Could Gandalf beat Sauron challenged one on one?
 

We have the book called LOTR weapons and warfare and under Gandalf it says that the powers forbaid Gandalf from challenging Sauron directly. Well I guess I have two questions: Could Gandalf beat Sauron? and who are these freakin' Powers?

The Powers are the Valar, the gods or demigods who sent Gandalf and the Istari to Middle-earth to combat the forces of Sauron.

Gandalf and Sauron
Sauron vs Olorin 1on1

Perhaps these links will assist in answering the other part of your question.

-Angmar

To my knowledge the so called were the Valar. Gandalf an dthe other Istari were sent by the Valar to Middle Earth to help teh peoples of ME to realise their strength, and defeat Sauron themselves.

Gandalf talks at some point about facing Sauron one-on-one, but i can't remember any more. If Sauron had the One Ring, he would most likely beat Gandalf.

i think a direct challange between Gandalf the White and a ringless Sauron is likely to end in Gandalf's favour, because Sauron's relatively weak over those whom he cannot control and all he could do in defense would be to summon Orcs. if Gandalf were say to appear at Bara Dur and catch the Eye un-defended he could probably have taken him down. One likes tho think of Good having the final triumph over evil.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 12:34 PM January 11, 2004: Message edited by: master_of_puppets ]

In regards to the story I think it is irrelevant since the Istari were forbidden from directly challenging Sauron.

That aside, it makes for some interesting speculation. I'd like to think Gandalf, but who knows.

In my opinion, Sauron even without the ring has the enormous advantage of having a bigger and unlimited power (he was one of the most powerful of the Maiar and at the begining of the Second Age personally more powerful than Morgoth himself which is some serious thing), while Olorin even in the less restrained White version would need the ring to have about a 50/50 (at best) to destroy Sauron.

Although, what is Sauron going to do, stare him to death. Seriously though, Sauron put much of his former power into the ring, plus he had already had his physical form destroyed twice. I think Gandalf could have won.

gandalf was very powerful. do you remember when he said if he took the ring that his intentions would be good, but he become the Dark Lord himself. Sauron has some controll. Does that mean he's better than Gandalf?

defeat Sauron as in throw him down for awhile or destry him completely...because as long as the ring was in existance the latter could not be done...However, in the case of the former it is my opinion that Gandalf could take Sauron one on one as you say. I mean, if you really think about it, ALthough it wasn't really one on one, it kind of almost comes down to that when Isildur defeated Sauron the first time. And Sauron HAD the ring then (well other than the fact that Isildur cut it off) but he was a huge power at that time too. So especially without the ring, I believe Gandalf would be the stronger.

That's true, but the ring is evil, so it would seem to me that aside from the amount of power it would take to weild the ring in the first place it would take a lot more to use it to do good without it either turning bad or corrupting the weilder (if that's even possible). Gandalf knows this so he doesn't try, I don't think that necessarily means he is less powerful.

The Istari only interfered with the affairs of mortals as the Valar allowed. It wasn't for Gandalf to defeat Sauron.

I'm trying to think here now, Saruman the White beat Gandalf the Grey in Orthanc, then Gandalf the Grey beat the Balrog. Or then, was the Orthanc battle unmatched?

I think that Sauron has the ability to beat Gandalf (Grey and White) but that Gandalf would know how to beat Sauron. So Gandalf would win....

It would be a hell of a fight though.

-Maikafanawen

Gandalf could have. Letter No. 246:

I recommend reading this thread, or at least the initial post: The Powers of the Istari