Fana

Fana is a Quenya term used to describe the physical form which is taken on by the Ainur when they desire to have tangible bodies.

Unlike the Children of Ilúvatar, the Ainur take on a body by choice, wearing or going without physical form as mortals wear or can go without clothing. Being inherently spiritual beings, ëalar, they did not need material bodies to be whole in that fashion that fëar, the spiritual component of Incarnates, need to be joined with hröar.

This physical form equivalent to the hröa is known as a fana, which originally meant "veil, raiment". However, the fana differs much from the hröa: it does not belong to the nature of the Ainur, even when it is also made of physical matter. Thus the High Elves personally knew that the fanar were not illusions, but a physical way that the Valar had to communicate with them.

Although the Ainur are angelic beings of spirit, they each possess a specific gender, male or female, and this gender is part of who they are regardless of whether or not they take on a fana. When they do take on a physical form it is a representation of their gender. Manwë Súlimo, for example, takes for himself a fana in the form of a male, that of a great king. His wife, Varda Elentári clothes herself with the fana in the form of a great and beautiful queen. A more known example are the Istari, who came to Middle-earth with the fanar of old wise men.

Most of the Ainur do assume a physical body, but some of the them, such as Ulmo, rarely assume a physical form. Sometimes an Ainu can be hurt or injured to the point they are limited or unable to assume a physical form. For example, after Sauron was caught in the Downfall of Númenor, he was unable to ever take on a fair form again; and after his loss of the One Ring at the end of the Second Age, he was not able to take any physical shape for many years.

In one description, the fanar of the great Valar were said by the Eldar who had dwelt in Valinor usually to have had a stature far greater than that of the tallest Elves, and when performing some great deed or rite, or issuing commands, to have assumed an awe-inspiring height. In another, they presented themselves in the forms of Elves and Men (though they could assume other and wholly alien shapes), and appeared usually as persons of majestic (but not gigantic) stature; the High Elves said that these forms were always in some degree, variable according to the occasion, 'radiant', as if a light from within suffused the fanar.