Morgoth once had a army of corrupted maiar?

[Victariongreyjoy]

Originally Posted by Mithadan

Boldog, as a name at least, appears early on as a great captain of the Orcs, if I recall. I just finished both Beren and Luthien and The Fall of Gondolin and I took note of a mention that Boldog was slain. If I had to guess based upon memory, I would say it was in the Lay of Leithien.

It is not clear that the breeding of Orcs began after the fall of Utumno. This would mean that the task was left in other hands (Sauron perhaps) or that the breeding began after Morgoth returned to Angband, leaving too little time, in my opinion, to create the armies described in the Silmarillion. Because the corruption of Orcs (and I will not be dragged into the Elves/Men/Beasts discussion) is clearly attributed to Morgoth, I would guess that the breeding program at least began while he was still in Utumno.

While Maiar were clearly recruited by Morgoth, their numbers are not clear. Certainly the Balrogs (hundreds per the Lay of Leithien, seven per later notes), and probably all speaking monsters including dragons, Draugluin and Carcharoth.

So he did have orcs, both from corrupting elves he captured and evil maiar shape-shifting into leading orc generals. He made Ents into trolls, and many evil spirits such has phantoms and wraiths. The phantoms and wraiths surely must be maiar in a twisted spiritual form? Also, I would like to think some of these Nameless Things monsters could be corrupted maiar as well. Maybe some ancient creatures we never seen before but was wiped out when Utumno was destroyed. The few remnants escaped down to the earth.

[mhagain]

Well yes... And no.

"Maiar" isn't a taxonomic classification; it just signifies Ainur who went into the world but not including the 15 most powerful. So any claim that a particular individual is a Maia must of necessity imply that this individual existed before the world and took part in the Music.

That Melkor did corrupt many of the Maiar is beyond question, but on the other hand Tolkien all but shouts from the rooftops that there were other spirits in Ea, presumably created during the Music by both Eru and the Ainur, and there's a very clear reference to these in the Silmarillion:

Therefore he gathered to himself spirits out of the halls of Eä that he had perverted to his service, and he deemed himself strong. And seeing now his time he drew near again to Arda, and looked down upon it, and the beauty of the Earth in its Spring filled him the more with hate.

Make particular note of the phrase "looked down" here, because that's evidence that Ungoliant is one of those spirits:

The Eldar knew not whence she came; but some have said that in ages long before she descended from the darkness that lies about Arda, when Melkor first looked down in envy upon the Kingdom of Manwë...

That everything not otherwise classified must be a Maia is something that, I believe, comes from David Day, so that's probably a good indication of how seriously to treat it.