Misc. Questions

[Gorthaur the Cruel]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Actually, no. Rehousing STRENGTHENS an elf, not weakens him.

In the case of Glorfindel, the reason for his great power in both the regular world and the spirit realm was due not only to being a Noldo of Valinor, but also due to his rehousing.

In the texts dealing with Elven reincarnation, Tolkien says that the reincarnated Elf is even more unlikely to be killed than a never-killed Elf, having a body even better suited to withstand turmoil, and having a greater "spiritual" presence. I believe that he also says that there are few or no known cases of reincarnated Elves being killed.

That said, a reincarnated Elf is the original Elf, in a near-identical, but pretty much perfect, copy of his (going with the male pronoun out of habit) previous self- and contains all the memories and skills that he had before. There is no reason to assume that the reincarnated Elf is any weaker.

The Glorfindel of the 1st age was able to fight with a Balrog (a freakin Maia) but in the 3rd age, not much of that potency is felt. He's lingering in Rivendell. So you're saying that a re-embodied elf is better than the great survivors such as Cirdan & Galadriel? 'Coz from what I get is that even these two have strong spiritual presences.