What of Curumo?

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Contradictions. Oh, yes, this is the downside of having published collections of author's notes, differing versions, ideas, etc. You wind up with so much information, inevitably, some of it is going to contradict -- especially when you have the author admittedly attempting to try to make what he has already written fit into a specific belief system that can't quite manage to hold all the extant details. What happens to a "dead" Maia? (I believe Tolkien did say that Melian shed her physical form and returned to Lorien, so we at least know what happened to her.) Not just Curumo and Sauron, but others like the Balrogs and other servants of Melkor. Tolkien never really says. I know that he tried to come up with some sort of explanation for what happened to the spirits of dead orcs, but never managed to come up with one that he could reconcile both what he believed as a Catholic and what he wanted the orcs to be.

One also has to consider that when we read these stories, we are reading things written from the point of view of a Hobbit or an Elf. They do not know the details of what happens to a fallen Maia, and thus can only speculate. In the case of the Istari, however, we do have one indication of who decides their fate when their real physical bodies died. Upon the death of his body, Gandalf/Olorin went "outside of time and thought," which Tolkien says in one of his letters meant that he left the Circles of the World; his fate was decided by Eru. Eru may have other fates in store for the other fallen Maiar. Since Curumo's body died within the physical world, and the physical world is so much more than just Middle-earth, he may be doomed to a wandering existence that will take him far away from it. I believe it was said that Sauron had so diminished, he would never be able to reembody, and would be nothing more than a shadow of fear and evil in the world. Boy, I think I need to go back and brush up on some of my reading!

[Gordis]

I agree with you, Ibri.
Gandal'f case might however have been an exception - maybe he was summoned to give an account of his mission and agreed to it. Take Sauron at the Downfall. Eru was "very much present" at the moment, but still Sauron was able to return in spirit form to ME unhindered. Though, maybe, it was the Ring that helped him. Yes, I think so.
But I somehow doubt that Melian has been summoned to Eru, or the Barlogs.

It looks like Saruman's spirit wished to return to Valinor as Melian's did, but he was refused admittance (that's how I read this West wind reference)

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Well, Melian didn't die, or, perhaps more to the point, she wasn't killed. She surrendered the body she was in and returned to Valinor, and thus exercised free will in the matter. Tolkien does point out that the bodies of the Istari were "real and not feigned"; I believe he states somewhere amid all his writings that though they were not subject to death by old age, they were truly corporeal and not fanar. This particular aspect was apparently imposed on them by the nature of their mission and how the Valar wanted it carried out, the flesh diminishing their power and memories at the same time it gave them a clearer understanding of what it meant to live as truly and naturally incarnate beings.

I myself have long wondered about where these "real" bodies came from. We know that when one of the Ainur attaches his or herself to their fana for too long, it becomes "real" in the sense that they can no longer discard as they would clothing (which Tolkien tells us is the usual case for an Ainu shedding his fana). But is the making of a "real" body for themselves within the power of the Ainur in Ea? One would think so, from Melian's case (since one would presume a real body was necessary in order for her to have a child with Thingol), but Tolkien never actually says where her body came from, and why she was able to leave it without a terrible cost to herself. Then again, maybe there was a terrible cost to herself, which is why she has never sung again. We just don't know. Since we know of no other Elf/Ainu couples, perhaps Eru did have a hand in it.

At any rate, Eru clearly doesn't decide the fate of beings like the Balrogs, but perhaps only He knows what becomes of them after they have suffered a bodily death from which they finally cannot return. It's an interesting matter to ponder.

[The Might]

A nice idea indeed with purgatory, could be a possibility.

[Gwathagor]

I'm pretty sure that Radagast hangs around for a couple millenia. He later assists a young Briton named Arthur in becoming High King of Britain, and is immortalized in medieval legend and romance as the wizard Merlin.

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Originally Posted by Gwathagor

I'm pretty sure that Radagast hangs around for a couple millenia. He later assists a young Briton named Arthur in becoming High King of Britain, and is immortalized in medieval legend and romance as the wizard Merlin.

Ha! I made that same tongue-in-cheek speculation a few years ago. It seems only too appropriate a future for Aiwendil, especially since Merlin was "spirited away" by Nimue. Which one of the Maia ladies came to fetch him, I wonder...?

[Gwathagor]

AND a merlin is a kind of hawk...what more appropriate name for Aiwendil, the lover of birds and beasts, to assume?