Five Flew Over the Belegaer

[huinare]

For it is said indeed that being embodied the Istari had needs to learn much anew by slow experience, and though they knew whence they came the memory of the Blessed Realm was to them a vision from afar off, for which (so long as they remained true to their mission) they yearned exceedingly.
- UT, "The Istari"

I've been starting to ponder the ramifications of this for my fannish conceptions of the continuity of an Ainu personality.  "My" Ainur could not suffer memory loss or dilution, unless chained to a physical brain which has been conditioned to forget or to remember less.  This leads me to patently creepy conclusions. 

Comments

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Ooh, love your thoughts on language. That sort of thing, involving the interplay of language and cognition, is actually very close to my heart and has influenced my course of study. Indeed I do see a metaphysical being like a Maia as being limited and changed by prolonged habitation of an earthly form. The Ainulindalë is especially interesting in that I see it as something more impressive than music as we'd define it, something really quite incomprehensible once a being is bound up in time and space.

The yearning for the Blessed Realm I would see as a natural result, yeah, not something inflicted on them. I suspect J.R.R.T.'s thoughts might also relate to a sort of sacred quality of Aman, but I think homesickness or missing friends and greater powers would be sufficient on its own.