I don’t think that you could really give the title of “Most Powerful” to any of them. Since each Valar has a special and unique sort of force/power. Power is simply the ability or capacity to perform or act effectively. Or of having great influence or control over others. Plus you also have to ask at what time is this “vote” taken place? If it was before Arda ( during the AINULINDALË) was created then we could easily say, Melkor.
“Then Ilúvatar spoke, and he said: 'Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor; but that he may know, and all the Ainur, that I am Ilúvatar.”
“Manwë and Melkor were brethren in the thought of Ilúvatar. The mightiest of those Ainur who came into the World was in his beginning Melkor; but Manwë is dearest to Ilúvatar and understands most clearly his purposes.”
“Yet so great was the power of his(Melkor) uprising that in ages forgotten he contended with Manwë and all the Valar, and through long years in Arda held dominion over most of the lands of the Earth.”
I believe at this time and before “The Children of Ilúvatar” had been brought forth, that Melkor was the “strongest in power”. It is seen in the early wars between Melkor and the other Valar. Where mountains are raised and then crumpled. The Earth shakes with their tremendous power.
“Among them(14 original Valar{Melkor is excludind}) Nine were of chief power and reverence; but one is removed from their number, and Eight remain, the Aratar, the High Ones of Arda: Manwë and Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna and Aulë, Mandos, Nienna, and Oromë. Though Manwë is their King and holds their allegiance under Eru, in majesty they are peers, surpassing beyond compare all others, whether of the Valar and the Maiar, or of any other order that Ilúvatar has sent into Eä.”
Now, we could go on and on, about he is more powerful, she did this, and he created that. But it wouldn’t get us anywhere. Read the “VALAQUENTA” to see their “powers” in the lore of the Noldar.
“Now therefore the Valar were gathered upon Almaren, fearing no evil, and because of the light of Illuin they did not perceive the shadow in the north that was cast from afar by Melkor;”
Now, Melkor “feared” almost anything and everything. He feared the other Valar(almost each one for different reasons), he feared the Light, he feared the Children of Ilúvatar(Mostly the sons of Finwe and Feanor’s Family), he only was master because he put fear in his servents. The other Valar only feared what harm might be done of others and/or unpleasing their father. Aule fearing that the other Valar might be mad at his creation. Yavanna being afraid of the defenceless things in the wood (So came the Ents, which Eru created after Yavanna, asked Manwe). They did not fear Melkor, nor his power, but they feared what he would do with his power. How he would corrupt the world and its inhabitants. Even of all the Maiar he tricked or persuaded into his power, he still feared.
But Melkor lost much of his powers later on, and relied more on his treachery and servants then his own power. Even early on as in the “Coming of the Sun and Moon”.
“Having indeed no longer the power; for as he grew in malice, and sent forth from himself the evil that he conceived in lies and creatures of wickedness, his might passed into them and was dispersed, and he himself became ever more bound to the earth, unwilling to issue from his dark strongholds. With shadows he hid himself and his servants from Arien, the glance of whose eyes they could not long endure; and the lands near his dwelling were shrouded in fumes and great clouds.”
After this occurs , Manwe definitely reigns as Master of Arda. So says Eru.
[ April 05, 2002: Message edited by: zifnab ]
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