Numenoreans attacking the Valar

[Eäralda Halatiriva]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

The Valar had enough power. This was not a matter of power, but of authority. The Numenoreans were Children of Iluvatar; the Valar had no right over their fate; so Manwe rightly stepped aside and asked Iluvatar to deal with His children Himself. Case closed.

agreed! The symbolic gulf that can be imagined to separate the power resources(both formal authority and informal might) of the Ainur in comparison to the Children of the One is probably on par with the vast interstellar distances which separate planetary systems orbiting separate stars... As the consistent cohesion of the material substances of Arda depends upon the presence of the Ainur, we can surmise that their Order exercises a total governance over the organization of these physical substances, probably at the quantum level and other dimensions of space-time to which we do not presently have scientific access even in our late modern Age. To say nothing of their unmatched understanding of the psychological makeup of both Elves, Men, and Dwarves. They could easily do away with the bodies of any number of Menfolk without expending significantly their own inherent strength. The issue is the "legal" right to dominate and destroy utterly the Children, which the One has not delegated to them.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I wonder if the wholesale destruction of Beleriand was caused by the Hosts of the West, or rather by Morgoth? It would seem to me that Morgoth's nihilistic insanity, and the power of his original being dispersed throughout Arda's fabric, would be entirely consistent with him "going nuclear" and annihilating great chunks of real estate in an effort to thwart his enemies.