Posted: April 08, 2000 at 21:14:56: by Jim Gregors
: : The biggest difference between the dragons and the Maiar was that the dragons 'possessed' their bodies (i.e., they took control of an already existing creature) whereas the Maiar 'adopted' bodies when they chose to interact with the physical world. Destoying the 'body' of a Maia would not kill him, although it could take considerable time to generate a new form. The balrogs seem to have been a unique case in that they had become so tied to their physical forms that they seemed to have lost the ability to survive their destruction.: It is stated, off-hand I can't remember where, that the longer a Maia had a form(body)of flesh, the more bound to that body the Maia became. This is true, but I think this remark was made in reference to the Balrogs only. : I think there was also ranking order among the Maiar. I don't know if this is actually stated in any of the text. Members of the higher order, Sauron and Istari for example, would take longer to become totally bound to their body. While others of the lesser orders,balrogs & dragons, would become totally bound sooner. There were certainly greater and lesser Maiar, however I don't think I would rank the Balrogs among the lesser ones. It is stated somewhere that even the dragons feared the Balrogs, so they must have been quite formidable. However, the tying of the spirit to the physical form was not necessarily a function of time or intrinsic power - Melkor himself had become bound to his 'body' by the time he faced Fingolfin in combat, and he was accounted the most powerful of the Valar (and hence, the most powerful being in Middle-earth). It was Melkor's squandering of his native power upon his 'creations' which caused him to become 'earthbound' as it were.
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