Voronwë wrote:
Indeed my friends, none of you has any weapon that could hurt me.
Although, almost those same words were spoken by a Vala (Mandos iirc) to Fëanor or Fingolfin (one of the F's) when they said they were returning to Middle Earth to defeat Morgoth. They did not appreciate how superior was the power of a Vala.
So I'm not sure that Tolkien intended to imply more by this than the fact that Gandalf's powers as a Maia were no longer limited by his body.
I do suspect that after Moria Gandalf was the equal of Sauron if not his superior, but he also understood that it was not his mission to take on Sauron.
Before the Sil was published and we had only the text of LotR at our disposal ... well, first of all, the power equivalence of Gandalf and the Balrog was clear from the text without even needing reference to the Maiar; though the fact that Sauron was in this same league was not obvious - on the contrary it seemed plain that Sauron was superior in power to both the Balrog and Gandalf the Grey. Otherwise any of the Istari could have challenged Sauron on their own, but even Saruman could not do that. Why Sauron's power had grown so great beyond the other Maiar in spite of the fact that he had invested much more of his power in a body, this is never really explained by Tolkien. That's thought #1.
Thought #2 from those early days was that Tolkien made a point of having antagonists of matching power. The mercy of Frodo is pitted against the treason of Gollum; the wisdom of Gandalf is pitted against the greed of Saruman; the elves are pitted against the orcs, which we thought in those days to be corrupted elves, and so on.
It was my interpretation, originally, that Aragorn needed to face off with the WitchKing, but that such a confrontation could have only one outcome because of the prophecy. (Remember that we did not have the source of the Prophecy. It was, in that context, as potent as the Oath of the Dead and so constrained the narrative.)
It was equally obvious that Aragorn could not die.
My impression, reading Gandalf's words after he knew that Éowyn had killed the Wiki, was that Gandalf thought that his task in the battle would be to kill the Wiki on behalf of Aragorn, and only because it was a necessary confrontation between 'equal's' but one that could not take place in prescribed form because some supernatural (prophetic) power was also at work.
So Gandalf's realization that the fuss with Faramir has caused this task to pass to another whose power was much inferior was really a potent, tragic realization.
It has always seemed significant to me that there are several points in the story where Gandalf truly believes himself to have failed. He is called upon to abandon his calculations of what Eru wanted from him in Middle Earth, and take on instead a seemingly lesser task which pops up and which only he can do - as with the Balrog and with the rescue of Faramir. He has to surrender his own understanding of the plan and trust Eru. (This of course is exactly what Saruman is never able to do.)
In fact, I am drawing the conclusion over many readings that this is the very essence of Gandalf's character - the willingness to admit that he does not know the plan but will offer himself to do what is necessary without needing any certainties.
And we see in both cases that the outcome is positive. Gandalf does return from beyond time and space to lead the fellowship as needed, and in saving Faramir he also saves Éowyn. The fact that Tolkien brings these circles to close is evidence of his own faith in the rewards of faith.
I have thought ... well, this is something I've hesitated to post about here for fear of being misunderstood ... but I have long thought that the contrast between Gandalf and Saruman was related to Tolkien's understanding of his Christian faith and what he himself (Tolkien) was being called upon to do.
He wrote revealing all the core values from his very distinct religious faith without confining them, not even by allegory, to a specific set of beliefs, as if to say, "I don't know for whom this might be relevant but it is so important to me that I will write it in such a way that no one need feel excluded from it."
The character of Sarum stands in contrast to that mentality. His universe is not open-ended and receptive to the infusion of new understandings; he wants to be in control of the plan, and if he can't control the plan then he makes his own plan to counter it.
I have long suspected Tolkien of feeling, perhaps, that C. S. Lewis' approach was a bit like the approach of Saruman ... that unless 'the plan' as he understood it could be made plain (through allegory) then he had not succeeded at this purpose. Whereas for Tolkien himself, if 'the plan' had been presented as such, a larger purpose would have been already defeated by that.
(Not sure that's entirely coherent. Writing late at night.)
Jn
:D
But I think this statement, from the chapter The White Rider in The Two Towers, just after Gandalf's return is key: