Gandalf: The first 1000 or so years...

[Valandil]

Thanks Alcuin - great contribution and interesting comments. Three things to mention:

I would not have thought before that Gandalf arrived as much as 100 years after the other Istari - though it IS possible. I guess I imagined their arrivals to be all within a few years of one another (in human terms... but 100 would be a few in Elven or Valinorean terms). So it's an interesting possibility. My prior assumption would have been within 5-10 years of one another.

I don't think the Istari were sent to combat Sauron, necessarily. It was seen that "the shadow" had arisen again, but I don't think the nature of that shadow was yet realized - either in Valinor or in Middle Earth. It wasn't until years later that the White Council learned that Sauron was indeed the personage of the shadow returned.

What you say about the name "Incanus" is correct, but we're told a little more in UT. The "north-spy" (also "alien") seems to have come from the Haradrim - but Gandalf could have been given the same name in Gondor - where the Quenya would mean "mind-ruler" or "mind-master" - we might even say "mastermind". So, Gandalf may have been given the name in Gondor as a compliment, continued south into Harad, where his Gondorean name had an altogether different meaning.

This last reminds me of a car story. Apparently, Chevy had a VERY hard time selling the Nova (a car model) in Mexico. I believe it was some time before they realized that "no va" in Spanish essentially means "doesn't go" or "doesn't run" - while to us English-speakers, "nova" represents a great astronomical event.