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<img src="http://www.barrowdowns.com/images/posticons/nenya.jpg" align=absmiddle> Re: One hand tied behind their back
Early concepts
From
The Book of Unfinished Tales 1 (HoME 1), "The Coming of the Valar, about Manwë and Varda:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> These twain gathered now wings of power to themselves and fared swiftly through the three airs. ...
****With them came many of those lesser Vali who loved them and had played nigh them and attuned their music to theirs, and these were the Mánir and the Súruli, the sylphs of the airs and of the winds.
****Now swiftly as they fared Melko was there before them, having rushed headlong flaming through the airs in the impetuosity of his speed, and there was a tumult of the sea where he had dived and the mountains above him spouted flames and the earth gaped and rocked; but Manwë beholding this was wroth.<hr></blockquote>How the other of the Ainur who are entering Arda travel is not precisely said, other than:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> ... and Vilna was in uproar in their passing, ...<hr></blockquote>Are they flying or are they diving?
Whatever the case in following events in
BoLT 1 and
BolT 2 of the Ainur in the world only Manwë, Varda, and their followers, the Mánir and the Súruli are ever seen possibly flying again.
From "The Tale of the Sun and Moon":<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> ****Now it is said (quoth Lindo) that, whereas certain of the Gods of their divine being might, an they wished, fare with a great suddenness of speed through Vilna and the low airs, yet might none even of the Valar, not Melko himself, nor any other save Manwë and Varda and their folk alone avail to pass beyond: .... Yet more, to Manwë alone, knowing the purity and glory of his heart, did Ilúvatar grant the power of visiting the uttermost heights; and breathing the great clear Serene which lies so far above the world that no finest dust of it, nor thinnest odour of its lives, nor faintest echo of its song or sorrow comes there; ....<hr></blockquote>So not even all of the Valar may fly, and of those that can all but two may fly only through the low airs.
Even Nornorë is not definitely said to fly in the air in "The Coming of the Elves":<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> ****Then does Nornorë, whose feet flash invisibly for the greatness of their speed, hurtle from Valinor bearing the embassy of Manwë, and he goes unstaying over both land and sea to Palisor.<hr></blockquote>Maybe he is flying in the air, maybe he is running over the sea and the land.
As to Melko, again from
BoLT 1, "The Tale of the Sun and Moon":<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> ****But this has ever been and is yet the greatest bitterness of Melko, for in no wise of himself could he now forsake the bosom of the Earth, ....<hr></blockquote>The word "now" suggests that he could once fly, but he we have never seen him do so. He and his following steal horses and ride on them, and he later walks or runs, but does not fly.
I believe the only other reference to wings on any of these spirits, other than that in my first quotation above, is also in "The Tale of the Sun and Moon":<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> Now winged spirits of the utmost purity and beauty*** even the most ethereal of those bright choirs of Mánir and the Súruli who fare about the halls of Manwë on Taniquetil or traverse all the airs that move upon the world*** sate in those starry boats and guided them on mazy courses high above the Earth, and Varda gave them names, but few of these are known.<hr></blockquote>
For completion, "The Coming of the Valar" speaks concerning Manwë's dwelling:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> Thence did he speed his darting hawks and receive them on his return, and thither fared often in later days Sorontur King of Eagles whom Manwë gave much might and wisdom.<hr></blockquote>Of the origin of these hawks and Eagles nothing is said in the early writings.
What impresses in these early accounts is the physicality of these beings. They walk and run and ride horses, and it takes time for them to travel from one place to another. To appear before Huor the Vala Ulmo travels physically in his car to the Land of Willows.
One last quotation from the earliest works, from
BolT 2, "The Fall of Gondolin":<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> Then arose Thorndor, King of Eagles, and he loved not Melko, for Melko had caught many of his kindred and chained them against sharp rocks to squeeze from them the magic words whereby he might learn to fly); and when they would not tell he cut off their wings and sought to fashion therefrom a mighty pair for his use, but it availed not.<hr></blockquote>
Of course no Balrog is shown flying in these early works or described as having wings of any kind. In "The Fall of Gondolin" the Balrogs ride on fire-drakes, and some attack Gondolin with darts of fire from arrows and slings from outside the walls. Only after a breach is made in the wall by some of the dragons do they enter Gondolin through that breach.
