Ring wraiths vs. Balrogs

[obloquy]

How can you say this? Tolkien never gives a hierarchy of the power of the Maiar.

In addition to Kuruharan's quote, we have:

'It was a Balrog of Morgoth,' said Legolas; `of all elf-banes the most deadly, save the One who sits in the Dark Tower.'

From LotR.

And this:

"...Sauron, greatest and most terrible of the servants of Morgoth, who in the Sindarin tongue was named Gorthaur..."

From the '77 Silmarillion.

And this:

"Of old there was Sauron the Maia, whom the Sindar in Beleriand named Gorthaur. In the beginning of Arda Melkor seduced him to his allegiance, and he became the greatest and most trusted of the servants of the Enemy..."

From Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age.

And this:

"'The Abhorred' (in Sindarin called Gorthaur); greatest of the servants of Melkor, in his origin a Maia of Aulë."

From the index entry for "Sauron" in the '77 Silmarillion.

And this:

"Or rather, since Sauron had as yet no single name, and his operations had not been perceived to proceed from a single evil spirit, prime servant of Melkor..."

From Unfinished Tales. Merriam-Webster online tells us that "prime" means "first in rank, authority, or significance".

This one applies particularly to your comment that 'they are never directly compared':

"Melkor had corrupted many spirits — some great, as Sauron, or less so, as Balrogs."

From Myths Transformed.

And this:

"Now Melkor knew of all that was done; for even then he had secret friends and spies among the Maiar whom he had converted to his cause, and of these the chief, as after became known, was Sauron, a great craftsman of the household of Aulë."

From The Annals of Aman.

I don't suppose you're interested in debating the issue any further?

[ July 12, 2002: Message edited by: obloquy ]

[Orome]

i got it. it was just sortof anoying the way you said it.