Maiar
fictional spiritual beings from J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium
The Maiar (sing. Maia) are a fictional class of beings from J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy legendarium. Supernatural and angelic, they are "lesser Ainur" (as opposed to the Valar) who entered the cosmos of Eä in the beginning of time. The name Maiar is in the Quenya tongue (one of several languages constructed by Tolkien) from the Elvish root maya- "excellent, admirable".
Commentators have noted that since the Maiar are immortals but can choose to become fully incarnate in men's bodies on Middle-earth, they can be killed; Tolkien did not explain what happened to them then. Others have observed that their semi-divine nature and the fact that they can be sent on missions to work out the divine purpose makes them much like the angels of Christianity.
Description
Lesser Ainur
Tolkien stated that "Maia is the name of the Kin of the Valar, but especially of those of lesser power than the 9 great rulers".
In the Valaquenta, Tolkien wrote that the Maiar are "spirits whose being also began before the world, of the same order as the Valar but of less degree". According to the Valaquenta, many Maiar associated themselves with a particular Vala; for example, Salmar created for his lord Ulmo great conches who produce the music of the sea known as Ulumúri, while Curumo, who came to be known in Middle-earth as Saruman, was with Aulë the smith. The being once known as Mairon also was with Aulë, before being corrupted by Melkor and becoming Sauron, the main antagonist of The Lord of the Rings. Sauron continued his association with smithcraft by befriending the Elven-smiths of Eregion during the Second Age, so that he could gain power over the other rings by forging his One Ring.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Maiar” is fictional spiritual beings from J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Maiar, fictional and spiritual, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q719506. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maiar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.