Quote:
Originally posted by Riftmaker:
On Bombadil:
I believe that he is the physical avatar of Varda itself. That would make the most sense. He is obviously not a Valar, not a Maiar, and I doubt he's an Erdu.
Because all of his powers deal with the earth itself, I would tend to lean in this direction.
As for the Balrogs...
Where the hell would one be? There isn't one in the Lonely Mountain (Smaug would've likely killed it if there was), there are none in the Iron Hills, none in the Glittering Caves. Other than those, I don't think there are any 'active' mining operations where one could actually BE found.
Not to mention the fact that there weren't any recorded sightings (that I know of) during all of the Second Age (with the exception of Durin's Bane).
So, yeah.
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Do you mean Arda or Varda? Either way, they each have their own representations already: Varda sits on Mount Taniquetil with her husband Manwe, and Arda is, well, the earth itself. And there's no such thing as an "Erdu," there is only Eru, the One, whom the Elves call Illuvatar.
Bombadil's powers
don't directly concern the earth....he loves growing things, to be sure, but his strength seems to stem from the fact that he knows all the old songs, the songs that told how everything was made and their entire destiny. He knows the song for Old Man Willow, he knows the song of the Barrow-Wight, and he is above and beyond the Ring. Whether this points to a Maia or an aspect of Eru, though, I can't be sure.
The Balrog could be pretty much anywhere that hasn't already been searched. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Oh, and there's at least one other Maia still in Middle-Earth: Shelob. (Whether or not she is a true Maia is debatable, but her mother Ungoliant certainly was.)