What differentiates the Valar from the Maiar?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by TheLostPilgrim

What differentiates the Valar from the Maiar? They are both Ainur, correct?

Yes. In short, the difference is purely nominal, I would say - the Valar are simply more powerful. It says that Valar are "the chief among the Ainur", but in fact, Valar and Maiar are rather, hmm, misleading division, because technically, they are all the same order of beings. The difference between Valar and Maiar is more akin to difference between, say, kings and common folk than between Elves and Dwarves, for example. Merely a question of power and status.

Also, were the Maiar as old as the Valar--did all the Ainur come into being at the same time, in the Beginning? More to the point, would the spirit later known in Arda as Gandalf, have taken part in the Song? Would Gandalf have been there in the Beginning with the rest of the Ainur?

Definitely equally old; also, if for nothing else, because there was no "time" before that.