maiar spirits

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by obloquy

I had more speculation typed here that I decided to delete, but consider the following facts:

1) Melkor's rebellion and his corruption of Maiar to his service echo the Biblical account of angels becoming demons, and Biblical parallels in Tolkien are always worth noting

Noting, yes– but not necessarily taking completely literally. There are, after all, many other influences on the "Silm". Is there any direct evidence?

Originally Posted by obloquy

I did allow for the possibility, in my previous post, that Melkor had directly incarnated the Balrogs all at once, but it is not likely that he even had the power to do this. If he did, why did he not forcibly incarnate all of his eala enemies?

But what makes you think he could forcibly incarnate them?