How Quickly Could the Valar and Maiar Have Destroyed Beleriand?

Q: How Quickly Could the Valar and Maiar Have Destroyed Beleriand?

ANSWER: A debate raged (rages) across a Web forum called Space Battles, and last week this blog was mentioned in that debate. I wasn’t quite sure of what to make of it all, let alone the small unwitting role I played in the discussion. But as I read through the vibrant posts I began to wonder along the same lines as the discussion participants.

So, as the title of this article implies, the debate was over the destructive power of the Valar and Maiar. They were comparing Tolkien’s angelic guardians of the world to Robert Jordan’s channelers (magic users) in the Wheel of Time series. Now, I’ve not read Jordan’s books, seen any of the episodes from the recent TV adaptation, nor read through the entire discussion on Space Battles — so please understand, I am not trying to inject myself into that debate.

That said, one of the points that came up in the discussion was (and I summarize here) how long would one of the Valar or Maiar have needed to, say, bring down a mountain — or cause a volcano to flare up? And a corollary to that (I think) would be something along the lines of, how would they have used their powers against each other during the War of Wrath?

As I mentioned in my article How Was Beleriand Destroyed in the War of Wrath? (which is the reference Eldritch Octahedron used to invoke my name), the War of Wrath lasted (about) 42 years. So conceivably the Valar and Maiar didn’t immediately begin blasting up the landscape as soon as their army arrived. Or maybe they did on a small scale when they attacked Brithombar and Eglarest.

But the fine point that caught my attention centered on how long it would take one of these powerful beings to effect some widescale devastation.

Well, you don’t really need to guess (much) because J.R.R. Tolkien provided us with some examples of how the Maiar did battle. And he did that in The Lord of the Rings.

The first hint at Gandalf’s true power appears in the scene where the Fellowship is attacked by demonic/phantom/weird wolves in Eregion. Gandalf appears to increase his size (readers are divided on whether he actually did this — but given that he was still in his full power, I’d say he would have had no problem enlarging himself with a quick engorgio-like spell).

We see another hint of Gandalf’s power when he comes tumbling down the stairs in Moria after having dropped the ceiling on poor Fred (the Balrog) with “a Word of Command“. One word brought down tons of rock on a balrog. And the balrog lived to tell the tale (so to speak) because he came looking for Gandalf after pulling himself out from under that pile of mountainstone.

And then Gandalf quickly breaks the bridge over the great chasm to prevent Fred from reaching Frodo and the Ring.

These are relatively minor acts of destruction that don’t require Gandalf to sit around and meditate, perform any lengthy rituals, or sing long song-spells. And presumably during his final battle with Fred on the mountaintop, when one or both of them was tossing lightning bolts at the other, there probably wasn’t much time for either combatant to pull out a Dark Tome of Blasteries and consult the ancient masters’ wisdom on how best to kill a Maia.

But how did Luthien and Galadriel bring down fortresses?

So, Luthien and Galadriel did use “songs of power”. Galadriel describes her song-power in her farewell song for the Fellowship. Luthien’s magic is described in several scenes in The Silmarillion and earlier works. She might sing a powerful song, or dance a magical dance. She was half-Maia and the daughter of Middle-earth’s highest elf-lord. So she was quite powerful in her own right. In fact, I consider Luthien to be the most powerful of all of J.R.R. Tolkien’s elves, including Fëanor. But that’s just my opinion.

Finrod engaged in a contest of power with Sauron, where they both “sang songs of power”. And it was when the Space Battles discussion turned to this point that songs on YouTube were invoked. I did not watch the YouTube video.

J.R.R. Tolkien doesn’t say how long any of the songs his characters sang would have needed to be to effect some change. I infer that if two powerful sorcerers are going at it, each chanting/singing a song against the other, their duel might be extended until weariness or error overtakes one of them.

