Make Room for Dragons

allegiance of Morgoth and began to seek power by force, marashalling and directing the Orks and other evil things of the First Age, and secretly building his great fortress in the mountain-girt land in the South that was afterwards known as Mordor. The Second Age had reached only the middle of its course (c. Second Age 1695) when he invaded Eriador and destroyed Eregion, a small realm established by the Eldar migrating from the ruin of Beleriand that had formed an alliance also with the Longbeards of Moria. This marked the end of the Alliance of the Longbeards with Men of the North. For though Moria remained impregnably for many centuries, the Orks reinforced and commanded by servants of Sauron invaded the mountains again. Gundabad was re-taken, the Ered Mithrin infested and the communication between Moria and the Iron Hills for a time cut off. The Men of the Alliance were involved in war not only with Orks but with alien Men of evil sort. For Sauron had acquired dominion over many savage tribes in the East (of old corrupted by Morgoth), and he now urged them to seek land and booty in the West. When the storm passed, the Men of the old Alliance were diminished and scattered, and those that lingered on in their old regions were impoverished, and lived mostly in caves or in the borders of the Forest. Who were these "servants of Sauron" who reinforced and commanded the Orks? They could not be Nazgul, for the Nazgul had not yet come to be. They might be lesser Maiar, but the War of Wrath seems to have depleted their ranks tremendously. Gil-galad's identification of the power in the East as a servant of Morgoth indicates that he, at least, believed one or more of Morgoth's former lieutenants had survived the war. Such a servant could only be immortal, and therefore had to be a lesser Maia. But Morgoth had once been served by multitudes of Maiar, and though few are named or described, their numbers were sufficient that the Valar seldom took direct action against them. Some people speculate that the dragons might be incarnations of lesser Maiar, who also seem to have taken shape as were-wolves and vampires and Orcs. But dragons were powerful, and Morgoth bred them. Tolkien implied strongly that reproducing biologically weakened the Maiar, at least to the point where they lost the ability to change

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