Monday, 19 October 2015

lord of the rings - Power Hierarchy of all creatures in Middle Earth

A complete power ranking seems impossible, but I will give what I can: i.e. what is supported by the text.



  1. Sauron

Even without his Ring, Sauron was a most formidable foe. After Gandalf returned as the White, he had this to say:




‘Dangerous!’ cried Gandalf. ‘And so am I, very dangerous: more
dangerous than anything you will ever meet, unless you are brought
alive before the seat of the Dark Lord.




Clearly Gandalf, even after being restored to life, views Sauron as the greater power.



  1. Gandalf the White/Saruman the White

Gandalf the White is certainly stronger than Gandalf the Grey.
I believe that he is equal in power to Saruman, or rather to Saruman as he was before his demotion. As Gandalf says




‘Indeed I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have
been.'




  1. Gandalf the Grey

Unfortunately, I am not sure we can say who comes next. Do the books say anything about the power of Gandalf the Grey relative to Radagast, or to the Blue Wizards? Galadriel, Celeborn, and Elrond had their own intrinsic powers, as well as (in some cases) those granted by the elven rings.



Certainly as beings of flesh and blood they were inferior in power to spirits such as the Istari, but what their rankings are I do not know.



The Witch-King clearly had a great deal of power, but how much of that came from Sauron's will behind him is unclear.



And so forth.

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