Luthien & Galadriel

[davem]

Surely the 'power' of the Maiar comes principally from knowledge - or perhaps 'gnosis' - they were the offspring of Eru's thought & took part in the Music. Therefore the question is one of 'mind' over 'matter'. They were different in essence to the Eruhini. Their power over the stuff of Arda comes from their helping in its creation & thus from their knowledge of its nature. The fact that a hroa is not part of their nature, whereas it is for the Eruhini, displays a mastery over it that none of the Eruhini have. Maiar can exist without bodies (nobody drag Melkor into this, please!), Elves & Men cannot.

Where does this leave Luthien? From her father she gained the nature of the Eldar, from her mother, something else. We have to remember that when she first appeared (BoLT) the incarnate Ainur married & had children, so Luthien's birth was not that unusual. By the 'end' we have a situation where the only Ainur to have a child was Melian.

In short, while Galadriel may have reached the greatest 'height' possible for one of the Eruhini, Luthien, by her very nature, had inherited the 'divinity' of her mother. Her 'power' comes from her nature, which is unique, coming, through Melian, almost directly from the mind of Eru. We don't know what either of them were capable of - we only know what they did.

Luthien is long gone, having passed beyond the circles of the world. In herself she embodied the tri-partate nature of Ainur, Eldar & Atani. No-one, before or since had done that - her decendants retained a strain of all three created races because of her. Galadriel did little in comparison - however much she contributed in the fight against Sauron. Through Luthien the 'Maian' spirit entered into mankind, even down to the Fourth Age & beyond.

I'd put Luthien ahead of Galadriel for that reason alone. If 'power' has anything to do with affecting the world, changing the present & the future, Luthien must be supreme.