Magic in Middle-earth

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Which means that there really is no magic. And when there is none, but it is felt, it's magical. So the magic is in the inexistence of magic?

headdesk.

No, now you're going too far the other way.

Thinking of all the examples I can–

There's occasional "proper" spell-casting, sometimes with incantations and the works; there's a sort of "techno-magic", or "crafting" magic; there's the ability to influence natural forces; and there's "psychic powers" such as foresight or telepathy. These all could be termed "magic" of sorts. Thing is, they all shade into each other quite a bit, and also into the realm of the mundane, so that much of the time it's not clear exactly what you're seeing (if anything).

And no, I don't think that's just Tolkien being sloppy– it's just that, unlike many modern fantasy authors, he was neither drawing on RPG-ing experience, nor writing with one eye on the fanboy-market.

That sounds a bit catty, I know, but I'm not trying to knock current authors. It's just that people don't write in a vacuum, and authors in the present day have learnt that fans tend to expect them to set out strict rules about who can use what power how many times a day, and rank all magic-users (or whatever) in relation to each other, etc, etc.