Thread: Relative Powers
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Old 03-31-2006, 02:33 PM   #5
Aiwendil
Late Istar
 
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,224
Aiwendil is a guest at the Prancing Pony.Aiwendil is a guest at the Prancing Pony.
While I agree with those who have argued that this kind of list is ultimately impossible to reasonably construct, a few points do seem quite wrong to me in the list.

First, I agree with Thalion about Radagast. Why is he placed so low? He should be roughly as high as the other Istari; and I would place him above the Blue Wizards. Of course, the place of the Blue Wizards themselves can be no more than an uninformed guess, since we have no real information about them.

Second, why is Beren lower Aragorn? I would place him roughly on par with Hurin and Turin. For that matter, Tuor (who is missing from the list) should be on about that level as well.

Third, why is Arwen so high? As far as I can tell, her "power" consists entirely of beauty and banner-weaving ability.

Fourth, I think Ungoliant ought to be higher. She is a strange and unique figure in the Legendarium, and she seems (to me, at least), to have a kind of profound, primordial power. Consider that she almost defeated Morgoth before the Balrogs came to his aid.

That brings us to Morgoth. It seems to me that if we distinguish between Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White, we ought also to distinguish the primordial Melkor from the pseudo-historical Morgoth, who had divested himself of most of his power and was even wounded by Fingolfin.

I also don't understand why the Balrogs are not higher; nor why Frodo is as high as he is.
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