[Angry Hill Troll]

Yes, a lot of people, including Tolkien

Amarië, it think that partly depends on how one interprets "blame". If one means that Manwë is "blameless" because he has not knowingly done anything wrong, that is certainly true. He does, however, make mistakes (albeit honest ones) and does have significant limitations:

[after the War of the Powers, Melkor] actually kneels before Manwë and surrenders...But also suddenly he has the idea of penetrating the vaunted fastness of Valinor, and ruining it. So he offers to become 'the least of the Valar'...It is this offer which seduces or deludes Manwë--Manwë must be shown to have his own inherent fault (though not sin [Footnote: Every finite creature must have some weakness: that is some inadequacy to deal with some situations. It is not sinful when not willed, and when the creature does his best (even if it is not what should be done) as he sees it--with the conscious intent of serving Eru.]): [Manwë] has become engrossed (partly out of sheer fear of Melkor, partly out of desire to control him) in amendment, healing, re-ordering-- even "keeping the status quo"- to the loss of all creative power, and even to weakness in dealing with difficult and perilous situations. Against the advice of some of the Valar (such as Tulkas) he grants Melkor's prayer.

Morgoth's Ring: Myths Transformed

Part of Manwë's limitation seems to be that he is free from evil. Normally that's a good thing, but in Manwë's case it is to the point that he is incapable of understanding evil, or the actions or motivations of any evil being. Gandalf seems to have a much better grasp of this concept. He is capable of understanding Sauron's behavior and likely course of action, but does not condone it or fall into temptation. Granted, he did have the opportunity to learn first-hand from Manwë's previous experiences.

[ July 11, 2003: Message edited by: Angry Hill Troll ]