Who is Dolbear? A wizard/ angel/ messenger from Faery

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The character of Dolbear jumps-out of the Notion Club Papers as somebody about whom there is more than meets the eye.

Almost everything he says is wise and cuts-deep.

He seems to understand more of what is going-on than anyone else.

He seems to be a kind of grey eminence at the least, greatly respected by the other members (underneath their chummy chaffing) and probably somebody who is - in fact - actually stage-managing the whole process by which the Notion Club re-establishes contact with Faery.

(We know Dolbear has certainly been working, independently, with Ramer even before the meetings were reported and also later with Lowdham - on their dreams and interpretations.)

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In this sense Dolbear resembles Gandalf - who is a wizard or an 'angel' in disguise; in the sense of being a higher being from the undying lands who is a messenger and catalyst.

A catalyst in chemistry is an agent which facilitates a chemical reaction yet itself remains chemically unchanged by the reaction.

This would apply pretty exactly to Dolbear. I would guess that his character is solid, and would not change throughout the story.

And we would not have access to Dolbear's inner life - he would (like Gandalf) be observed rather than experienced.

He would make things happen, by hints and directions and providing key pieces of information.

And at the end of the story Dolbear would return (like Gandalf) whence he came - to Faery.

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This is (I speculate) the meaning of Dolbear seeming to sleep though the meetings, yet remain apparently aware of everything which is happening in them - indeed more aware of the implications of the meetings than are the active participants.

I suspect that during sleep Dolbear is in contact with Faery and with the Notion Club at the same time.

He is therefore a conduit or passageway linking Oxford and the undying lands - he transmits the proceedings of the Notion Club to Faery, and receives instructions of what to do.

Dolbear's trance-like states of sleep are therefore (I believe) the specific means by which the inhabitants of Faery are encouraging the renewed contact between England and Faery which the Notion Club themselves seek.

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