Magic vs. Power - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Iarwain · 03-12-2003, 09:39 PM

You can tell that Tolkien doesn't like magic just by reading, its very interesting but he appears to see it as a crude misconception of an art, as we see with Sam and Galadriel. Intresting avatar, Inkling [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] . Thanks for the compliment, it seems very rare that I actually produce a topic of intrest to more than one or two people. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Here's where I believe the line (invisible to you, Burrahobbit) is drawn. Plain magic, shown in other stories appears as a sort of anomaly, an unexplained occurence that somehow allows someone to do something without physically exerting him or her self. However, in Middle-Earth Tolkien has created an environment where Omnipotence is the backing for this nonphysical power, and where it is given accordingly to each race. Rather than being an anomaly, Tolkien's brand of magic is the very reality of middle-earth, it is the force that lies behind its creation and its continual existence. This is when it ceases to be a sort of "weird! how did that happen" power, and becomes the miniature version of divine omnipotence. Each being is woven into the very fibre of Middle-Earth, and has connections to threads around it that others might lack. This is the sort of power that I speak of. To use the same illustration, we might say that a world with traditional magic in it is like a patchwork quilt with several invisible squares, holding the world together, but in a way that is impossible to really understand.

Iarwain

[ March 12, 2003: Message edited by: Iarwain ]

03-12-2003, 09:39 PM	#7
Iarwain Pugnaciously Primordial Paradox Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Birnham Wood Posts: 800	You can tell that Tolkien doesn't like magic just by reading, its very interesting but he appears to see it as a crude misconception of an art, as we see with Sam and Galadriel. Intresting avatar, Inkling [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] . Thanks for the compliment, it seems very rare that I actually produce a topic of intrest to more than one or two people. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Here's where I believe the line (invisible to you, Burrahobbit) is drawn. Plain magic, shown in other stories appears as a sort of anomaly, an unexplained occurence that somehow allows someone to do something without physically exerting him or her self. However, in Middle-Earth Tolkien has created an environment where Omnipotence is the backing for this nonphysical power, and where it is given accordingly to each race. Rather than being an anomaly, Tolkien's brand of magic is the very reality of middle-earth, it is the force that lies behind its creation and its continual existence. This is when it ceases to be a sort of "weird! how did that happen" power, and becomes the miniature version of divine omnipotence. Each being is woven into the very fibre of Middle-Earth, and has connections to threads around it that others might lack. This is the sort of power that I speak of. To use the same illustration, we might say that a world with traditional magic in it is like a patchwork quilt with several invisible squares, holding the world together, but in a way that is impossible to really understand. Iarwain [ March 12, 2003: Message edited by: Iarwain ] __________________ "And what are oaths but words we say to God?"