Min förståelse av Tolkiens mytologi är att Eru skapade Ainur och de första 14 Ainur kallas Valaren som tillsammans sjöng universum till att vara. Men Maiar är också Ainur som bor på Arda (jorden). När skapades Maiar? Var de skapade samtidigt med Valaren eller efteråt av Eru eller Valaren?
Om de skapades på en gång, måste det innebära att Balrogerna bara hängde med alla vid universums början.
There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made.
Eller, utan det blommiga språket, läser jag det som är alla Ainur-Valar och Maiar-var skapade före någonting annat, inklusive Great Music och the Flame Imperishable. Det är inte förrän efter Arda skapades som den som räknas som Valar beskrivs (betonar min):
Then it came to pass that of the Ainur some abode still with Ilúvatar beyond the confines of the World; but others, and among them many of the greatest and most fair, took the leave of Ilúvatar and descended into it. But this condition Ilúvatar made, or it is the necessity of their love, that their power should thenceforward be contained and bounded in the World, to be within it for ever, until it is complete, so that they are its life and it is theirs. And therefore they are named the Valar, the Powers of the World.
Eller snarare, den mest kraftfulla av Ainur som kom ner till Arda blev Valaren. Den "mindre" Ainur kom med dem, som de betraktar som deras entourage, så som beskrivs i Valaquenta :
With the Valar came other spirits whose being also began before the World, of the same order as the Valar but of less degree. These are the Maiar, the people of the Valar, and their servants and helpers.
Denna passage bekräftar också att Maiar skapades före allt annat, som skulle inkludera Balrogerna och andra Maiar klassificeras vi som "onda": det var inte förrän efter nedstigningen gjorde Melkor uppror och tvingar alla att välja sidor, eller som beskrivet i kapitlet Silmarillion , "Of the Elves Coming and the Melkor Captivity":
And in Utumno [Melkor] gathered his demons about him, those spirits who first adhered to him in the days of his splendour, and became most like him in his corruption: their hearts were of fire, but they were cloaked in darkness, and terror went before them; they had whips of flame. Balrogs they were named in Middle-earth in later days.
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