September 15, 2003

The Maiar and the Valar
Rune of Mirkwood

This is in respone to "Lee's" posting of September 12th and his questions regarding the spirits known as The Maiar:

Of the many spirits that descended into Arda (The World) at its beginning, having lesser stature than the Valar, (Those With Power or The Powers of the World) were known as the Maiar, though they were still powerful.

Each of the Maiar was attached to the 'people' of a particular Vala (for example, the Maia Ossë, as a spirit of the sea, belonged to the people of Ulmo, Lord of the Waters, while Curumo, the Maia who came to Middle-earth as "Saruman", belonged to the people of Aulë the Smith.)

In the Third Age, there were still Maiar in physical form to be found in Middle-earth.

The Maiar were considered servants and helpers of the Valar and seldom appears in visible form to both Elves and Men. So then, the Valar are the Lords (or gods, as Men called them..) and they are the Ones who created these spirit-helpers for the World, which was called "Arda". There were both

The most important of these were Saruman, Sauron (originally also of Aulë's people), and Olórin, known as Gandalf, who belonged to the people of Manwë (The Chief Valar, Ruler of Arda) and Varda (Queen of the Stars).

In The Silmarillion, the chapter entitled, "Valaquenta" explains the account of the Valar and the Maiar (page 15) and will give more details of the creation and coming of the Maiar (page 21).

If you know these names from The Silmarillion (this title is taken from the Silmarils, the Three Jewels), then I assume you have both the book and have read it. So, I am curious why the questions were placed? It seems you already have some knowledge of "The Book".

I hope the above helped with your questions.

Rune