Although I have tended to think the "radiant flame" bit was sometimes
metaphorical and sometimes quite real. The occasional descriptions, such
as Pippin recounts in "Flotsam and Jetsam" -- "I could see the rider's face
clearly; it seemed to shine" -- seem literal rather than metaphorical.
What it may be is a reflection of the same kind of light Frodo saw about
Glorfindel at the ford, a quality that, to eyes capable of perceiving it, comes
from his having lived in both Valinor and in ME, not to mention having been
resurrected. Gandalf was returned from death "enhanced," as Tolkien puts
it, and being a Maia rather than an Elf, it may be that his own reflection of
these same qualities is commensurately stronger and thus more noticable, even
to ordinary people (as one might expect of an "angel" who has been permitted to
use more of his "angelic" abilities). Being humble in nature, he would
not want to go around "showing off," but would keep it hidden except in times
of need.
About his personality: I have always found interesting the following
passage from "Morgoth's Ring": "In later days he dearly loved the
Children of Eru, and took pity on their sorrows. Those who hearkened to
him arose from despair; and in their hearts the desire to heal and to renew
awoke, and thoughts of fair things that had not yet been but might yet be made
for the enrichment of Arda. Nothing he made himself and nothing he
possessed, but kindled the hearts of others, and in their delight he was
glad." (CT admits that a variation of this -- "He was humble in the Land
of the Blessed; and in Middle-earth he sought no renown. His triumph was
in the uprising of the fallen, and his joy was in the renewal of hope" -- had
wrongly been omitted from the Silmarillion). To someone like this, Narya
would have been an ideal tool, especially if he was to be living diminished in
knowledge and power; it would restore to him some measure of what he had been
before coming to ME. And after reading this, it seems not so coincidental
that he was a mentor of Aragorn, "The Healer and the
Renewer."
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We need the faith to go a path untrod,
The power to be alone and vote with God.
--Edwin Markham
