These questions have to do with
Tolkien's conceptions of "Life" and "Creation" verses "Making."
And the subject of the
Dwarves being "Made" (as opposed to "Created") by
Aulë, is an example of a Theological Concept that Tolkien mentions
FREQUENTLY:
Subcreation.
Aulë made the forms of the Dwarves, and at first they only acted, or moved according to Aulë Will. Without Aulë focusing upon them, they would do nothing.
But because of Aulë pure Love for what he had made,
Eru Ilúvatar allowed it to become a "Creation," complete with an independent soul.
"Subcreation" is where a person of being's product (something they have "Made") is given "Life" or "Reality" by the creator. The person then is a "Subcreator," where
God is using them as an instrument of Indirect "Creation."
I am sorry to couch this in such explicitly religious language, but it really isn't possible to do so otherwise.
For the
Eagles, they are living things made by Eru Ilúvatar, and seem to have "Souls," like everything else, but we do not know if they are minor
Ainur, like the
Maiar, or if they are simply Giant Eagles, related to "normal" Eagles, who have been given a Soul by
Ilúvatar.
But
Manwë did not make them.
Neither did
Yavanna Kementári create, or even "make" the
Ents. They are also creations of Eru Ilúvatar, but they are not properly
Children of Ilúvatar.
Rather they are a product of the
Great Music itself, akin to
Ungoliant (or
Tom Bombadil). Of course it could be argued that even the
Children of Ilúvatar are also products of the
Great Music.
As for
Orcs.... They are
NOT "Creations" of
Melkor.
Eru did not "allow" Melkor to give life to Orcs, but rather Melkor "Made" the Orcs out of pre-existing beings
CREATED by Eru Ilúvatar.
This is why they are a "corruption" or "perversion."
Melkor could
not "Create.
" This is why he was constantly searching for the
Secret Fire, which is the "
Flame of Creation." This is pointed out Multiple times throughout Tolkien's work.
Dragons are also a product that Melkor "Made" (as opposed to "Created").
Mythologically, Dragons are chimera, they are a melding of many different
creatures into one. This is not to say that they are
THE Chimera (which is a beast specific to Greek and Roman Mythology), but merely that the word "Chimera" or "Chimeric" is used to describe beasts of this type: Made from multiple different
animals/beasts into a single beast.
Dragons are a melding of snakes, lizards, bats,
birds, lions/tigers or other large cats, and other animals/beasts seen by primitive man as "dangerous."
How they came about is similar to how everything Made by Melkor or
Morgoth came about. Melkor took snakes, lizards, bats, birds, and great cats or
wolves, and he forced them to breed with each other, while also torturing their bodies and souls, until he had a great, corrupted perversion of nature that we call a "
Dragon."
You have to remember that in
Middle-earth, or indeed, within all of Eä or
Arda within that, what is called "Physiognomy" exists, as well as Cartesian Dualism, as well as forms of Manichaean Dualism.
Physiognomy is where the Soul affects how the Body looks.
Cartesian Dualism is where the Universe is made of two different "kinds" of "substance:" Physical Matter, out of which our bodies are made, and "Spiritual Matter" out of which our Souls are made (what Tolkien called Hröa - the body - and Fëa - the Soul).
Manichaean Dualism is where Good and
Evil are things that you can put in your pocket, hold in your hand, or make a Ring with that you would wear on your hand. Manichaean Dualism also has Light and Dark that are also tangible, physical things. In its "Pure" form, Manichaean Dualism is more specific than this. But for Tolkien's Middle-earth,
SOME types of light/dark, or good/evil were
Light/
Dark or
Good/
Evil.
Meaning that in Arda (and thus Middle-earth) there was regular "light" like that comes from the sun, or a burning candle, and "darkness" that is just the absence of light. And then there was
Light, which had both Hröa and Fëa, and
Dark, which also had both Hröa and Fëa.
And that in Arda (and thus Middle-earth) there was "good" like enjoying ice cream, or being happy about a nice day, and "evil' like stealing candy from a baby, lying to your parents about having done your homework. And then there is
Good, which was "stuff" that would make a person BE "good," and there was
Evil, which was "stuff" that would taint and corrupt a person to be "bad/evil."
