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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faenor" data-source="post: 7696873" data-attributes="member: 6788085">Balrogs were (are?) Maiar. A group of Maiar that were referred to as 'spirits of fire'. Fire was in there nature, and that predisposed many of them to follow Melkor and become Balrogs.The Ents and Eagles are not explained, but based on their entirely biological nature, it's pretty clear that they are not Maiar. Dragons are mostly biological, but their fire breath and great size required more than just upscaling lizards. And, being that only illuvatar created life, and the only 'spirits' he created were the Maiar (and Valar), there's no indication that the ents and Eagles were not creatures of illuvatar's created  world. Those creatures, which were non-magical, could be 'brought up' in the good sense or twisted in the evil. Like orcs, wargs, or Shelob on the evil side and Huor, shadowfax, and even the Noldor, on the good side, by exposure to the Valar or Maiar. But they needed to start with that biological life from illuvatar.Admittedly, that was more clear with the eagles than with the ents. The only being that didn't fit this logic was Tom Bombadil, but JRRT made it very clear by his powers that he's above and outside all of these rules. The ents, though neutral and ancient, didn't have any kind of super or magic powers, so there's no reason to assume they don't follow JRRT's general rules like bombadil. The explanation for the Ents that fits best is that they were plants brought up by Yavanna when she walked the earth in the twilight time before the light of the trees.There was also no case in JRRTs writing that the Maiar could or did reproduce biologically with creatures of Arda. Perhaps the only exception was spiders being referred to as children of ungoliant. However, it's not explicit that were not children in a more figurative sense, and, also it's not explicitly stated that ungoliant was a Maiar. The best explanation for ungoliant is that she was a left over from before JRRT worked out his rules that only illuvatar was capable of creating life.</blockquote>

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