I don’t think it’s fair or safe to assume anything about how long a song of power would or should last. We don’t know what form they took or specifically what purpose they served. Maybe it was just a way to focus one’s thoughts on the desired effect. Maybe it was something Elves needed to do but which was optional for Maiar. Sauron, of course, was a Maia but he fought with Finrod in the same way Finrod fought with him. And I don’t get the sense that Sauron did so out of some sense of honor.

Many years ago I gave a talk at a Dragon*Con session for Tolkien/Middle-earth fans where I speculated on how the average Elves of Middle-earth might have used magic. The Elves of Lorien put their thoughts into the things they made, or so they said. How would they do that?

I concluded (and still believe) that Tolkien meant they were chanting songs as they worked their wonders. A song is a thoughtful way to describe what you want to achieve. But it wouldn’t necessarily be written in a book of spells, or required to be performed a certain way. I rather imagine Tolkien’s Elves singing from the heart, putting their souls into the things they were making. I think of their songs as passionate, loving, angry, powerful, moving experiences.

In my talk I used the Elven-smiths of Rivendell as an example, and I chanted a few words to the effect of “I am making a strong sword, a powerful sword, I forge a sword of power.” Imagine the smith pouring his heart and thought into that impromptu song as he heats the metal, beats it into shape, and tempers it in cold water. In my mind, I see him (or her) singing like Harve Presnell in Paint Your Wagon as he sings “They Call the Wind Mariah”:

Why not? If you’re going to sing in public you might as well make it a performance. And Tolkien’s elven minstrels were so skilled they could conjure visions for their listeners. They elicited the full 3-D experience, apparently. And then there’s Tom Bombadil (whom Tolkien called “an aborigine”) — though not an Elf and probably not a Maia, Tom channeled his will through his songs. But they weren’t very long songs.

So I think time would be a factor for some kinds of spells. And maybe the Elves needed to use these songs of power more than the Maiar did. But the Maiar obviously could and did use songs, too.

So maybe the need determined the mode of magic-making. When one required precision and Art, as Tolkien would have put it, one probably sang with words that would shape the effect one desired. But if one needed only to effect a change, either in a person or a thing, then the magic could be fast and quick.

The spells of Middle-earth are expressions of will. And if the will is quick and powerful it can do terrible things in a short period of time. We see a glimpse of what might have happened in Beleriand near the end of The Lord of the Rings, when the One Ring is destroyed and Orodruin erupts. The mountain on which Barad-dûr has been constructed collapses.

For a volcano to erupt or a mountain to collapse requires an immense amount of energy. And while I doubt Tolkien tried to estimate the joules one would need to expend to effect that cause, he was essentially saying, “in his death throes Sauron destroyed two mountains.”

Imagine what he could have wrought when he had time to plan his violence and direct it at his enemies. Imagine other Maiar, not as strong as he, using their wills to raise up the earth or open great firey chasms. Yes, I think some of the battles during the 42 years of the War of Wrath would have involved swift, violent eruptions and displays of power.

And I think Gandalf and the other Maiar in Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age were still capable of wielding such destructive force against their enemies. But they chose not to. Maybe they deemed the cost to themselves too high, or they feared bringing a greater wrath upon themselves. After all, Ilúvatar had intervened with massive destructive force near the end of the Second Age. Everyone who understood who and what he is knew he was watching.

The Valar had forbidden their emissaries to reveal themselves to Elves and Men in forms of power and majesty. Perhaps it was understood that everyone had to restrain themselves when facing off lest they incur the worst of consequences. I doubt Fred was screaming in his best Klingonese, “It’s a good day to die!”

So, going back to the First Age, I suspect that during the War of Wrath even Morgoth’s forces acted with some restraint in most of their battles with the Host of the West. They may have used their most destructive powers as last results. For such powerful forces to engage across so many years, I infer they must have relied on intricate strategies. Their powerful defenses would have required thought and concentration to undermine, but once battle engaged individual acts of magic probably happened quickly.

See Also

Eldritch Octahedron’s comment on Space Battles

Could Aragorn and Boromir Have Helped Gandalf Against the Balrog?

How Did Elvish Magic Work in Middle-earth?

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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?

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