Imagine no religion

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by skip spence

Yeah, but is the power of the statues derived only from their makers ? From an anthropological standpoint I find that rather hard to believe. And the way say the Chinese worship their ancestors is a religious practice of sorts to, isn't it?

Yes, but then one would ask, how did the Drúedain see it? Did they consider it a religious thing, worshipping, or was it just statues, resp. veneration of ancestors at most? And as far as I know, I don't see any evidence for that - that the statues would be anything more than statues (once again, like I said, no more than a statue of Elendil or whatever).

The power of the statues was likened to the Ring - indeed the story of the "Faithful stone" is obvious parallel - so if it was really there (that is, if the story is not just a fairy-tale told by Men about these scary statues the Drúedain build), it was some sort of "magic" as much as the "magic" of the Elves or maybe even more of the Dwarves, simply the kind of thing that made Orcrist glow in the dark or that trapped light inside the Silmarils or that bound power inside the Rings, if we were to get back to that one (although the glowing sword example is probably the best, as it is the most "crude" of all those).