Posted: June 21, 2000 at 14:17:37: by shadowfax
: The Istari seem to have been an extreme form of this group in that they were more closely tied to their physical bodies and consequently were more capable of feeling the strains and woes of life in Middle Earth. A useful ability as their primary objectives demanded a developed empathy with the inhabitants of the mortal world.The corporeal binding of the Istarii was pretty extreme, seeing Saruman was actually killed by a knife wound without any magic being involved. You would have thought an Ainur would resist such physical damage in a better way. Of course, maybe he didn't really die, but simply departed from his body, but was unable to create another and floated around as a powerless spirit. Sauron, however, managed to recover from a similar situation. I don't see what was so different between the two situations. Also, I'm not sure whether Sauron's new body was really new. I think I remember reading somewhere that he still had 4 fingers on one hand (I think Gollum says so). Now if he were to build himself a new body, surely he would also build a five-fingered hand. just wondering
hope I can provoke an interesting and revealiing discussion.
I am sure many of you are experts in this type of topic.
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