XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: le@main.put.com   
      
   In rec.arts.books.tolkien Barry Schwarz  wrote:   
   > On Wed, 27 May 2015 07:40:24 -0400, Stan Brown   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >>But if the Istari were forbidden to overawe Men and Elves, how much   
   >>greater constraint must the Valar have put upon themselves? A few of   
   >>them appeared to Men and Elves in the early days, but as Men and   
   >>Elves matured those visits grew fewer and briefer. By the end of the   
   >>First Age the Valar had stopped coming to Middle-earth, and the Maiar   
   >>had left or were leaving.   
   >   
   > I wasn't looking for the Valar to overawe men and elves.  I was   
   > looking for them to take responsibility for one of their own, however   
   > belatedly, and remove him from Middle-earth.   
   >   
   > 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.  Any of   
   > the Valar could have brought him back to Valinor (like removing a   
   > splinter) and the damage could have been limited to Mordor which men   
   > and elves avoided anyway..   
   >   
   > If not stated outright it is strongly implied that if Sauron should   
   > reacquire the One Ring, he would be unstoppable and all would be lost.   
   > Since the only power in the Ring was what Sauron put there himself,   
      
   I've always assumed that the controlling majority,not the absolute   
   entirety,of the power of the One Ring was put there by Sauron...else   
   the investment was not worth it for him.It enabled him to control more   
   power than was his alone...at the cost of so much that if it was   
   destroyed he was wiped out.   
      
   > it follows that elves and men had no hope against a full strength Maia.   
   > (It also raises the question of how the Last Alliance defeated Sauron   
   > when he still had the Ring.)  Even the destruction of Numenor and the   
   > changing of the world did Sauron little harm.   
   >   
   > Basically, the Valar were sent to Arda to prepare it for the Children   
   > of Iluvatar but were only willing to take token measures to protect it   
   > against one of their own.  Eru should be really pissed at them.   
   >   
      
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