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Re: Maiar changing shape.

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  Posted by Colin Jones on March 06, 2000 at 18:54:05
In Reply to: Re: Maiar changing shape. posted by Foradan on March 06, 2000 at 03:46:27:



: : : There is a moral element to this. Saruman, when he was killed in the Shire, shrivelled up into dust, reflecting his moral corruption. In his Will to Power, he was rebelling against the constraints laid upon the Istari. Were he able to do so, I am sure he would have attempted to use the full range of powers that he, as Curumo, had when in Valinor, including shape changing. He pushed the envelope quite a bit as it was: that whole projection of power that Aragorn felt and described, during the chase across Rohan, as a strange sense of weariness.

: My thoughts exactly. I've also been been wondering, had Saruman gained the One, would he have been able to (eventually) rid himself of the restrictions to his power set on him as one of the Istari?

Again, I'd suggest that the Istari were not forcably restricted from using their power as Maia (Indeed they still are Maia) just placed under an obligation not to do so by the Vala as per the conditions I mentioned in my previous reply to David Freitag. I don't remember anything that implies they couldn't use this power just they weren't supposed to. Remember nothing stopped Gandalf using his power to fight off the Balrog, only once it was destroyed he no longer had the mandate (nor the strength) to use it to escape the mountain. After all the Balrog was a very powerful Maia, and Gandalf could never have won without his power as an Ainur. The restriction came from using their power against the will of the Vala and therefore the will of Eru. It was shown in the Sillmarillien that this would end up weakening the power/will of the spirit that did this, ultimately consuming more and more of it's life force. I would seem that this was Eru's way of self limiting the amount of subversion and evil the Ainu could cause, but not eliminating it altogether. After all without darkness how could you understand the light. (There is a quote somewhere in the texts to that effect but can't remember where!)


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