In The Lord of the Rings, the Valar sent the Istari to combat Sauron and his machinations. There were five Istari in total: Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast, Alatar and Pallando. They were all Maiar, but they were forbidden from using their powers to dominate, though they could still fight — like when Gandalf killed the Balrog. Instead, they were supposed to encourage and exhort the free peoples of Middle-earth. The reason that the Valar sent the Istari was simple — they wanted to avoid what happened in the conflict with Morgoth.
For most of the First Age, the Valar followed a laissez-faire approach to Morgoth and his evil dealings. The Elves had ignored the Valar’s commands, so they let those Elves deal the consequences of their actions. At the end of the First Age, though, Eärendil begged for mercy and aid. So, the Valar intervened and helped destroy Morgoth’s influence, but in the process, much of Middle-earth world was destroyed. So, the group of Istari was the Valar’s attempt at a less-cataclysmic solution. However, that raises a question: did the Valar think that the Istari could handle Sauron because he was less powerful than Morgoth?
Morgoth Was Originally More Powerful Than Sauron
In the depths of time, Eru Ilúvatar created Arda and the Valar. He made the Valar to help create and order the world, but the most powerful Valar, Melkor, turned out to be nothing but problems. Melkor decided that he wanted to be his own master and create of his own will. When he couldn’t accomplish that, he began to war against the other Valar and rule over Middle-earth with his fires and evil creations. With this turn to darkness, Melkor became known as Morgoth.
While at war, Morgoth lured many beings to his cause. The Balrogs and Sauron (who had a surprising reason for wanting to rule Middle-earth) were chief among them, and they commanded substantial power. But they weren’t as powerful as Morgoth. From a technical sense, Sauron and the Balrogs were Maiar, not Valar. That meant that they were designed as lesser beings from the beginning of time. Thus, in their original forms, Morgoth would have easily defeated Sauron in a fight. As proof, Sauron spent the last part of the First Age hiding from Morgoth’s wrath, after being defeated by Lúthien.
Morgoth Distributed His Power and Weakened Himself
The main thing that Morgoth wanted to do was create and rule, but he didn’t have the capability to make life. So, he took what Eru had created and perverted those things. In that way, Morgoth created the sunlight-hating Orcs, dragons, trolls and many other evil things. Yet, that drained his inherent power. Basically, Morgoth distributed his own power so that he could rule by proxy, enforcing his will though his creations. That makes a big difference in terms of power scale. In fact, Sauron during the Second Age was more powerful than Morgoth at the end of the First Age. Here’s a quote from Christopher Tolkien’s Morgoth’s Ring that offers an extended explanation:
“Sauron was ‘greater’, effectively, in the Second Age than Morgoth at the end of the First. Why? Because, though he was far smaller by natural stature, he had not yet fallen so low. Eventually he also squandered his power (of being) in the endeavour to gain control of others. But he was not obliged to expend so much of himself. To gain domination over Arda, Morgoth had let most of his being pass into the physical constituents of the Earth – hence all things that were born on Earth and lived on and by it, beasts or plants or incarnate spirits, were liable to be ‘stained’… Sauron, however, inherited the ‘corruption’ of Arda, and only spent his (much more limited) power on the Rings…”
In light of that, Sauron would have been able to defeat Morgoth at the height of his power, when Morgoth was at his lowest. However, when they were both at their best, Morgoth would have utterly destroyed Sauron. So, it’s a good thing that the Valar personally defeated Morgoth and left Sauron to the Istari — because if the Valar had only sent the Istari against Morgoth, they would have been trounced.
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