Late Concepts
From
The Peoples of Middle-earth (HoME 12), "Last Writings", Glorfindel, Note 2, on the meaning of
Maiar:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> That angelic order to which Gandalf originally belonged: lesser in power and authority than the Valar, but of the same nature: members of the first order of created rational beings, who if they appeared in visible forms ('humane' or of other kind) were self-incarnated, or given forms by the Valar [
added later: and who could move/travel simply by an act of will when not arrayed in a body*** which they could assume when they reached the places that ...
(illegible).]<hr></blockquote>Now Valar and Maiar when not embodied can teleport by an act of will, and then re-embody themselves when reaching their destination. Whether this teleportation is instantaneous and whether the creation and assumption of a new body is in some way tiring to the spirit is not stated.
From the
Ósanwe-Kenta, Note 5:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> Here Pengolodh adds a long note on the use of
hröar by the Valar. In brief he says that though in origin a "self-arraying", it may tend to approach the state of "incarnation", especially with the lesser members of that order (the Maiar). "It is said that the longer and the more the same
hröa is used, the greater is the bond of habit, and the less do the 'self-arrayed' desire to leave it. As raiment may soon cease to be adornment, and becomes (as is said in the tongues of both Elves and Men) a 'habit', a customary garb. Or if among Elves and Men it be worn to mitigate heat or cold, it soon makes the clad body less able to endure these things when naked". Pengolodh also cites the opinion that if a "spirit" (that is, one of those not embodied by creation) uses a
hröa for the furtherance of its personal purposes, or (still more) for the enjoyment of bodily faculties, it finds it increasingly difficult to operate without the
hröa. The things that are most binding are those that in the Incarnate have to do with the life of the
hröa itself, its sustenance and its propagation. Thus eating and drinking are binding, but not the delight in beauty of sound or form. Most binding is begetting or conceiving.
****"We do not know the
axani (laws, rules, as primarily proceeding from Eru) that were laid down upon the Valar with particular reference to their state, but it seems clear that there was no
axan against these things. Nonetheless it appears to be an
axan, or maybe necessary consequence, that if they are done, then the spirit must dwell in the body that it used, and be under the same necessities as the Incarnate. The only case that is known in the histories of the Eldar is that of Melian who became the spouse of King Elu-thingol. This certainly was not evil or against the will of Eru, and though it led to sorrow, both Elves and Men were enriched.
****'The great Valar do not do these things: they beget not, neither do they eat and drink, save at the high
asari, in token of their lordship and indwelling of Arda, and for the blessing of the sustenance of the Children. Melkor alone of the Great became at last bound to a bodily form; but that was because of the use that he made of this in his purpose to become Lord of the Incarnate, and of the great evils that he did in the visible body. Also he had dissipated his native powers in the control of his agents and servants, so that he became in the end, in himself and without their support, a weakened thing, consumed by hate and unable to restore himself from the state into which he had fallen. Even his visible form he could no longer master, so that its hideousness could not any longer be masked, and it showed forth the evil of his mind. So it was also with even some of his greatest servants, as in these later days we see: they became wedded to the forms of their evil deeds, and if these bodies were taken from them or destroyed, they were nullified, until they had rebuilt a semblance of their former habitations, with which they could continue the evil courses in which they had become fixed". (Pengolodh here evidently refers to Sauron in particular, from whose arising he fled at last from Middle-earth. But the first destruction of the bodily form of Sauron was recorded in the histories of the Elder Days, in the
Lay of Leithian.)<hr></blockquote>Here then is one way in which a Maia might become incarnate permanently, at least for the life of the that body. Upon the death of the body it seems the Maia might be rather helpless, having lost the ability to exercise its spiritual power.
