The scoop on eagles

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

I don't believe it's explicitly stated that Ungoliant was a Maia - though that's a commonly held opinion, and a perfectly tenable one. In any case, your point stands - it certainly is possible for Maiar to have children that are not Maiar. Look at Melian.

I wonder whether it would be possible for a Maia to produce more Maiar? Originally Tolkien had the Valar much as real people, able to have offspring but this seems to have changed and the Valar were chaste. Obviously in the case of some of the Maiar, such as Melian, there was the possibility of taking on Elven form and therefore being able to reproduce, but it seems that any offspring are only 'descendants' of the Maia.

If anyone can think of any Maiar that did produce other Maiar then I'd be interested to see who they are, as it seems that only those on the side of 'darkness' produce more Maiar - and even then, did Sauron ever produce any? He possibly created/bred a lot of Orcs and Fell Beasts, and he managed to corrupt by use of the Rings, but did he create any Maiar?

EDIT - In fact, looking at it, there was a 'set' number of Ainur at the moment of creation anyway, as not even Morgoth could create Maiar (was thinking of Balrogs initially). So in this case, the Eagles could only ever be descendants of Maiar, which would nonetheless make them incredibly noble.