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]

The passage is vague enough that people who don't have my particular ideas about the nature of Ainur and consciousness could probably find a more sympathetic interpretation of it.

My headcanon has the Valar insisting upon these measures partly in a classically misguided attempt to keep the Istari from hubris, and partly so that if they do get captured by the dark powers while in M-e not as much intelligence about recent Ainu/Vala activity can be got out of them. Can't give away what you don't remember. And yes, tackling this in a story would be tricky because sufficient motive for the Istari to agree to all these indignities will have to be portrayed.