...to the question that was asked? Listing examples of raw information
about the two characters does not draw a conclusion as to who of the two had
greater power. The conclusion that can be drawn from the information you
list is that among her own people, Galadriel is a person of rank and influence,
and among his own people, Olorin/Gandalf quite likely is the same, being
specifically of the people of Manwe (and Tolkien does repeatedly mention that
Olorin was drawn to and became one of the people of Manwe; only once is
Varda/Elbereth mentioned, and that in the listing in Unfinished Tales of who
essentially sent the various Istari). Yet does the social stature of an
Elf among her own people equal that of a Maia among his? One can presume
that since the Elves respected the Ainur and held them in reverence, they would
tend to defer to them and consider them their social superiors, but possibly
not (certainly Feanor did not, at least in the latter parts of his life; one
does not repeatedly defy those whom one respects).
Tolkien states that some of the Elves (Glorfindel in particular, I believe) had
through experience and learning come to be almost the equal of the Maiar, but I
believe he was referring specifically to a degree of "sanctity," since he was
speaking of Glorfindel not as he had been in the First Age, but as he came to
be after his time in the Halls of Waiting, and after his release (when he was
returned to a state of "primitive innocence," as Tolkien calls it, the
spiritual state of the Elves at their beginning rather than after many years of
incarnate life and exposure to the evils of Melkor). And sociologically
speaking, there is a qualitative difference between the societies of the Eldar
and the Maiar. The Eldar are their own people, the First Born of the
Children of Iluvatar, whereas the Maiar are and were created to be essentially
servants, second to the Valar and apparently meant to be their "hands."
What little we know of Maia society and their perception of their position in
the greater scheme of things would seem to indicate that they are, and know
themselves to be -- and generally accept -- that they are second to the
Valar. A few seem to have been total renegades (Ungoliant, if she was
indeed a Maia, appears to have no allegiance to anyone but herself), but most
are specifically connected to and a servant or helper of one of the greater
powers, the Valar. Even Sauron and the Balrogs served someone greater
than themselves, until Melkor himself was destroyed and Sauron essentially
"took the throne" of his defeated master. So it would seem that in
Valinor, although the Elves would very likely have great reverence for the
Maiar for what they are, the Maiar themselves would not necessarily consider
themselves their social superiors.
In terms of other power, the Ainu and Eldar immortality are not quite the
same. The Eldar are immortal specifically within the confines of Arda;
their lives and spirits are bound to it, and they cannot pass beyond it, as do
the spirits of Men. The Ainur are immortal, but they are confined to Arda
only because of an agreement made with Eru when they left the Timeless Halls
and entered the physical world to help with its shaping, that they would remain
within the circles of the world until the End (Gandalf being the one exception:
when he died after his battle with the Balrog, his spirit wandered "out of time
and thought," which Tolkien says clearly means he left the circles of the
world, since Arda, Valinor included, exists within time. The implication,
given that Tolkien also says it was Eru who accepted his sacrifice and sent him
back, is that he went directly to Eru, in some fashion). They are
immortal in a different fashion, since for them, an incarnate state is an
adopted convenience and not their natural form; for the Elves, it is, and the
loss of that physical state diminishes them. It seems that the Ainur,
while they are more impressive to lesser beings while in a physical form, are
actually more powerful without it, since the creation of even a self-incarnate
body requires an expenditure of power, and thus weakens them.
Once in Valinor, the Rings are not an issue in any way. They were a
matter of Middle-earth; their fates were bound there. Prior to her first
departure to Middle-earth, Galadriel did not have one; that she was born in the
Bliss of Valinor and saw the light of the Trees may have increased her power
among the Elves in Middle-earth, but what made Valinor blissful and undying was
the power of the spirits who lived there -- the Ainur in general, and
specifically the Valar. She had been there far less time than Olorin, who
was himself one of those powers, and had been in that land from its beginning
(which, if I'm recalling Tolkien's commentary about the count of years and time
correctly, would have been many thousands of years, by our reckoning).
Every one of the Ainur in his or her own nature reflected some portion of Eru's
thought and knew it best, but Olorin certainly seems to have gotten around and
learned a great deal more than is typical: Eonwe was the herald of Manwe and
mightiest of the Maiar in battle, Osse and Uinen served Ulmo in the seas and
appear to control the tempers of the waters; Arien guides the Sun, Tilion the
Moon -- but Olorin, who was of the people of Manwe, was also the greatest pupil
of Nienna and the counsellor of Irmo, spent time among the Eldar acting
unobstrusively or invisibly as a source of guidance and inspiration, and by at
least one account was "the secret enemy" of Melkor during the First Age.
It would seem he had indeed earned his reputation as the wisest of the Maiar,
since he got around enough and experienced enough to have acquired considerable
knowledge and wisdom. It would not seem that he completely limited
himself to the service or understanding of any one specific person or thing,
save Eru.
Galadriel, in her turn, did at length acquire her own wisdom and understanding,
even of peoples other than her own (her words and kindness to Gimli in
Lothlorien make it evident that she has not remained narrowly focused solely
upon the interests of the Elves, which is definitely to her credit, especially
as her people in Middle-earth diminish and become more limited in their vision
and ambitions). But again, once in Valinor, she is within a different
society where she no longer has the status she had built for herself in
Middle-earth, and the power she wielded through Nenya is gone, as the power of
all the Rings ended with the destruction of the One Ring.
There is one other point that is interesting to note in terms of comparing
Galadriel and Gandalf and their relative power, even in Middle-earth. In
Letter 246, Tolkien discusses the question of what would have happened had one
of the more powerful persons in Middle-earth claimed Sauron's Ring and
attempted to use it against him to defeat him: "Of the others [Elrond,
Galadriel, Aragorn, etc.] only Gandalf might be expected to master him -- being
an emissary of the Powers and a creature of the same order, an immortal spirit
taking a visible physical form. In the 'Mirror of Galadriel,' it appears
that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and
supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the
Three, especially Elrond. But this is another matter. It was part
of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme
power. But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as is
seen in Elrond's words at the Council. Galadriel's rejection of the
temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve. In any case
Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron:
they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient
generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and
destroy him by force. Confrontation of Sauron alone, unaided, self to
self was not contemplated. One can imagine the scene in which Gandalf,
say, was placed in such a position. It would be a delicate balance.
On one side, the true allegiance of the Ring to Sauron; on the other superior
strength because Sauron was not actually in possession, and perhaps because he
was weakened by long corruption and expenditure of will in dominating
inferiors. If Gandalf proved the victor, the result would have been for
Sauron the same as the destruction of the Ring; for him it would have been
destroyed, taken from him for ever. But the Ring and all its works would
have endured. It would have been the master in the end."
By the information given in this passage, it seems clear to me that Tolkien did
not consider the Elves to be of the same level of "power" as the Maiar -- only
another Maia stood even a chance of defeating Sauron in a direct contest of
power; the Elves could not have hoped to win such a battle, even with the
Ring. Thus, at least in that aspect of power, we get a clear indication
that if there is a hierarchy in Tolkien's mind, the Maiar were indeed more
powerful than the Eldar. One would suspect this to be even more the case
in Valinor, where the Elves no longer had the "artificial" enhancement of Ring
power to support them, and the Istari, once home, would no longer continue to
be fettered by the restrictions laid upon them by their mission in
Middle-earth.
Oh my, this went on longer than I'd intended. Too early in the morning
for this, especially after three days of the flu.
:)
