Morgoth vs. Sauron: who was more powerful?

Morgoth undoubtedly participated in the creation of Arda in a way that Sauron could not have. On the other hand, Sauron once managed to amass a great deal of political power in many nations of Middle-earth after Morgoth was exiled to the Void. In fact, during his stay in Númenor, Sauron established the worship of Morgoth, which speaks of the power of his intelligence to impose his will, through tricks, and at the same time deal a brutal blow to the Valar, and to Eru himself, making Let men bow before the first Dark Lord

While Morgoth had considerably more power overall, being himself a being of a higher order than Sauron, by the end of the First Age he had squandered almost all of it on dominating Middle-earth and its inhabitants, something that the Sauron of the Second Age Age never did. Furthermore, Morgoth is vulnerable to physical damage because he is only a small part of the Vala Melkor he once was, locked in a physical form. Most of his power was wasted on dominating matter and the inhabitants of Arda. Just as Sauron would eventually put almost all of his power into the One Ring, Arda itself is the Ring of Morgoth:

This is not a simple bizarre statement, it is Tolkien himself who establishes it in Morgoth’s Ring, and then adds, regarding the level of degradation and physicality to which Morgoth had fallen:

That is to say, Morgoth was a permanent physical body at this point, with an iron will, to be sure, but much more vulnerable than Sauron at his peak.

Other Valar did not spend their power as freely as Morgoth, and only wore their physical bodies as a kind of clothing over their spiritual core, as described in The Silmarillion. Besides:

Since we’re not even sure these “clothes” are tangible, and any Vala can return to their spiritual form at will, that makes them much less vulnerable to physical harm than Morgoth.

Now, this does not mean that Sauron could have been a rival to Morgoth, even during the height of their careers as Dark Lords of Arda, that is, when they were respectively most powerful. Even if Sauron gained some additional power through the One Ring, he would not have raised it to the level of a Vala, much less the most powerful of them all. Even with the Ring, Sauron could only have defeated a greatly weakened version of his master, but never Morgoth in the full splendor of his strength.

There is no doubt then that Morgoth, in his prime, was far more powerful than Sauron would ever be; and also that Sauron, at the height of his power, was more powerful than the diminished Morgoth of the late First Age. Both statements are equally true.

Indeed, Tolkien specifically stated that Sauron, at the end of the Second Age, was more powerful than Morgoth at his weakest, and that the reason for this is because Sauron was more intelligent in the use of his power. Doesn’t this add an extra point to Sauron? I mean, showing more intelligence than Morgoth is no small matter. In any case, the strategies of the Dark Lords of Middle-earth differ markedly.

Morgoth invested his power in the brute force method to attempt to control Arda’s own matter, for example, “creating” Orcs and Trolls, raising the gigantic Iron Mountains, and changing the climate. By the end of the First Age, Morgoth had spent so much of his power that he had become bound to his earthly form, unlike the other Valar, and could suffer physical harm, such as in the duel with Fingolfin.

Sauron, on the other hand, channeled his own power into deception, hence the title Sauron the Liar. Through schemes, he brought about the sinking of Númenor, helped forge the Rings of Power to unite all wielders to his command, sent his will to spread fear and confusion in the minds of his enemies, and manipulated various peoples into They served him from the beginning of his reign. He also raised mountain ranges and altered the climate, but those means were not primary to him. The mere fact that Sauron was well received in Númenor, or among the Elves, after having served Morgoth and wreaked havoc on these towns, would be analogous to the reception of a Nazi hierarch in Israel to become a government advisor. Such was the degree of cunning, and therefore intelligence, of Sauron

In military terms it must be said that Morgoth inadvertently laid the foundations for Sauron’s military power by creating the Orcs and Trolls, but Sauron himself chose not to continue down that path. Instead of manipulating matter, organic and inorganic, to pervert it and create corrupted versions of the original, he chose to pervert people’s minds.

In The Ring of Morgoth, Tolkien does not hesitate to state that Morgoth’s original power was “incomparably greater than that of Sauron.” Morgoth drained the power of it by injecting it into Arda in different ways, while Sauron later placed it in the Ring. Hence Tolkien maintained that “All Middle-earth was the Ring of Morgoth.” Which is to say that if we took the Dark Lords at the height of their careers, well, it wouldn’t really be a fair fight. Morgoth would have pulverized Sauron, even if he gained some additional power from the Ring. But this does not mean that Sauron was not in fact more powerful than the Morgoth of the First Age. We must insist on this point.

Now, Tolkien maintained that Sauron became more powerful, but not that he was inherently more powerful than Morgoth. Rather the complete opposite. The power that Sauron invested in a Ring, Morgoth invested in the corruption of an entire planet. But this is an evaluation of the finished work, not of his intentions. We really don’t know if Sauron could have done more. Anyway, this doesn’t seem in keeping with his personality. Sauron’s virtue was caution, cunning and intelligence, and on these foundations rests his plan in forging Rings of Power. Consequently, Sauron only acts in the terrain that is most favorable to him, which does not necessarily mean that he could not have operated efficiently in other ways.

Instead, Morgoth’s virtue was strength, anger. Morgoth simply does whatever he wants without thinking about the consequences. Why would he care? His original power alone is below that of Ilúvatar, and it took the combined forces of all the Valar to defeat him, even though diminished. In this context, Morgoth’s actions are arrogant. He is not a Luciferian entity, like Sauron, who always knew how to foresee defeat, hide, and live to fight another day. Something unthinkable in Morgoth.

We can also think that Sauron served his master only as long as it suited him. He respected Morgoth, never betrayed him, but neither did he accompany him into the Void. After all, the defeat of Morgoth opened up a world of possibilities for Sauron; and in fact he learned quite a bit from the mistakes of his former master, acting surreptitiously, through lies and deception, much more efficiently than through brute force. His actions are certainly less spectacular than Morgoth’s, but he still inflicted some deep wounds on Arda, especially the Men.

It is certainly possible that Sauron was more powerful than Morgoth at the end of the Silmarillion, but there was no way he could match him at the peak of his strength. Tolkien insists several times on the notion that Melkor was the strongest of the Ainur, and that he required the combined strength of the Valar to defeat Melkor in the First War.

, Nine were of greater power and reverence; but one was erased from their number, and there remained Eight, the Aratar, the Heights of Arda: Manwë and Varda, Ulmo, Yavanna and Aulë, Mandos, Nienna and Oromë. Although Manwë is his King and maintains his loyalty to Eru, in majesty they are equal, surpassing without comparison all others, whether Valar or Maiar, or of any other order that Ilúvatar has sent to Eä.]

Note the distinction between Aratar and Valar. Melkor has more power than any member of the Aratar, who in turn are greater than the remaining Valar, such as Vana and Tulkas, among others.

The equation seems simple enough here: Sauron is a Maia. He’s not even a Vala. Melkor is a Vala, and face to face, he can take down any member of the Aratar.

Morgoth obviously possesses much greater power, perhaps even at his weakest moment. It still took a full assault on the part of the Powers to secure the end of him and cast him into the Void. On the other hand, Sauron seems to have greater relative power mainly because the power of the Elves was waning and the world, let’s say, was much more accessible than when the “chief” roamed Middle-earth.