that we view ordinary character development. He has had certain extraordinary experiences, and they have changed him in certain ways - just as Frodo, for example, undergoes a much slower process of change over the course of the novel.