Who was the old man?

Originally Posted by alatar

Agreed. But one also should not consider something to be probable just because it is possible.

And given your statement, I would posit that the old man is actually Fengel. Possible? But of course. Prove that it's not him while I get ready to add another possibility to the list.

There is more evidence from the text to support the view that the Old Man in some shape or form was Saruman, of course. My view is that it was a spirit of Saruman, rather than the physical form. The text does, to some extent, support this view, in the eyes of Gimli at least.