The MOST POWERFUL ELVES In Middle Earth | Middle Earth … — Transcript

Explore the most powerful elves in Middle-earth, their feats, and their impact on Tolkien's legendarium.

Key Takeaways

  • Elves in Middle-earth possess immense power, refined over thousands of years.
  • Their strength is demonstrated through leadership, magical abilities, and combat against supernatural foes.
  • Galadriel, Fëanor, Elrond, Gil-galad, and Glorfindel stand out as the most powerful elves.
  • The Noldor elves are especially significant due to their craftsmanship and influence.
  • The video balances historical context with the characters' feats to explain their power.

Summary

  • The video discusses the most powerful elves in Middle-earth from the First to the Third Age.
  • It highlights their impressive feats such as building kingdoms, crafting weapons, and defeating evil creatures.
  • Galadriel is featured as one of the mightiest elves, bearer of an Elven Ring, and banisher of Sauron from Dol Guldur.
  • Fëanor is noted for creating the Silmarils and Palantíri and for his combat prowess against Balrogs.
  • Elrond, a Maia descendant and bearer of an Elven Ring, is recognized for his leadership, magic, and battles against Sauron.
  • Gil-galad, the last High King of the Noldor, founded Lindon and led elves in major conflicts.
  • Glorfindel is praised for his bravery in the Battle of Gondolin and his fight against a Balrog.
  • The elves' power is assessed not only by combat skills but also by their confrontations with supernatural enemies.
  • The video emphasizes the difficulty of ranking these elves due to their vast powers and long histories.
  • Each elf's legacy is briefly summarized to justify their inclusion on the list.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00
Speaker A
At the height of their power, the elves accomplished some pretty impressive feats, from building great kingdoms to crafting powerful weapons and jewelry, and even defeating mighty evil creatures. From their creation in the First Age to their decline in the Third Age, the elves were always a force for good, well mostly. Narrowing them down for a list like this was extremely difficult. These are in no particular order, although I have saved my personal top pick for last. But here is a list of who we consider to be the most powerful elves in Middle-earth.
00:15
Speaker A
were always a force for good well mostly and narrowing them down for a list like this was extremely difficult these are in no particular order although i have saved my personal top pick for last but here is a list for who
00:29
Speaker A
So, when looking at criteria for this list, it was difficult to narrow it down based purely on skills in combat, as the elves are a race well known for producing a tremendous number of skilled and dangerous warriors. They sort of have the unfair advantage of having thousands of years to refine their skills, but either way, it was tough. So, the fairest way I could think to judge them was to look at the ones that face supernatural enemies with might and power far superior to their own. There may be some elves that definitely deserve to be on this list, but perhaps they were never given the opportunity to show the true extent of their power.
00:51
Speaker A
producing a tremendous number of skilled and dangerous warriors they sort of have the unfair advantage of having thousands of years to refine their skills but either way it was tough so the fairest way i could think to judge them was to look at the ones that
01:05
Speaker A
So, let's get started. We will begin with one of the most obvious: Galadriel. Now, many people that are mainly just fans of The Lord of the Rings may not know the extent of Galadriel's power. She is on this list for a number of reasons, and while this video isn't meant to be a history of each of these characters, I will give you a very brief rundown of what makes the Lady of Light so powerful. In the Third Age, she is described by Tolkien as being the mightiest and fairest of all elves that remained in Middle-earth. She actually witnessed three ages of the sun in Middle-earth, having been born during the Years of the Trees. She is actually one of the oldest elves still remaining in Middle-earth. She was born in Valinor as one of the Noldor. She was the daughter of Finarfin and the younger sister of Finrod, and she supported Fëanor during the exile of the Noldor. Now, while all this may not seem like a big deal to many, just being one of the Noldor is actually of great importance. They were perhaps the most powerful people to ever walk Middle-earth. They crafted some of the most important weapons that we know of, including Orcas, Glamdring, and Sting, the Palantír, and they even played a part in forging the Rings of Power. The Noldor are, in short, a pretty big deal, and Galadriel is considered one of their leaders. Not only that, but she was also the bearer of one of the three Elven Rings of Power, which would help preserve and maintain her great power. And let us not forget that she was one of the ones responsible for driving Sauron out of Dol Guldur. Sauron is a Maia. He is a being far beyond that of any elf or human. Of course, by the time that Galadriel confronts him, he is not at full strength and probably planned on returning to mortal form anyway, but the banishment of Sauron is a great achievement for any individual, no matter the circumstance. Even if he wanted to remain in Dol Guldur, he most likely wouldn't have been able to withstand the power of Galadriel. She is definitely one of, if not the only being that could have done so. Her spot on this list is indisputable.
