April 30, 2002

Eagles and Power Struggles
Everett V.

Two things.

First of all, thanks to Annatar for the correction on what Gwaihir was doing. That was something I should have looked up but didn't. Fortunately, that piece of information doesn't undermine my thesis because my thesis was that the eagles only intervened directly in the affairs of elves, men, hobbits, and dwarves when it was absolutely necessary, and to whomever was rendered the aid, it was aid un-looked for (I don't consider the gathering and delivering of information to be direct intervention.). That the Eagles were acting at the request of someone else is irrelevant to my thesis (Galadriel ordered Gwaihir to retrieve Gandalf form the top of Celebdil.). Gwaihir's rescue of Gandalf from the top of Orthanc contains both elements of my thesis: necessity and the unexpectedness of the event from the point of view of the recipient of the aid.

Regarding Greg H.'s pice, I did not intend to imply that Gandalf was more powerful than Sauron, or even that Sauron with the Ring on his finger was not more powerful Olorin fully unmasked. Sauron was greatly weakened when Numenor was destroyed, and he invested a great deal of his remaining power in the One Ring. Because of this, I doubted that Gandalf's power had been fully uncloaked because it is at least implied that Gandalf the White is not as powerful as a Ring-less Sauron, though, now that I think about it, it seems more than likely that Manwe chose Olorin not because of his power, which was certainly substantial, but because of his great wisdom.