XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: j@j.ii   
      
   "Sandman"  wrote in message   
   news:sandman-a792cbf3a24296b68e3d71a0281c92ff@individual.net...   
   > In article , Stan Brown   
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >> > Barry Schwarz:   
   >> > Melkor was one of the most powerful beings in Arda.  When the   
   >> > Valar moved against him, it was catastrophic for the land and many   
   >> > people (like open heart surgery).  I could understand the Valar   
   >> > not wanting that to happen again.  By comparison, Sauron was a   
   >> > pipsqueak.   
   >>   
   >> I don't think so. There's a passage somewhere where Tolkien writes   
   >> that Sauron at the end of the Third Age was more powerful than   
   >> Morgoth at the end of the First. The reason was that Morgoth   
   >> dissipated much of his essence into all the material of Arda to   
   >> corrupt it, but Sauron did not need to do that.   
   >   
   > I think you meant Sauron at the end of the the second age, not at the end   
   > of the   
   > third - which means that Sauron at his greatest was more powerful than   
   > Morgoth at   
   > his weakest (end of first).   
   >   
   > Sauron at his greatest (end of second) compared to Morgoth at his greatest   
   > (Years   
   > of the Trees) is no match, and Sauron is indeed a mere "pipsqueak" in   
   > comparison.   
   >   
   > In fact, much of the reason why Sauron could become so powerful at the end   
   > of   
   > second is directly related to what Morgoth did in his time.   
   >   
   > --   
   > Sandman   
      
   Oops  - I meant Beren, not Tuor - but even Tuor was renouned   
      
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