01:16
Speaker A
so let's get started we will begin with one of the most obvious galadriel now many people that are mainly just fans of the lord of the rings may not know the extent of galadriel's power she is on this list for a number of
01:29
Speaker A
Next up, we have Fëanor. Now, while at times Fëanor was selfish, paranoid, and a pretty terrible brother, he accomplished some pretty amazing things during his life, one of which is creating the Silmarils, the most precious and sought-after gems in all of Arda, and the Palantíri. It is said that Fëanor was made the mightiest in all parts of body and mind, but his personality had flaws. Towards the end of his great life, he was camped at Lake Mithrim with his army when he was attacked by a great force of Morgoth. The Noldor elves led by Fëanor defeated the enemy force with relative ease despite being heavily outnumbered. But then, after Fëanor, in his rage, marched on towards Angband, and when coming within sight of the great gates of the fortress of Morgoth, he was ambushed by a group of Balrogs. With few elves by his side, he fought them alone bravely, but it wasn't long before Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, joined the battle. A character you may now be more familiar with if you watched last week's video on him. Gothmog fatally wounded Fëanor, and he died soon after their battle. But being able to hold his own not only against a Balrog but multiple Balrogs shows just how powerful Fëanor was, justifying his position on this list. Now, he did, of course, complete many other very impressive feats, but as I said previously, this isn't a history of each character. I'm just justifying their place on this list.
01:40
Speaker A
tolkien as being the mightiest and fairest of all elves that remained in middle-earth she actually witnessed three ages of the sun in middle-earth having been born during the years of the trees she is actually one of the oldest elves still
01:53
Speaker A
So, next on said list, again, this is not in any order, but we have chosen to go with Elrond. Now, Elrond is a direct descendant of a Maia, which gives him some degree of divine power, and like Galadriel, he also bears one of the three Elven Rings of Power. By the time of the War of the Ring, he is around six and a half thousand years old, and unlike some of the others on this list, is a tremendously experienced warrior, having been at war in some way with Sauron's forces for over four and a half thousand years. On top of all this, he was also pretty strong with elven magic, including healing and foresight, and he was arguably one of the greatest leaders of all elves. It's also worth mentioning that Aragorn actually thinks that Elrond would be capable of mentally resisting Sauron, which is praise that he shares only with Galadriel and Gandalf, who is, of course, a Maia. He has also been in direct conflict with Sauron on two occasions during the Battle of the Last Alliance, and he was also involved in the banishment of Sauron from Dol Guldur. Challenges don't get much bigger than that, and having been victorious both times says enough about Lord Elrond's power.
02:06
Speaker A
big deal to many just being one of the noldor is actually of great importance they were perhaps the most powerful people to ever walk middle earth they crafted some of the most important weapons that we know of including orcas
02:19
Speaker A
Next up, we have chosen one of my favorite characters in all of Tolkien's legendarium: Glorfindel. He was one of the mighty, of the fierce-born elves, and Lord of the House of the Golden Flower in Gondolin. He fought in many of the major battles throughout the First Age, including the Battle of Gondolin. In the year 510 of the First Age, he fought Melkor's forces bravely alongside his fellow soldiers from the House of the Golden Flower, who were actually one of the last standing houses to fight. After the battle began to look like a lost cause for the Gondolin drum, they began to attempt their escape. As they were fleeing, a Balrog blocked their paths, but Glorfindel left in front to face it to give the others time to escape. He defended himself from the demon's whip and claws and successfully hewed its iron helm. At the last moment, he pierced the belly of the Balrog, which caused it to fall backwards from the cliff, but it grabbed Glorfindel by the hair, and both of them fell deep into the abyss. Glorfindel's spirit departed to the Halls of Mandos, but due to his noble actions and saving the lives of countless elves, he was re-embodied after a short time and returned to Middle-earth as an emissary of the Valar, who granted him powers nearly as strong as that of a Maia. In his next term in Middle-earth, he was involved in more great battles and even often fought the Witch-king and the Nazgûl. His place on this list cannot be disputed.
