re: Tolkien book nerds- how did Galadriel bring down Dol Guldur?

I honestly don't read it at all the way that you do. Remember that, by this time, Sauron has been defeated and the One Ring has been destroyed. That means that the power of Nenya, Galadriel's ring, would also be gone or diminished. (Side note: I've never been sure whether the destruction of the One Ring caused the power of The Three to disappear immediately, or whether that power gradually faded, though I lean toward the latter interpretation.)

In any case, though, I simply take a non-magical view of the passage you suggest. Celeborn led the army of elves from Lorien, and then Galadriel directed the efforts of the "combat engineers" in the destruction of the fortress.

Saying that Galadriel threw down the fortress, in my opinion, is analogous to saying that Napoleon captured Mantua in 1797 -- he didn't take the city all by himself.


A related question that puzzles me, though, is how the White Council drove Sauron from Dol Guldur in TA2941 and didn't go ahead and finish destroying the fortress right then. I suppose that they mistakenly thought that the departure of Sauron (the Necromancer) was enough such that the evil in the area would gradually disappear. That's certainly the impression given in The Hobbit.