LotR -- Book 3 - Chapter 05 - The White Rider

[davem]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Of course, his excessive use of the palantir could quite easily have clouded his own mind, as it certainly clouded his judgement.

It does make me wonder whether the regular use of 'magical' technology could cause one's innate abilities to atrophy. Perhaps this applies across the board - maybe constant use of a 'magical' sword would lead to the user to lose some of their skill with normal blades, as such skills would be less necessary if the sword carried extra power in & of itself. Is Tolkien making a subtle point about how dangerous our dependence on technology is? We know that our ancestors had greater powers of memory than we do, simply because they had to remember more, not having such easy access to sources of information.

Just speculating.....