In
Morgoth's Ring (HoME 10), "Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth", in the Appendix, Tolkien discusses resurrected Elvish bodies:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> Memory by a
fëa of experience is evidently powerful, vivid, and complete. So the underlying conception is that "matter" will be taken up into "spirit", by becoming part of its
knowledge*** and so rendered timeless and under the spirit's command. As the Elves remaining in Middle-earth slowly "consumed" their bodies*** or made them into raiments of memory? The resurrection of the body (at least as far as Elves were concerned) was in a sense incorporeal. But while it could pass physical barriers at will, it could at will oppose a barrier to matter. If you touched a resurrected body you felt it. Or if it willed it could simply elude you*** disappear. Its position in space was at will.<hr></blockquote>It would seem here that the resurrected body of an Elf is something like the
fana, the assumed form, of a Vala (or Maia), one difference being that it was, at least normally, the only such form in which the
fëa could clothe itself in.
We have then explanations as to how Morgoth and some of his followers became permanently incarnate, in seeking to gain power over the physical world they increasingly clothed themselves in physical forms and eventually became dependant on those forms, unable to function without them.
But could these bodies also be to some extent the bodies such as ascribed to resurrected Elves, real bodies, but ones that could become incorporal? The appearance of Durin's Bane might suggest it was to some extent incorporal and wraith-like, yet in the depths of the earth, its flame kindled, it is felt by Gandalf as a solid "thing of slime".
As to Gandalf resurrected, there is this passage in "The White Rider":<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> Before him stooped the old figure, white, shining now as if with some light kindled within, bent, laden with years, but holding a power beyond the strength of kings.<hr></blockquote>
****'Do I not say truly, Gandalf,' said Aragorn at last, 'that you could go whithersoever you wished quicker than I? And this I also say: you are our captain and our banner. The Dark Lord has Nine. But we have One, mightier than they: the White Rider. He has passed through the fire and the abyss, and they shall fear him. We will go where he leads.[/quote]Gandalf's body nows glows with light and Aragorn ascribes to him the power to move with great speed, as would a Maiar wearing a
fana, not one truly incarnate as Gandalf and the other Istari had been. Gandalf had been a true incarnate, even his memories of his former life as a Maia vague; now he is possibly again a true Maia wearing a
fana in likeness of his former form?
Aragorn's words would suggest this, yet when awakened to his new life Gandalf lay in a trance for two days, had to be carried by Gwaihir to Lothlórien where he was "healed". Was Aragorn wrong then?
Perhaps Gandalf has such powers as a resurrected Elf would have, but stronger because he is a Maia. This would perhaps be likely.
Tolkien's last recorded throughts on re-embodiment of Elves before he wrote
The Lord of the Rings appears in
The Lost Road, "Quenta Silmarillion", §85, on Elves in Mandos:<blockquote>
Quote:<hr> Thence they are recalled at length to freedom, either as spirits, taking form according to their own thought, as the lesser folk of the divine race; or else, it is said, they are at times re-born into their own children, and the ancient wisdom of their race does not perish or grow less.<hr></blockquote>Here re-embodied Elves appear as spirits who can take forms, rather than the later account in which the become incarnate again, but in a more subtle body.
We never do see Gandalf the White (or Glorfindel) use any powers to evade touch or show any ability to teleport. Gandalf is in a great hurry to get to Gondor, but travels on Shadowfax. And of course Glorfindel was probably not considered to be a resurrected Elf when Tolkien wrote
The Lord of the Rings. Tom Bombadil may be able to teleport, explaining his quickness in reaching the barrow when summoned.
Final Word on Flight
There is no indication in either the early or late writings that any beings could fly or levitate in physical form unless arrayed in a body capable of flight, e.g. the great Eagles or Lúthien arrayed as Thuringwethel. Of course the Eagles are probably too large to be capable of flight in our primary world. In the world of Tolkien's legendarium it is possible some magic is still to be accepted in the late writings similar to the
BoLT account where secret words give these creatures the ability to fly.
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