02:32
Speaker A
bearer of one of the three elven rings of power which would help preserve and maintain her great power and let us not forget that she was one of the ones responsible for driving sauron out of dolgodur saron is a maya he is a being
02:46
Speaker A
Next, we have the legendary Gil-galad. After the fall of Gondolin, he was made High King of the Noldor, and as I mentioned earlier, this was a pretty big deal. Then, after the destruction of Valinor during the War of Wrath, Gil-galad founded the kingdom of Lindon in the far northwest of Middle-earth, roughly between the Blue Mountains and the Great Sea. He was the last heir of the Kings of the Noldor and openly acknowledged as the High King of all elves of the West. In fact, many of the elves, both Noldor and Sindar, joined him. A lot of stuff happened following this, but this is about the strength of the character again, not the full history, although we do have a full video on Gil-galad if you're interested in the full story. But anyway, Gil-galad went on to be one of...
02:58
Speaker A
individual no matter the circumstance even if he wanted to remain in dolgodor he most likely wouldn't have been able to withstand the power of galadriel she is definitely one of if not the only being that could have done so her spot
03:11
Speaker A
on this list is indisputable next up we have feno now while at times fenor was selfish paranoid and a pretty terrible brother he accomplished some pretty amazing things during his life one of which is creating the silmarils the most precious and sought-after gems
03:27
Speaker A
in all of ardha and the palantiri it is said that feynel was made the mightiest in all parts of body and mind but his personality had flaws towards the end of his great life he was camped at lake methrim with his army
03:41
Speaker A
when he was attacked by a great force of morgoth the noldor elves led by feynel defeated the enemy force with relative ease despite being heavily outnumbered but then after feinor in his rage marched on towards angband and when coming within sight of the
03:57
Speaker A
great gates of the fortress of morgoth he was ambushed by a group of balrogs with few elves by his side he fought them alone bravely but it wasn't long before gothmog lord of balrogs joined the battle a character you may now be
04:10
Speaker A
more familiar with if you watched last week's video on him gothmog fatally wounded fenol and he died soon after their battle but being able to hold his own not only against a balrog but multiple balrogs shows just how powerful feynel was justifying his
04:25
Speaker A
position on this list now he did of course complete many other very impressive feats but as i said previously this isn't a history of each character i'm just justifying their place on this list so next on said list again this is not in
04:39
Speaker A
any order but we have chosen to go with elrond now elrond is a direct descendant of a maya which gives him some degree of divine power and like galadriel he also bears one of the three elven rings of power
04:52
Speaker A
by the time of the war of the ring he is around six and a half thousand years old and unlike some of the others on this list is a tremendously experienced warrior having been at war in some way
05:03
Speaker A
with sauron's forces for over four and a half thousand years on top of all this he was also pretty strong with elven magic including healing and foresight and he was arguably one of the greatest leaders of all elves it's also worth mentioning
05:17
Speaker A
that aragorn actually thinks that alrond would be capable of mentally resisting sauron which is praised that he shares only with galadriel and gandalf who is of course amaya he has also been in a direct conflict with sauron on two
05:30
Speaker A
occasions during the battle of the last alliance and he was also involved in the banishment of sauron from dolgodor challenges don't get much bigger than that and having been victorious both times says enough about lord elron's power next up we have chosen one of my
05:45
Speaker A
favorite characters in all of tolkien's legendarium glorfindle he was one of the mighty of the fierce-born elves and lord of the house of the golden flower in gondolin he fought in many of the major battles throughout the first age including the
05:58
Speaker A
battle of gondolin in the year 510 of the first age he fought melkor's forces bravely alongside his fellow soldiers from the house of the golden flower who were actually one of the last standing houses to fight after the battle began to look like a
