Magic in Middle-earth

[Rumil]

I've been wondering too about the magic of Thranduil's wood elves. If you remember, in the hobbit, the Dwarves and Bilbo wander into an elven 'party', the lights are all suddenly extinguished and the interlopers immediately fall asleep. This sounds much like a traditional Dungeons and Dragons first level sleep spell to me! In character it seems closer to Gandalf's 'practical magic' eg. commanding the wood to burst into flame, while different from Galadriel's more mysterious 'item-associated magic'. Also there is no mention of Bilbo et al being sung at in the manner of Luthien.

The wood elves were noted as being less wise than Elrond's people and maybe this explains their willingness to use magic at the drop of a hat. I wonder if the magic ability was confined to certain of the silvan elves, as, for example, Legolas appears not to have overtly used magic. Maybe his snow-running trick had a spot of elven magic behind it, maybe his sharp eyesight and accuracy with the bow was similarly enhanced, I'm not sure. I'd guess that if he did have magic ability he would have avoided using it to keep from calling attention to the party, as Gandalf appears to imply, on Caradhras, that the use of magic can be detected easily by other magic-users.