This Creature is Lore

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. 

I wrote entirely original fiction for a good 15 years before becoming enamoured of Tolkien's world and characters. (You have to know the rules before you can break them, right? I've heard it said a good writer must know how to create their own world, not mooch off someone else's, and I'd agree but I don't think that disqualifies derived works as legitimate.)

The thing I find rewarding about writing within Arda is the opportunity to expand upon existing things, fill in unexplained details, make a whole detailed chapter of an event given a passing mention in the canon, delve into the minds of obscure characters. I don't think I'd enjoy making "fanfic" from anyone else's universe, because most writers don't have such a wealth of vague knowledge to choose from. Things like Harry Potter have a pretty clearly sketched world, without volumes' worth of backstory: if I did write within a world like that, my first inclination would be to find someone/something fairly obscure and fill in the holes, but there simply aren't as many holes there.

I view writing in Tolkien's universe as more akin to writing fiction about Greek mythology or something.

This reflection was prompted by my work of yesterday, wherein I got to a scene where the Maiar who later walk upon Middle-Earth as Alatar and Pallando are introduced. My plots tend to be roughly sketched in my head for weeks or years before I get round to writing them (I write extremely linearly, it would drive my organized mind mad if I started writing a chapter out of sequence just because inspiration struck me, so I keep it in my head and mull it over for as long as need be): but I myself don't know exactly what's going to happen, what these characters are going to do and say, until I get there. So it was a fun experience to help the events unfold, and say to myself, "Ah, so this is who Pallando is."

Even more fun because I know these two are going to fall from grace, somehow, in the future, and I have a faint notion of how it happens, but I'm not sure of the exact nature or severity of such a fall. I shall be watching their careers with great interest.

[On an unrelated note, I'm pleased with my attempt to put some dialogue in Iarwain Ben-Adar's mouth during a cameo, and I reread the whole freaking Bombadil chapter to try and get the cadence and personality right. Interesting, but not something I'd want to do again. *shudder*]