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Re: Maiar changing shape.

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  Posted by Michael Martinez on March 06, 2000 at 11:33:04
In Reply to: Re: Maiar changing shape. posted by David Freitag on March 05, 2000 at 16:01:51:



: The Istari are a different case: they were sent to Middle : Earth with a mission and operated under certain "mission : parameters," largely designed to limit their expression of : overt power: they were to inspire and organize resistence to : Sauron by the peoples of Middle Earth, not engage in one on one : combat with them. Tolkien speaks of them as being "veiled." : Gandalf was always reluctant to use what power he had, which : was mostly fire oriented. Nowhere do I see any hints that any : of the Istari retained their native Maiar shape changing : abilities.

Gandalf displayed plenty of non-fire related power (the lightning bolts being one example). He also said that Radagast was a shape-changer (at Elrond's Coucil).

In one of his late essays Tolkien mused that eating and drinking or procreating while in an assumed body would trap a Maia in that body. There are inconsistencies between this essay and what Tolkien actually published (such as Radagast, unless he never ate or drank, but Tolkien's conception of the Istari seems to have included eating and drinking). If a self-incarnated Ainu were "killed" (i.e., its body so damaged that the spirit was forced to depart from it), then the spirit was consumed with an overpowering rage and weakened. Some of the greater spirits, like Melkor and Sauron, would be able to embody themselves if they retained their strength. But Melkor diffused the greater part of his strength throughout Arda and its creatures, the better to control them, and Sauron put most of his strength in his Ring, which was eventually destroyed.

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