O.K., this is kinda rushed but if I don't do this now then it will never get done.
As stated before several times (by me, Fordim, and Saucepan Man) magic is a word that is used to describe things which we do not understand. In this post I will be using it to refer to anything that the hobbits would describe as "magical".
Let's start with the power of the Ainur. The Ainur were spiritual in nature. That is, they were not incarnates. When we, as incarnates, want to effect the physical world in some way, moving an object for example, we use our physical strength to pick it up and put it somewhere else. The more physical strength we have, the more we can lift/move. The Ainur, when not clothed, have no physical form in which to interact with their environment, so their spirits have the ability to interact directly without the assistance of a body, this is what is referred to as their magic. Just as we use technology in conjunction with our physical strength to achieve great things, so could they use their knowledge with their inner strength to do things.
So now that we have the basics we can talk about the different forms and uses of the Ainur's magic. As the quote provided by Saucepan Man says, the magic that I have described above can be divided into two catagories, magia (physical) and goeteia (illusionary), or if you prefer the "powers of mind and hand" that the Wizards had. An example of magia would be the conjuring of fire, and example of goeteia would be the disguises of Luthien and Felegund in the story of Beren and Luthien. The quote gives a good account of the two types so I will not go further here.
There is also a third type of magic. This kind has no effect on the physical world. It is a mental power. I believe that Osanwe-Kenta describes the ability to look into another's mind and sometimes even change what is there. This can be blocked however by closing one's mind. Nothing can penetrate a closed mind. Incarnates find it more difficult to use this ability because the body dims the thoughts of others. Communication between the minds of two incarnates is very difficult but can be aided by affinity, urgency, or authority.
There is also the role of music and the "word of command". Here is a quote from FotR when Gandalf fights the Balrog for control of the door,
Quote:
Gimli took his arm & helped him down to a seat on the step. 'What happened away up there at the door?' he asked. 'Did you meet the beaterof drums?'
'I do not know,' answered Gandalf. 'But I found myself faced by something that I have not met before.I could think of nothing to do but to try & put a shutting spell on the door. I know many; but to do things of that kind rightly takes time, & even then the door can be broken by strength...
Then something came into the chamber- I felt it through the door, & the orcs themselves were afraid & fell silent.It laid hold of the iron ring, & then it percieved me & my spell.
What it was I cannot guess, but I have never felt such a challenge.The counter spell was terrible. It nearly broke me. For an instant the door left my control & began to open.I had to speak a word of Command. That proved too great a strain. The door broke in pieces.'
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When Gandalf speaks of "spells" and says that he knows many of them, what I think he means is that he knows many ways in which to use his power to gain the desired effect. Just as we do with technology, for example if we wanted to contact someone we have regular phones, cell phones, email, text messaging, and other ways in which to do so.
Now we come to the "word of command". When an Ainu uses his/her magic, presumably only thoughts are required. So they are channeling their power through their thoughts, words help focus thoughts hence it is sometimes easier to work out a problem if you are speaking your thoughts out loud or writing them down. The word of command works in much the same way, the casters thoughts become more focused and so their magic gets an extra boost. Music is the next level, it brings you to a higher plain of thought and also gives you not only words but also purposeful rythm to focus your thoughts.
So what about the Wizards' staff? Well this is a more difficult question and I have to resort to wild speculation in order to explain it.
This is what we know about the staffs:
1) That the Wizards seemed to use them when casting spells.
2) That Saruman seemed to lose a part of his power when his staff was broken.
3) That Gandalf used magic against the Balrog after his staff was broken.
Well, my first thought was that the staffs could just be for show, to give people "something else that would seem to explain" their powers, like Gandalf did with the smoke when Bilbo disappeared at his party. But this doesn't explain how Saruman lost his powers when his staff was broken. It could be that the staff breaking was only a cover for what happened under the surface. But why would Saruman keep up the act of using a staff after becoming a traitor, and I don't think that there is any precedent for one Maiar taking away another's power. I think it more likely that, since the Istari are said to be going to Middle Earth "with the consent of Eru" then Eru tied these staffs to their powers. Gandalf could still use quite a bit of his magic without a staff because as they became more corrupt the staffs became more bound to them. So Gandalf could do more without his staff. Another explanation could be that Eru intervened and allowed Gandalf to use magic. All of this is far-fetched but it is the best explanation that I could come up with. You can criticise the theory all you want but until someone comes up with a better theory that takes into account all of the evidence I am sticking by it.
So that about covers the Ainur, time to move on to Elves. First I must explain that the powers mentioned above do not apply only to the Ainur. They can be learned by other races. Incarnates find it more difficult to perform this kind of magic because their spirits are bound to their bodies and also because they have much less potent spirits (presumably Ainur who become incarnated find it somewhat more difficult to perform magic "around" the body as well). The High Elves were tutored by the Valar and so were much more learned than other types, this combined with the fact that those who saw the light of the Trees had some small portion of the power of the Ainur within them, made them much more adept at this type of magic than other races. The Sindarin were the next in line. They did not have the power of those who had beheld the light of the Trees, but they did have Melian to teach them. They learned many things from her and their "magic" was that they could use this knowledge, mainly to create wonderful items (something that the High Elves could also do), but they could also use the "Ainur magic" to a small extent. Last there came the Silvan Elves. These had an amazing knowledge of the woodlands of Middle Earth that came from the long ages that they lived there. They used this knowledge to create many things.
Men also could learn to do these things though their spirits were weaker and their knowledge was limited by their shorter lifespans.
Dwarves, like I said before, used mainly their knowledge and technology to do the things that they did. They may also have had some spiritual ability mixed with it.
A note on things like miruvor and lembas, they were basically created by using herbs or whatever that had medicinal properties there need not have been any "spellwork" involved.
Note: I organized this post by race which may be misleading, there is no reason that one race could not learn the magic that is primarily used by another.
PS- I avioded using any "technical" terms so that anyone would be able to understand what I am saying. Also I summerized from Osanwe-Kenta because I didn't want to make this post longer by stuffing it full of quotes.
PPS-
Quote:
Originally posted by Fingolfin II
I think the bit about Hobbits that SpM was referring to was somewhere in the start of The Hobbit.
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We were both right, I just checked out The Hobbit and it basically says the same thing that was in the Prologue to LotR.