So Melkor could
Torture, both a being's Body (Hröa),
and their soul (Fëa), and the torture of their Fëa would outwardly manifest upon their bodies, in the same way that a sickness can be seen in a person's body. And Melkor could inflict the body/soul of creatures with "Darkness" and "Evil," doing lasting damage to them that would be reflected in both Hröa and Fëa.
We examples of this in creatures such as the Ungoliant,
Balrog, or
Gollum/
Sméagol. The
Darkness that surrounds Ungoliant is more than just the "Absence of light" as Tolkien describes in the opening of the
Quenta Silmarillion, where she "belches forth Darkness, and spins webs of Dark.. The Balrog we also see is "wrapped in Darkness," and it's body burns with a Fire that comes from its Fëa. And Gollum/Sméagol's body was warped and twisted due to the
Evil of the '
Ruling Ring' which he possessed for so long.
Opposing that, we see things like the
Two Trees of Valinorë, and beings like
Gandalf, the
Elves (specifically Elves like
Elrond,
Gildor,
Glorfindel, or
Galadriel). In the
Two Trees, we see embodiments of
Goodness and
Light, where the inherent
Good within them gave them a beauty beyond words, and the
Light they gave off could be collected in vats like water (which was then sprayed across the Heavens by
Varda to create the Major Stars), or trapped within Gems. And in the beings like Gandalf, or the Elves, we see their inherent
Goodness reflected in their appearance as being, again, the most beautiful and fair of all the Children of Ilúvatar. As well as the
High Elves who had been to or lived in
Valinor as giving off their own internal
Light, which could be perceived by others.
All of this has to do with how Melkor the Morgoth
Bauglir went about
making the Orcs,
Balrogs, and other demons and "fell creatures" he had in his service.
The tools he had to work with, and the properties of the Universe in which Melkor exists, give rise to the ability to "make"
Monsters out of creatures that had been created by Eru Ilúvatar, and that by affecting the bodies and souls you can give rise to creatures and things we think of as "Supernatural." But they are all perfectly "Natural" within Arda or Middle-earth.
MB
Interesting, I looked and it does appear that Ungoliant's origin is a
mystery. Considering her massive power, I think it makes the most sense that she would be a
Maia, but an "unnamed creature" is definitely possible!
I see on Tolkien Gateway that it says the original dragons like
Glaurung and
Ancalagon were created by Morgoth, but I have a hard time believing that this is accurate. Because Morgoth does not have the Flame Imperishable, he cannot create life on his own. Perhaps he "crafted" or "bred" the dragons out of existing
spirits, much like the orcs. I must also conclude that it is inconclusive whether these dragons would originally have been Maiar or whether they were some other creature. However, because of the intensity with which Tolkien describes them as being "spirits of fire" and the extent to which they have direct influence over the will of lesser beings (spells, hypnotism, etc), very much akin the the Balrogs which are known to be Maiar, I think it also makes the most sense that they were originally Maiar.
Smaug, on the other hand, must conclusively not be a Maia as he was a descended spawn of these original dragons.
This is essentially correct.
The Tolkien Gateway doesn't get into the specifics, but Melkor's creatures and corruptions/perversions are an example of the distinction between "making" and "creation" that is discussed by Tolkien many times in
The Letters of JRR Tolkien, and within
The History of Middle-earth (most specifically
Morgoth's Ring).
The Dragons weren't likely Maiar. Tolkien tended to reject the idea that the Ainur could breed, and that the only case we see of this (Thingol-Melian) was an exception, where Melian "froze" her form into that of an
Elf in order to bear a child for
Thingol. And it would seem strange to see the Balrogs breeding with things to produce Dragons.
Of course that isn't an impossibility given that Tolkien, later in his life, considered some forms of
Orc to be fallen Maia, the Boldoeg, which did breed. So it is possible that Melkor could have forced his Balrogs (which some of whom could have been female, for that matter) to mate with the things he was using to make Dragons.
And given that Ungoliant bred, but was not a Child of Ilúvatar, there is some room there for Maiar to have been a part of the Dragon genome.
Specific instances become more difficult to determine with such a lack of specific information or knowledge about the creatures in question, even if one does have a nearly complete metaphysical foundation for Middle-earth, or Eä as a whole.
MB
