Onda sinnen blir knutna till hemliga kroppar
Det verkar som att både Melkor och Sauron förlorade förmågan att ta ett rättvist utseende när deras ande blev så fixerad på ondskan att deras kropp bara kunde göra detsamma. När det gäller Melkor hände det (förmodligen se nedan) efter förstörelsen av träden. För Sauron hände det sig efter förstörelsen av Númenor.
Ainurens natur
Förhållandet mellan "Ain" ( eäla ) och "kropp" ( hröa ) av en Ainu är komplext och ibland oklart. De enda två Ainur som sägs ha förlorat möjligheten att visas i en viss form är Melkor och Sauron.
Ainur är naturligt disincarnate varelser. De behöver inte hröa för att överleva. Melkor är dock den enda Ainu som har blivit permanent inkarnerad . Det var en följd av att sprida sin makt i hela Arda:
To gain domination over Arda, Morgoth had let most of his being pass into the physical constituents of the Earth - hence all things that were born on Earth and lived on and by it, beasts or plants or incarnate spirits, were liable to be 'stained'.
Morgoth at the time of the War of the Jewels had become permanently 'incarnate': for this reason he was afraid, and waged the war almost entirely by means of devices, or of subordinates and dominated creatures.
[...] When that body was destroyed he was weak and utterly 'houseless', and for that time at a loss and 'unanchored' as it were. We read that he was then thrust out into the Void.
The History of Middle-Earth Volume 10: Morgoth's Ring, Myths Transformed, pp. 394-395
Antal kontroller på utseende
Ainurs "naturliga" utseende verkar vara baserat på deras personlighet:
Their forms were thus expressions of their persons, powers, and loves. They need not be anthropomorphic (Yavanna wife of Aulë would, for instance, appear in the form of a great Tree.) But the 'habitual' shapes of the Valar, when visible or clothed, were anthropomorphic, because of their intense concern with Elves and Men.
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #212 Draft of a continuation of the above letter (not sent), p. 285
But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby.
The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë, p. 11
Det verkar också som Melkor inte kunde helt styra sitt utseende, eftersom hans sinnesstämning hade en effekt på det:
Much could thus 'go on behind Manwe's back': indeed the innermost being of all other minds, great and small, was hidden from him. And with regard to the Enemy, Melkor, in particular, he could not penetrate by distant mind-sight his thought and purposes, since Melkor remained in a fixed and powerful will to withhold his mind: which physically expressed took shape in the darkness and shadows that surrounded him.
The History of Middle-Earth Volume 10: Morgoth's Ring, Myths Transformed, pp. 399
Om det bara gäller Melkor är oklart. Det kan också ha att göra med att han är permanent inkarnerad.
Det verkar också som Ainur blir används i kroppen, vilket gör det svårt att byta till en annan:
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
Ósanwe-kenta, Note 5
Melkors senaste utseende förändras
Now Melkor came to Avathar and sought her out; and he put on again the form that he had worn as the tyrant of Utumno: a dark Lord, tall and terrible. In that form he remained ever after.
The Silmarillion, Of the Darkening of Valinor, p. 77
Detta citat hävdar att Melkor aldrig skulle byta form efter förstörelsen av träden. Men i Adalels tal talar Andreth om den tidiga historien om män som vaknade efter dessa händelser:
Some say the Disaster happened at the beginning of the history of our people, before any had yet died. [...] [One] appeared among us, in our own form visible, but greater and more beautiful; and he said that he had come out of pity. [...] [He] was clad in raiment that shone like silver and gold, and he had a crown on his head, and gems in his hair.
Then he came again, walking through the shadow like a bright fire. [...] but he seldom appeared among us again in fair form, and he brought few gifts.
The History of Middle-Earth Volume 10: Morgoth's Ring, Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, pp. 345-347
I texten nämner Andret aldrig namnet på varelsen, bara beskriver det som "The Voice". Det brukar antas att referera till Melkor, men det kan någon annan, som Sauron. Antag att det är Melkor, det finns en skillnad mellan The Silmarillion och den här texten.
I Ósanwe-kenta sägs att "i slutet" hade Melkor ingen kontroll över sin form:
[...] 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.
Ósanwe-kenta, Note 5
Den exakta tiden "slutet" representerar är oklart. Om vi antar att det var Melkor som visade sig män när de vaknade, måste hans förmåga att byta form ha gått vilse någon gång under de 590 åren som följde, tills vredeskriget.
Om Melkor inte var "The Voice" så är det ingen skillnad. Det skulle emellertid vara förvånande för mig att Melkor skulle ha skickat en tjänare, även hans bästa, till en sådan uppgift som att fördärva Mäns Fader.
Sauron
Sauron sägs aldrig ha förlorat sin förmåga att byta former efter vilja. Han verkar dock vara begränsad på vilken -form som han kan anta:
But Sauron was not of mortal flesh, and though he was robbed now of that shape in which he had wrought so great an evil, so that he could never again appear fair to the eyes of Men [...] [He] dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made
visible.
The Silmarillion, The Akallabêth, p. 336
Det verkar klart för mig att han fortfarande kunde skapa en kropp för sig själv, men att han inte hade någon kontroll över sitt utseende. Strängt taget verkar det faktiskt att det bara gäller till män , men jag tror inte att detta var avsikten.
Fixation of evil spirits
I en diskussion om andar och deras förmåga att läka talar Tolkien om onda andar och deras fixering på onda handlingar, till och med för självförstörelse:
The Elves certainly held and taught that fear or 'spirits' may grow of their own life (independently of the body), even as they may be hurt and healed, be diminished and renewed. If they do not sink below a certain level.
Since no fea can be annihilated, reduced to zero or not-existing, it is not clear what is meant. Thus Sauron was said to have fallen below the point of ever recovering, though he had previously recovered.
What is probably meant is that a 'wicked' spirit becomes fixed in a certain desire or ambition, and if it cannot repent then this desire becomes virtually its whole being. But the desire may be wholly beyond the weakness it has fallen to, and it will then be unable to withdraw its attention from the unobtainable desire, even to attend to itself. It will then remain for ever in impotent desire or memory of desire.
The History of Middle-Earth Volume 10: Morgoth's Ring, Myths Transformed, pp. 404, including note #11 pp. 407-408
I Ósanwe-kenta sägs att onda andar ibland blev oupplösligt knutna till orättvisa kroppar:
[Melkor and some of his greatest servants] 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.
Ósanwe-kenta, Note 5