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Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man
How can we be sure that the list that you give is a complete list of all sentient beings within, or indeed without, Arda?
What about the Stone Giants that Bilbo sees in the Misty Mountains and Gandalf refers to?
What about the infamous fox that noticed the Hobbits' journey through the Shire?
They can be explained by putting them down to the fictional author's whimsy, but that is only one explanation.
And what about Huan, the Eagles and Shadowfax? Can we be sure that they were Maiarin in origin?
Moreover, Neithan's helpful (for me) explanation of Ealar indicates that there were spirits originating outside Arda who were not Ainur.
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Your points are all well taken, but in the case of Ungoliant at least, the implications seem obvious to me, if to no one else. Call in a deeply-engrained thought-habit, if you like.
I'd also like to see the references for these ealar. Not just hte quotes, but where to find them. Cause I've never heard of them before, and I consider myself fairly well-read Tolkienwise. Not that a new text to devour would go amiss, by any means, and certainly I don't have the entire HoME commited to memor, but I'm still completely unable to recall having heard of them before...