Would Lorien fall

[rudeboy]

If for example Saruman was right and the ring had floated down the river and into the Sea, would Lorien be safe? I know that everywhere else would fall; Gondor, Rohan even Rivendell would as Gandalf says in FotR Chapter Journey in the dark, "To go back now would be to admit defeat,.... before long Rivendell will be under siege and in a brief and bitter time it will be destroyed" that would be going back with the ring! Is Lorien the only place Sauron couldn't conquor without the ring? Or am I wrong. Is the only way for him to conqour Lorien without the ring, to go there himself? Or could a massive army like in the siege of Gondor be enough to break it?

[Sharkû]

I doubt Lorien of all places could have been able to stop Sauron. Even without the Ring, and while waging war on several fronts as one, as he did in the Ring War, his forces posed a severe threat even though they were eventually beaten.

[Silmiel of Imladris]

I think that is one of the reasons the elves were so eager to leave, they knew what could be coming. In my opinion if Sauron had won at Minas Tirth and found the ring he would have destroyed evey other civilization first like the men, hobbits, drawves. He would kill off everyone else who could possibly stand against him and then he would have started on the elves. He knew they were powerful and many other races would be willing to help them so killing off their allies first would be the doom of the elves since there were so few of them left. Besides Saurons main campain was destroying to world of men, the small number of elves he could get later.

[the phantom]

I know that everywhere else would fall; Gondor, Rohan even Rivendell

Yes, Rivendell would fall, but remember what Gandalf said to Frodo in LOTR (FOTR, Many Meetings)-

"What about Rivendell and the Elves. Is Rivendell safe?"
'Yes, at present, until all else is conquered.'

So it looks like Gandalf thought that Rivendell would last the longest.

[lathspell]

Lothlorien would fall if Sauron gained the Ring. The World would be in a second Darkness. Glorfindel says this in FotR during the Council of Elrond, when they are discussing whether or not to bring the Ring to Bombadil as a guardian:

'Could that power be defied by Bombadil alone? I think not. I think that in the end, if all else is conquered, Bombadil will fall, Last as he was First; and then Night will come.'

Glorfindel says here that he thinks that Bombadil wouldn't last if Sauron put all his power to him without having the Ring, for Bombadil would still be guarding it.
The fact that he believes he would still be last means that Lorien and Rivendell would have fallen already. So, yes, Lorien and all other elf-places would've fallen, and either with or without help of the Ring.

There is another quote about this topic in the UT, when Gandalf tells his version of 'the Hobbit' to Frodo and the other Hobbits in Minas Tirith. He is talking about the time when Sauron is groing strong again as the Necromances in Dol Guldur, and about his plans at that stage. At that point he says something like:

'I now believe that his original plan was to gain an army big enough and get rid of his greatest enemies first, to gain a force of orcs big enough to destroy Lothlorien and Rivendell.'

Here also someone is speaking as though Sauron wouldn't even need the Ring to overthrow the elf-realms. It was only the attack of the White Council at Dol Guldur that made it more difficult for him to place a direct attack at the Elves' realms.

greetings,
lathspell