Well, I'm a software developer who knows way more about science fiction and fantasy than I really should, and if you get me drunk I'll probably tell you all about how Sauron is an ainur and therefore didn't actually die when the One Ring was destroyed - since the ainur can't die - but he did lose all his power and henceforth existed perpetually as a powerless and intangible shadow...
And when you wake up, I might still be talking.
hm I've never thought abt it that way :)
Yeah, but the eagles!!!
And here I thought he was Maiar.
Oh, he is. The Maiar are "lesser Ainur" in Tolkien's cosmology. They're "of the same order as the Valar but of less degree." "Ainur" is kind of an umbrella term, the way "angel" is in Christianity.
Melkor, now known as Morgoth after being cast out, was once a Valar, but his cruelty and evil make him the foe of all of Arda. Mairon, a Maiar of Aulë, actually started down his own path of evil as a lieutenant of Morgoth, becoming Sauron.
Sleepy yet?
No, and I already knew all of this. Spend some time in jail with the Silmarillion, and you'll know all the names. 🤣
Lol! Yeah, I can imagine. But for me, I didn't need the boredom of jail to read the Silmarillion.
I do for the sake of straight up studying it which seems like the proper way to go about it.
Well, I'm a software developer who knows way more about science fiction and fantasy than I really should, and if you get me drunk I'll probably tell you all about how Sauron is an ainur and therefore didn't actually die when the One Ring was destroyed - since the ainur can't die - but he did lose all his power and henceforth existed perpetually as a powerless and intangible shadow...
And when you wake up, I might still be talking.
hm I've never thought abt it that way :)
Yeah, but the eagles!!!
And here I thought he was Maiar.
Oh, he is. The Maiar are "lesser Ainur" in Tolkien's cosmology. They're "of the same order as the Valar but of less degree." "Ainur" is kind of an umbrella term, the way "angel" is in Christianity.
Melkor, now known as Morgoth after being cast out, was once a Valar, but his cruelty and evil make him the foe of all of Arda. Mairon, a Maiar of Aulë, actually started down his own path of evil as a lieutenant of Morgoth, becoming Sauron.
Sleepy yet?
No, and I already knew all of this. Spend some time in jail with the Silmarillion, and you'll know all the names. 🤣
Lol! Yeah, I can imagine. But for me, I didn't need the boredom of jail to read the Silmarillion.
I do for the sake of straight up studying it which seems like the proper way to go about it.