Gandalf - geat or a joke of a wizard?

[Galadriel55]

Please don't mistake me, I am not, and was never, expecting Gandalf to be a "Harry Potter" wizard. However, in LOTR, he's more... more. In TH he seems slightly to be a comical fool... a bit. He's not as wise, or as powerful, or as strong ("innerly") in TH than in LOTR.

In LOTR Gandalf is afraid for others, but not for his own hide. In TH, it says straightforwardly that Gandalf was afraid for himself. It just...well, messed up my picture of Gandalf.

Moreover, I noticed (more recently) that Gandalf could ot read the runes on Glamdring and Orcrist and had to ask Elrond to translate them. ???

I guess the best explanation for that is that TH and LOTR are just different in style and purpose, and shouldn't really be regrded as one whole.