Dragons,Ungoliant, Ents , Eagles and Huan

[lindil]

The Real Findorfin posted in the Gwaihir in the Hobbit thread:

It seems that throughout all the works there are 'spirits' that dont seem to be Maia or valar, such as Ungoliant, Bombadil, dragons spirits, etc. I believe that the eagles, ents and huan, etc are of the same type.
And if this spirit group is not a group by itself, then I would think that they are a very low order of maia, perhaps the least powerful. But or course, that means Bombadil cannot be involved.

I will have to go with 'another order' of spirits.

I would like to offer my own hypothesis re: these [excepting Bombadil, whom I have reluctantly excepted JRRT's own unwillingness to classify him].

Dragons,Ungoliant, Ents and Eagles:
Originally Maia but became essentially incarnates upon reproduction.

I am not aware of any specific writings of JRRT on the subject that go beyond the word 'spirits'.

The fact that several of these were created or planned prior to the awakening of the Elves [ Ungoliant, Eagles and Ents I think] when there was nothing but Maia/Valar (and Bombadil [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] ) lends a certain inconclusive strength to the idea.

What is puzzling to me is [Ungoliant and dragons aside] is how some of these groups remain or were originally Immortal [Ents, Huan] but some were definetly not (Eagles for instance].

We will never know whether Glaurang was an encased maia who would have stayed immortal had he not been killed.

Overall, I think this is an area that JRRT only realized the chaos of later - after many elements were already in place [ Immortal Ents and generations of Eagles] and fully aware and speech capable Huan, etc... and he then tried to theorize a little in a way to harminze it all with the rest of the Legendarium, but seeing it was not really possible, more or less threw in the towel.