Luthien weilding Vilya

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Belegorn

Contradiction aside, whether Luthien, or Galadriel, I would say that Sauron or some other great force of Melkor's could take down any realm in the F.A. held by different bearers of the Rings. The Elves are powerful and even the really top one's like Glorfindel, who is said to be nearly equal to the Maiar, could not stop them. If he is held to be so powerful, and Galadriel who is greater imo as per, "the mightiest and fairest of all the elves that remained in Middle-earth" [Sil, p. 370], could have her realm toppled by a Ringless Sauron if he chose to throw all of his strength at her, then any other Elven kingdom could be destroyed no matter what Elf held a Ring of Power.

I think this is the important point. Sauron could have defeated Galadriel and conquered Lothlórien without the Ring so long as he had attended to the matter in person - is it not safe to say that had he recovered the One Ring he could have dismissed or mastered the defences of Lórien and Rivendell without having to be physically present? Regardless, Morgoth's personal potency was diminished because it was invigorating his servants; at what cost could Lúthien with Vilya have withstood Gothmog and other Balrogs leading a massive army of dragons and Orcs, equivalent to, say, the army which attacked Gondolin?

With Gondolin in mind, however, perhaps it's not unreasonable to suppose that the quantities of his strength which would have to be wasted in such an assault could be quite considerable for Morgoth; how many Balrogs could he afford to lose, or Dragons for that matter? But as Elrond told Glóin, the Three were not made as weapons of war, and I'm unsure as to what extent their power would have availed the Eldar against Morgoth's military might, or what difference it would make to any assault. It would, perhaps, be easier to speculate had Morgoth ever launched such an attack on Doriath, because I see that as the closest parallel to the Elven realms in the Third Age defended by the Rings, but it's hard to say. I'm just not convinced that it would make a huge difference. As was said:

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

It's not even against Morgoth that they are holding, but against themselves (and once again the question comes up of how much the Curse of the Noldor is doing the evil and how much evil is done by men's decisions).

Which I think problematises how relevant devices like this would really be to the situation, which was in several key features entirely different to the conflicts of the later Ages.