Who's the oldest?

[tangerine]

Here are the possibilities:

Balrogs: They were created in secret by Melkor well before elves and they may have been created before dwarves and the creatures of Arda's "springtime".

The balrogs were ainu who sided w/ melkor in the beginning; remeber how in Moria Gandalf said that he had met his equal? also, it siad in the silm that Melkor spent all his power in hate, until he was no longer able to create, onlymimic the work of others (i.e. orcs)
Tom was probably a maia-after all, melian, the istari, and sauron were maia, but were still seen by men and elves as very powerful.

[ October 27, 2002: Message edited by: tangerine ]