Mentes malignas estão ligadas a corpos hediondos
Parece que Melkor e Sauron perderam a habilidade de assumir uma aparência justa, uma vez que seu espírito ficou tão obcecado com o mal que seu corpo só pôde fazer o mesmo. No caso de Melkor, isso (provavelmente, veja abaixo) aconteceu após a destruição das árvores. Para Sauron, aconteceu após a destruição de Númenor.
Natureza dos Ainur
A relação entre o "espírito" ( eäla ) e o "corpo" ( hröa ) de um Ainu é complexa e, por vezes, pouco clara. Os dois únicos Ainur que dizem ter perdido a capacidade de aparecer em uma forma particular são Melkor e Sauron.
Os Ainur são seres naturalmente desencarnados . Eles não requerem um hröa para sobreviver. Melkor, no entanto, é o único Ainu que se tornou permanentemente encarnado . Foi uma consequência da disseminação do seu poder em toda a Arda:
To gain domination over Arda, Morgoth had let most of his being pass into the physical constituents of the Earth - hence all things that were born on Earth and lived on and by it, beasts or plants or incarnate spirits, were liable to be 'stained'.
Morgoth at the time of the War of the Jewels had become permanently 'incarnate': for this reason he was afraid, and waged the war almost entirely by means of devices, or of subordinates and dominated creatures.
[...] When that body was destroyed he was weak and utterly 'houseless', and for that time at a loss and 'unanchored' as it were. We read that he was then thrust out into the Void.
The History of Middle-Earth Volume 10: Morgoth's Ring, Myths Transformed, pp. 394-395
Quantidade de controle na aparência
A aparência física "natural" dos Ainur parece ser baseada em sua personalidade:
Their forms were thus expressions of their persons, powers, and loves. They need not be anthropomorphic (Yavanna wife of Aulë would, for instance, appear in the form of a great Tree.) But the 'habitual' shapes of the Valar, when visible or clothed, were anthropomorphic, because of their intense concern with Elves and Men.
The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, #212 Draft of a continuation of the above letter (not sent), p. 285
But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby.
The Silmarillion, Ainulindalë, p. 11
Também parece que Melkor não conseguiu controlar completamente sua aparência, já que o estado de sua mente afetou:
Much could thus 'go on behind Manwe's back': indeed the innermost being of all other minds, great and small, was hidden from him. And with regard to the Enemy, Melkor, in particular, he could not penetrate by distant mind-sight his thought and purposes, since Melkor remained in a fixed and powerful will to withhold his mind: which physically expressed took shape in the darkness and shadows that surrounded him.
The History of Middle-Earth Volume 10: Morgoth's Ring, Myths Transformed, pp. 399
Se isso se aplica apenas ao Melkor não está claro. Pode também ter a ver com ele ser permanentemente encarnado.
Também parece que o Ainur se tornou usado em seu corpo, tornando difícil mudar para outro:
It is said that the longer and the more the same hröa is used, the greater is the bond of habit, and the less do the 'self-arrayed' desire to leave it. As raiment may soon cease to be adornment, and becomes (as is said in the tongues of both Elves and Men) a 'habit', a customary garb. Or if among Elves and Men it be worn to mitigate heat or cold, it soon makes the
clad body less able to endure these things when naked
Ósanwe-kenta, Note 5
Mudança da última aparição de Melkor
Now Melkor came to Avathar and sought her out; and he put on again the form that he had worn as the tyrant of Utumno: a dark Lord, tall and terrible. In that form he remained ever after.
The Silmarillion, Of the Darkening of Valinor, p. 77
Esta citação afirma que Melkor nunca mudaria de forma após a destruição das árvores. No entanto, em O Conto de Adanel , Andreth fala sobre o início da história dos Homens, que acordaram após estes eventos:
Some say the Disaster happened at the beginning of the history of our people, before any had yet died. [...] [One] appeared among us, in our own form visible, but greater and more beautiful; and he said that he had come out of pity. [...] [He] was clad in raiment that shone like silver and gold, and he had a crown on his head, and gems in his hair.
Then he came again, walking through the shadow like a bright fire. [...] but he seldom appeared among us again in fair form, and he brought few gifts.
The History of Middle-Earth Volume 10: Morgoth's Ring, Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, pp. 345-347
No texto, Andreth nunca menciona o nome do ser, apenas descrevendo-o como "A Voz". Costuma-se dizer que se refere a Melkor, mas poderia ser outra pessoa, como Sauron. Supondo que seja o Melkor, existe uma discrepância entre O Silmarillion e este texto em particular.
No Ósanwe-kenta , diz-se que "no final", Melkor não tinha controle sobre sua forma:
[...] he became in the end, in himself and without their support, a weakened thing, consumed by hate and unable to restore himself from the state into which he had fallen. Even his visible form he could no longer master, so that its hideousness could not any longer be masked, and it showed forth the evil of his mind.
Ósanwe-kenta, Note 5
A hora exata "o fim" representa não é clara. Se assumirmos que foi Melkor quem apareceu aos Homens quando eles acordaram, então sua habilidade de mudar de forma deve ter sido perdida em algum momento durante os 590 anos que se seguiram, até a Guerra da Ira.
Se o Melkor não foi "The Voice", então não há discrepância. Seria surpreendente para mim, no entanto, que Melkor tivesse enviado um servo, mesmo o seu melhor, para uma tarefa como corromper o Pai dos Homens.
Sauron
Sauron nunca disse ter perdido sua capacidade de mudar de forma à vontade. No entanto, ele parece estar restrito a qual forma ele poderia assumir:
But Sauron was not of mortal flesh, and though he was robbed now of that shape in which he had wrought so great an evil, so that he could never again appear fair to the eyes of Men [...] [He] dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made
visible.
The Silmarillion, The Akallabêth, p. 336
Parece claro para mim que ele ainda poderia criar um corpo para si mesmo, mas que ele não tinha controle sobre sua aparência. Estritamente falando, parece que só se aplicava ao Men , mas não creio que seja essa a intenção.
Fixação de espíritos malignos
Em uma discussão sobre os espíritos e sua capacidade de curar, Tolkien fala sobre espíritos malignos e sua fixação em atos malignos, até o ponto de autodestruição:
The Elves certainly held and taught that fear or 'spirits' may grow of their own life (independently of the body), even as they may be hurt and healed, be diminished and renewed. If they do not sink below a certain level.
Since no fea can be annihilated, reduced to zero or not-existing, it is not clear what is meant. Thus Sauron was said to have fallen below the point of ever recovering, though he had previously recovered.
What is probably meant is that a 'wicked' spirit becomes fixed in a certain desire or ambition, and if it cannot repent then this desire becomes virtually its whole being. But the desire may be wholly beyond the weakness it has fallen to, and it will then be unable to withdraw its attention from the unobtainable desire, even to attend to itself. It will then remain for ever in impotent desire or memory of desire.
The History of Middle-Earth Volume 10: Morgoth's Ring, Myths Transformed, pp. 404, including note #11 pp. 407-408
No Ósanwe-kenta , diz-se que os espíritos malignos às vezes se tornam inextricavelmente ligados a corpos de aparência maligna:
[Melkor and some of his greatest servants] became wedded to the forms of their evil deeds, and if these bodies were taken from them or destroyed, they were nullified, until they had rebuilt a semblance of their former habitations, with which they could continue the evil courses in which they had become fixed.
Ósanwe-kenta, Note 5