Maiar

Nature

The Maiar are those Ainur who came into the World alongside the Valar but who were of lesser might and rank. They are of the same order of being as the Valar, spirits without native bodies who can take visible shape at will, and the line between the two groups is one of degree rather than kind. Their number is unknown even to the Elves, and most of them never took a form that the Children of Ilúvatar could perceive. Each Maia attached himself or herself to one of the Valar, sharing in that Vala's nature and serving him or her in the ordering of the World: spirits of water with Ulmo, spirits of craft with Aulë, spirits of growing things with Yavanna.

Though weaker than the Valar, the Maiar were far from feeble. A great Maia could contend with dragons, hold enchanted realms against the armies of the Enemy, or, when corrupted, become the terror of an entire age. Because the Maiar were more numerous and more willing to walk in Middle-earth, they were in practice the Ainur whom Elves and Men most often met.

Named Maiar of Valinor

The chief of the Maiar in Valinor were Eönwë, herald and banner-bearer of Manwë, the greatest in arms of all beings in Arda, and Ilmarë, the handmaid of Varda. Ossë, a vassal of Ulmo, is the master of the coastal seas and loves storms, and his spouse Uinen, the Lady of the Seas, calms them; both were beloved of the Teleri and of the mariners of Númenor. Salmar made the great horns of Ulmo. Arien, a spirit of fire, was chosen to guide the vessel of the Sun, and Tilion, a hunter of Oromë's company, steers the Moon.

Melian

The Maia who most shaped the history of the Elves was Melian, who served both Vána and Estë and loved the nightingales of Lórien. She went into Middle-earth before the Elves' journey and there met the Elf-king Thingol in Nan Elmoth. She married him, the only union of Ainu and Elf in the histories, and became queen of Doriath, which she protected with the Girdle of Melian, an unseen wall of enchantment. Her daughter Lúthien inherited something of her power, and through Lúthien the blood of the Maiar passed to Elrond, Elros and the kings of Númenor and Gondor.

The Istari

In the Third Age the Valar sent five Maiar to Middle-earth in the shape of old men, forbidden to reveal their true power and charged to rouse Elves and Men against Sauron. These were the Istari, the Wizards: Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast and the two Blue Wizards. Their story is told in their own entry; here it is enough to say that their embodiment was real, with all the weariness and temptation that bodies bring, and that only one of them fully accomplished his task.

Corrupted Maiar

Many Maiar were drawn to Melkor, some in the days of the Music and others afterwards in the World. The most terrible were the Balrogs, spirits of fire who became demons of shadow and flame under his mastery. Their captain, Gothmog, slew two High Kings of the Noldor before Ecthelion killed him at the fall of Gondolin. Another lurked beneath Moria for ages and was known only as Durin's Bane until Gandalf destroyed it in the Third Age.

The greatest of the corrupted Maiar was Sauron. In origin one of the people of Aulë, gifted in craft and order, he was seduced by Melkor early and served him as lieutenant through the First Age, commanding Tol Sirion and mastering werewolves and vampires. After Melkor's fall he rose to become the Dark Lord in his own right, forged the Rings of Power, corrupted Númenor and was finally overthrown when the One Ring was unmade.

Other Maiar of lesser fame went the same way. Ossë was for a time tempted by Melkor before Uinen brought him back to Ulmo's allegiance. Later legend held that some of the great spiders and other monsters were spirits of this order, though the texts are cautious on the point. And in the Third Age Saruman, sent as an emissary of the Valar, fell into a desire for power and knowledge of his own, becoming an imitator of Sauron rather than his enemy.

Fate

The faithful Maiar remain in Aman or in the elements they serve. Melian returned to Valinor after Thingol's death. The Balrogs were destroyed or driven into hiding at the end of the First Age, and the last known of them fell with Gandalf on the peak of Zirakzigil. Sauron's spirit, robbed of the Ring, was left too weak ever to take shape again. Saruman's spirit was rejected by the West. Gandalf sailed home. Radagast and the Blue Wizards are unaccounted for.

Like all the Ainur, the Maiar have no native bodies and clothe themselves in visible forms when they choose. Most who appear to Elves and Men take the likeness of the Children, and Melian was so fair that Thingol was held by the sight of her for years. The Maiar are more limited than the Valar in this, and their forms can be fixed by long use or by their own deeds: the Balrogs became permanently creatures of fire and shadow, and Sauron, after the Downfall of Númenor, could no longer take a fair form. The Istari were given real bodies of aged men, capable of hunger, fatigue and death. Ossë and Uinen appear as beings of the sea; Arien became a being of naked flame too bright for the Eldar to look upon.

The Maiar have no culture of their own apart from the Valar they serve; each is bound to a particular Vala and works in that Vala's domain. In Valinor they attend the courts of their lords, and the greatest of them, Eönwë and Ilmarë, stand beside Manwë and Varda. Among the Children they have sometimes taught: Melian instructed the Sindar and gave Doriath its wisdom and law, and the Istari brought knowledge and counsel to Elves, Men, Dwarves and Hobbits. The corrupted Maiar formed the officer class of Melkor's and Sauron's armies, commanding Orcs and monsters rather than fighting as ordinary soldiers.

The Maiar were made with the other Ainur from the thought of Eru before the World. They joined in the Great Music and, when the World was made real, entered it with the Valar as their followers and helpers. Some, like Ossë, were of Ulmo's people; some, like Sauron, of Aulë's; others of Manwë, Varda, Oromë, Vána and Estë. Their choice, like the Valar's, bound them to Arda until its end.

By the Fourth Age the faithful Maiar have withdrawn with the Valar or remain in the elements they govern. Of those who walked openly in Middle-earth, Melian has long since returned to Aman; Gandalf has sailed West; Saruman and Sauron are destroyed, their spirits unable to take form again; the Balrogs are gone; and the fates of Radagast and the Blue Wizards are unknown.