Jonathan Kieran

When I’ve had a bit too much coffee in the morning I tend to browse for cool Tolkien discussion sites online and add my two cents as a longtime admirer of the mythology. The fandom is almost always fun, knowledgeable, and appreciative. But coffee does set the brain and the thumbs on high-speed. Below is a veritable essay I scrabbled out in about ten minutes on a content creator’s fine channel dedicated to LOTR discussions (I think it was yesterday 🤔) and the opinion was rather well-received, much to my gratitude. Tolkien admirers are the best, bar none.

But one can see the might of java as I warmed to the topic at hand, which concerned the comparative greatnesses of Galadriel and Gandalf. Enjoy, if you’re into this sort of thing.

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Galadriel was (according to Tolkien, who emphasized it several times) the “equal of Feanor” and “Greatest of the Noldor” along with Feanor. That’s exclusive company. Full stop. Tolkien also emphasized that the highest elves—who would thus be Feanor and Galadriel—were sometimes capable of great Arts that even the Maiar and the Valar themselves could not equal. This was the unique nature and paradox of such High Elves as Eru’s “Firstborn”. Moreover, Tolkien underscored the fact that Galadriel was wiser than Feanor, and that her wisdom only grew greater during her long years in Middle Earth.

Galadriel, for example, was singled out as the “Man Woman” in Valinor—-an elf who “was the match of any athlete or loremaster” in the Undying Lands. Tolkien further emphasizes that she had learned all she could from the gods themselves, in terms of arts and skill, and longed for a fiefdom of her own to rule in Middle Earth, quite apart from Feanor, whom she despised. “She was the only female elf who stood valiant among the Princes” on the day that Feanor declared his independence from the gods and his intention to leave Aman, though unlike Feanor, Galadriel swore no oath and sought her own path in self-exile.

In terms of sheer power, the canonical texts make clear that Galadriel was more than a match for the Ring-less, diminished maia, Sauron–by her magic, for example, she saved Eorl’s army as they marched to Rohan by repelling the shadow-cloud of Sauron with her own wave of white mist, which defeated Sauron’s spell and drove his enchantment back up the hills to Dol Goldur. That’s rather bossy stuff. She alone of all those mentioned in the entire canon, had the power to strive with Sauron in direct contest of wills and to know his mind, whereas he struggled in vain to know hers (cf. Lothlorien, Mirror of Galadriel, TFOTR). Even Gandalf the White was reluctant to “strive in thought” with the ring-less Sauron, uncertain that he was up to the challenge, at that point wherein they had recovered the palantir from Orthanc.

It must also be remembered that Galadriel was a “Power” of Middle Earth, unhindered in her aspirations—Haldir emphasizes this when he first brings the Fellowship to Caras Galadhon (cf. Lothlorien, TFOTR) and says, “Behold Caras Galadhon, where the two Powers [Galadriel in Lorien and Sauron in Mordor] strive against each other.” The wizards, on the other hand, were forbidden from becoming Powers, and prevented from doing so by their incarnation in humanoid bodies. They had limits, even though their spirits were divine. An interesting take on this comes from Treebeard, who, while discussing the treachery of Saruman with Merry and Pippin, remarks derisively that “Saruman fancies to make himself a Power” in Middle Earth. We all saw how that ended up.

Further, Tolkien notes that, while protecting Lothlorien from the assault of Dol Goldur’s armies, Galadriel was chiefly responsible for repelling three major attacks because, “… none in Middle Earth was great enough to defeat the Power that dwelt there [Galadriel in Lorien], unless Sauron himself had come in person.” Presumably, only Sauron in the flesh and armed with his ring could have confronted and defeated Galadriel.

All of this being said, in terms of sheer power, Art, skill, and wisdom, Galadriel was the equal, at the very least, of the incarnate wizards, but not likely the equal of Gandalf the White when he was returned to life unfettered by the hindrances that bound Gandalf the Grey. Elrond was not quite Galadriel’s equal in power or authority. Sauron at his full strength (even without the One Ring) was mightier than all of them, but he was also not bound by the limitations of the Istari wizards.

Galadriel was surely one of the most exceptional characters in Tolkien’s mythology, all the more so because she was a female titan among the Highest Elves, which by itself draws unique attention to her standing. She was a sorceress-elf of immense power—that is what Saruman clearly thought of her, by way of Wormtongue’s words against her at Rohan, and she was the Mistress of Magic, in the words of Faramir.

Ultimately, she proved to be the greatest of the Elves by her very survival and dedication to striving with Sauron and against him, in an ongoing battle of wills. But she was not as powerful as Sauron, certainly, and not as powerful as Gandalf the White. Her might and greatness could be best compared to Feanor, her stated equal, who everyone must agree was off-the-charts, and her wisdom was greater than his, which (in Tolkien’s myth) lends itself heavily toward the “power dynamic” along with Artfulness. I see her as the “She-Feanor” who survived … and by her Arts duplicated many of Feanor’s own within the context of Middle Earth. He allegedly crafted the Palantir, Galadriel created a mystic, all-seeing oracle of her own (the Mirror). Feanor created the Silmarils, Galadriel managed to capture the light of a Silmaril in her Phial, long after the Silmarils were lost—and she did not capture a secondhand aspect of a Silmaril: light is LIGHT, even when reflected. It travels and remains Light in fulness even on the surface of a pond, a mirror, or a fountain, where Galadriel used her Arts to capture it. And we saw what the real power of her captured Light could still accomplish against Shelob and Sauron’s sentinels.

By the end of the story, I think we see Sauron as the most powerful (though brought down by his own craft via Frodo/Gollum), Gandalf the White as the next most Powerful, Galadriel as Third, Saruman as Fourth, Elrond as Fifth, the Witch King as Sixth.

Aragorn and Tom Bombadil have utterly unique statuses of great power due to their natures; Aragorn as the last of the Numenorean kings destined to rule Middle Earth and usher-in the World of Men, and Bombadil as a truly elusive spirit-being who defies categorization, deliberately, on Tolkien’s part. Again, the dynamic of Power in Tolkien’s work is fluid and complex, which makes the entire “legendarium” even more intriguing, at least to me.

~Jonathan Kieran, November 17, 2025, contributed to the fine YouTube channel called Gandalf the Wise

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[ THE WEDNESDAY BOX, a dark fable for all ages by Jonathan Kieran is slated for international release February, 2026)

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