06:12
Speaker A
lost cause for the gondolin drum they began to attempt their escape as they were fleeing a balrog blocked their paths but glofindle left in front to face it to give the others time to escape he defended himself from the
06:23
Speaker A
demon's whip and claws and successfully hewed its iron helm and at the last moment he pierced the belly of the bellrock which caused it to fall backwards from the cliff but it grabbed glovefindle by the hair and both of them fell deep into the
06:37
Speaker A
abyss glowfindle's spirit departed to the whole of mandos but due to his noble actions and saving the lives of countless elves he was re-embodied after a short time and returned to middle middle-earth as an emissary of the valar
06:49
Speaker A
who granted him powers nearly as strong as that of a maya in his next term in middle-earth he was involved in more great battles and even often fought the witch king and the nazgul his place on this list cannot be
07:02
Speaker A
disputed next we have the legendary guild galad after the fall of gondolin he was made high king of the noldor and as i mentioned earlier this was a pretty big deal then after the destruction of valerians during the war of wrath girl gallard
07:16
Speaker A
founded the kingdom of lindon in the far northwest of middle earth roughly between the blue mountains and the great sea he was the last ear of the kings of the noldor and openly acknowledged as the high king of all elves of the west in
07:29
Speaker A
fact many of the owls both noldor and sindar joined him a lot of stuff happened following this but this is about the strength of the character again not the full history although we do have a full video on
07:41
Speaker A
gilgalad if you're interested in the full story but anyway girl galad went on to be one of the bearers of the three rings of power but most importantly and this cannot be put into words of how impressive of a feat this is
07:53
Speaker A
gil gallard and ellen deal leader of the men of numenor joined forces and formed the last alliance of elves and men then during the battle of the last alliance when the forces of good began pressing forward with their siege a
08:05
Speaker A
siege that had been going on for seven years saron had no choice but to join in the battle himself he was then engaged by ellen deal and gilgalad in combat and was defeated but the leaders of the elves and men were also killed in the
08:21
Speaker A
act but just think about that an elven king was able to stand toe-to-toe with sauron one of the most powerful maya ever and defeat him gil galad was without a doubt one of the most powerful elves who ever lived and i
08:34
Speaker A
for one i'm really hoping we get to see more of him in the amazon prime show next we have selected fingon fingon has been placed on this list for many reasons he was another of the high kings of the noldor which if you haven't
08:46
Speaker A
figured out yet only seems to be a position that ends up with these legendary elven characters fingon was actually named the valiant for his skill in battle he was the son of fingolfin which is a pretty impressive bloodline in itself
09:00
Speaker A
and he led the largest host in the flight of the noldor from amman to middle earth during the battle of unnumbered tears he fought with many balrogs including the lord of the balrog's gothmock now he died in the
09:12
Speaker A
process but it took one balrog to restrain him with a fiery whip while gothmog finished him off a mighty elf indeed so we have two left on this list first of the final two is exelyon leader of the people of the fountain
09:28
Speaker A
acthelion commanded a wing of gondolin's forces during the battle of unnumbered tears a pretty disastrous battle for the elves but just surviving it says a lot about the might of this elven warrior but his biggest and most legendary feat
09:41
Speaker A
was during the fall of gondolin it is said that so terrible was his voice when commanding the drawing of the swords and the killings which followed but his name became a terror among the enemy it's also said that during this battle
09:53
Speaker A
exelyon and his house of the fountain killed more orcs than had ever been slain in all the battle of elves and orcs combined acthelion then went on in this battle to kill not one not two but three balrogs
10:08
Speaker A
he soon went to the fountain of the king to drink from it and regain some strength but it was here that he was confronted by gothmog lord of balrogs they thought acthelion lost his sword and as gothmog was readying to finish
10:21
Speaker A
him off he ran towards the bellrock and drove the spike of his helmet into gothmog's body the two of them fell back into the fountain and both drowned but it is safe to say that the actions of acthelion during this battle likely
10:33
Speaker A
