The Wise in Middle Earth

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Vultur

One thing I've always wondered: would the Elves' retreat to the West, if Sauron had been victorious, prove to be a false hope in the end? Sauron, being a Maia rather than a mortal, might have been able to find the Straight Road - wearing the Ring, could even Valinor resist him forever?.
Tolkien said, at least in late writings (published in Morgoth's Ring), that the Valar too 'faded' in a sense; and that 'Sauron at the end of the Second Age was 'greater', comparatively, than Morgoth at the end of the First'. Repossessed of his Ring, would he not return to his full might which he possessed at the end of the Second Age?

Despite the fears of Frodo that 'over the Sea' would not be 'wide enough to keep the Shadow out', I don't think the Valar had anything to fear from Sauron.
I don't have Morgoth's Ring, but it seems illogical that Sauron the Maia, even with his Ring, could be said to be more powerful than Morgoth, even after the latter's millenia of expending his innate power and will in the domination of others.
Throughout the First Age, the major defeats of Morgoth, by which I mean the overthrowing of his military might and forcible removal from his stronghold, were accomplished only by direct intervention of the Valar.
Compare that to Sauron, whose armies were destroyed and he himself personally vanquished (if only temporarily) by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, who had no 'divine' assistance in their fight. And Sauron suffered that humiliation while in possession of the Ring.
As to the Valar 'fading', again, I haven't seen the reference you speak of, but I would like to know the reason they would 'fade'. Even if they were doing so, Sauron would seem to be much weaker himself by the time of the War of The Ring than at the end of the Second Age; he had been forced to re-body again, which was a drain on his power, and, as Morgoth, had wasted his power in the domination of his servants.

Originally Posted by Vultur

It seems to me that the West must ultimately not have been a safe refuge: else the Ring could simply be taken West and kept in, say, Ulmo's safekeeping.

It wasn't that it would not have been a safe place to guard the Ring, but, as Gandalf told the Council of Elrond, the Ring was Middle-earth's problem, and those in the West would not have allowed it to be brought there.