Feigned fleeing or farciful forestalling?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Yes: this is once again the very same point I meant with Dol Guldur! Utumno was destroyed, but the deepest pits of Angband were not; thus, the evil was allowed to remain there and multiply again, resp. wait for Morgoth's return. The same with Dol Guldur. The analogy is perfect. Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes, the typical mistakes going around all the time.

Yes, the deepest pits of Angband remained, but there was a concerted effort to destroy the edifice. The Valar didn't just leave without doing a cursory bit of demolition. The Valar's bad habit was doing everything half-assed.

Hmmm...and then there is Galadriel. She seems to have escaped the multitude of mistakes made by her more 'hasty' counterparts within the Noldor race: she spurns Feanor; she eschews the violence and murder rampant in the Kin Slaying, yet still follows her objective of finding greater realms to rule; she ingratiates herself to Melian and learns wisdom in Doriath when most other Noldor are forbidden to enter the Girdled Realm; she sees through Annatar's disguise and rejects him, whereas Celebrimbor greedily accepts the veiled Sauron; she welcomes Gandalf and wisely puts him ahead of Saruman in council; she rejects the Ring even when it is offered to her freely.

All this seeming wisdom, savvy and common sense, and yet she makes such a glaring error? And both Gandalf and Elrond with her on the White Council -- supposed wisdom personified in Middle-earth -- and not enough sense between them to destroy Dol Guldur when it has been overrun by an army?

As Shakespeare would say, 'Ah, there's the rub!' I reiterate, there was no army, Dol Guldur was not overrun and controlled by the White Council, and their only objective at the time was to destroy Sauron if they could, or at least drive him in any case. That being done, they did not have the force to destroy Amon Lanc, and they left. Only when Galadriel and Celeborn actually brought their army from Lorien was Galadriel able to destroy Dol Guldur.