changed the entire future of middle earth for goth mark's only equal in middle-earth was sauron so imagine gothmark had survived into the third age and had allied with sauron that could have been a much different outcome finally we have the last elf on this
10:49
Speaker A
list and while it's not in any order this is who i would pick to be the most powerful elf to ever live but that of course is a very personal pick so we've gone with fingolfin so what makes us consider fingolfin as
11:04
Speaker A
such a powerful elven character well he was the first hiking of the noldor in valyrian he was brother of feynor finnafin findis and irime and was said to be the strongest and most valiant of all these brothers he had many impressive feats
11:19
Speaker A
but we only need to talk about one here to justify his place on this list after defeating the force of orcs at the dagor aglareb or the glorious battle fingolfin maintained the siege of angband for nearly 400 years
11:32
Speaker A
but the siege was ended by the assaults of morgoth in the dagobragalak or the battle of sudden flame resulting in many people from valerian fleein and in the end fingolfin rode to angband alone and called out morgoth challenging him to single combat now
11:48
Speaker A
think about this this is an elf challenging melkor who is not only a valor but arguably the most powerful being to ever step foot in middle earth those who saw fingolfin on this day thought that aroma himself had arrived
12:03
Speaker A
for a great rage was upon him his eyes shone like the eyes of the valar now morgoth could not refuse this challenge without losing face before his captains so he put on his black armor took up his great mace grunt and emerged
12:16
Speaker A
from the gates of angband fingolfin drew his sword ringgill and the duel began fingolfin managed to evade all of morgoth's attacks and wounded the dark lord seven times seven times but after a while fingolfin began to grow tired and
12:31
Speaker A
morgoth beat him to the ground three times but each time the elven king rose up and continued to fight but as mandos had once foretold no power of the elves could defeat morgoth avalar eventually fingolfin fell backwards into
12:45
Speaker A
one of the pits in the ground that was carved out by morgoth's missed strikes with grond morgoth then stepped on fingolfin's neck and killed him however in one last desperate attempt fingolfin managed to cut deep into the dark lord's heel
12:58
Speaker A
and after the battle he would walk with a limp and be in pain from his wounds forever an incredible effort and display of not only power but courage and will also fingolfin is easily my favorite alvin character and in my personal
13:12
Speaker A
opinion deserves to be at the top of this list which as i stated is not in order so that brings us to the end of this list guys my question for you today is a simple one who if any would you add to
13:25
Speaker A
this list did we miss anyone out do you disagree with our choices or do you agree 100 let us know in your thoughts in the comments down below okay so time has come as always to thank our patrons and
13:36
Speaker A
channel members you guys are absolutely amazing an extra special shout out goes to the members of our highest tiers gregory nashith john andrew denversteel and pirate747 and we want to shout out our limited specialty on patreon kevin abram matt
13:51
Speaker A
angelo findle of gondolin as members of this tier you of course all get executive producer roles on our film and we'll be able to give feedback on the story itself during pre-production which we are currently approaching the end of we've been over
14:03
Speaker A
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Speaker A
that is how you can do so check us out on patreon at the broken sword a very quick reminder to check out our other channels the sixth ranger and history of dragon ball for some nostalgic power rangers and anime lore the links will be
14:26
Speaker A
in the description down below if they are of any interest to you thank you all so much for watching i hope you have a great day and i will see you next time on the broken sword [Music] you
Topics:Middle-earthElvesGaladrielFëanorElrondGil-galadGlorfindelTolkien loreNoldorRings of Power

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Galadriel considered one of the most powerful elves?

Galadriel is considered one of the mightiest elves due to her age, heritage as a Noldor, possession of an Elven Ring of Power, and her role in banishing Sauron from Dol Guldur.

What feats justify Fëanor's place among the most powerful elves?

Fëanor created the Silmarils and Palantíri, was described as mighty in body and mind, and fought bravely against multiple Balrogs, including Gothmog, the Lord of Balrogs.

How is Elrond's power characterized in the video?

Elrond's power comes from his Maia descent, his possession of an Elven Ring, extensive combat experience against Sauron's forces, magical abilities like healing and foresight, and his leadership.

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