Luthien & Galadriel

[Mithalwen]

Eomer your argument is overly simplistic - their is a wide continuum of power among the maiar.

And Luthien is not a Maiar................ and I still loathe her....

[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.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

This is a pretty straightforward topic. Galadriel does not come close to Luthien, even with Nenya.

Mith, how could you loathe Luthien? She did only good and she did no bad. She was as close to perfection as an earthly being could be. Surely only Melkor and his disciples could loathe such good!

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

This is a pretty straightforward topic. Galadriel does not come close to Luthien, even with Nenya.

Mith, how could you loathe Luthien? She did only good and she did no bad. She was as close to perfection as an earthly being could be. Surely only Melkor and his disciples could loathe such good!

Plus Luthien danced exquisitely, eh Eomer. Oh, and, she was hott. I don't seem to recall Celeborn having Beren-like feelings.

[Anguirel]

Gentlemen prefer blondes. And weirdly eloquent, probably cursed galvorn swords prefer haughty silver-blondes.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

Yeah but Celeborn had thousands of years to grow accustomed to Gala's beauty. Beren was in the glorious infatuation stage.

Luthien had it all, yes? Ah, Luthien and Beren; inspiring envy in everyone for millenia!

[Gorthaur the Cruel]

Are you forgetting that Luthien actually bested Finrod's claim not long after. She had Sauron by the throat, and if she hadn't been as kind-hearted as she was, there would never have been a Ring for Frodo to destroy...

And are you forgetting that she had Sauron by the throat only because she had Huan at her side. It was Huan who couldn't be bested by prophecy. Morgoth was a dumb *** & allowed his lust to cloud his judgement. Sauron on the other hand was more cunning than his master & recognized Luthien for what she is. Had Huan been absent, Sauron would've slapped her silly. She may have sent Morgoth to lala land but that was a careless invite on his part.
Galadriel may not have done something dramatic as she had but she was someone to be reckoned with. Tolkien, again described her as the "greatest of elven women". Sure Luthien injected a divine substance to men but it continued only because of Galadriel who gave birth to Celebrian who in turn gave birth to Evenstar who chose a similar fate to Luthien. I'm not suggesting that she's greater than her, but perhaps atleast on the same league. And how can the elves be diminished in mind & body when the Three Elven rings brought healing & halt of weariness? It's even more absurd to say that the weilders themselves have been more diminished because they longed for the sea. Only Galadriel had this longing & in no way did it affect her native might. Perhaps, by the power of Nenya, she foresaw the fall of Sauron only by the means that she must give up her ring of power & this made all the more enthused to go home.

[Thinlómien]

I'll put now my word on the topic.

Galadriel and Lúthien can't be compared. Not only because Lúthien is half-"divine" and Galadriel is "just" an elf. The other reason is that their power is quite different. Lúthien's powers are more in "personal level"; her powers have great effects in eye-against-eye -combat or in things considering herself: she makes Morgoth fall asleep, she drives Sauron away, she moves Mandos, she grows her hair by a spell, she's absolutely charming... See? All her "spells" or powers concentrate on a single enemy or on herself.
Galadriel (with Nenya) has smaller, but larger-scale effects. She ensafes Lórien and protects it by her and the ring's magic. She can see future, past and present (with her mirror). She is "an affecting world power", if I can say so.

And one more thing that came into my mind: Galadriel may seem more powerful, because she is more powerful due to her environment. In the Third Age (when she's in the height of her powers, mostly because Nenya) the most powerful being is Sauron, who's a maia. When Lúthien lives the most powerful being in M-E + Beleriand is Morgoth, who's a vala. And in Lúthiens times there are more powerful people, fg. elves are generally more powerful.