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.

[The Saucepan Man]

Hello there Rumil. Good to see you again.

Originally Posted by Rumil

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.

Which rather underlines the point: they may have seemed like magic to others but, to Legolas, they were simply his natural abilities.

[Fingolfin II]

These magic threads are all very interesting. Neithan, I think the bit about Hobbits that SpM was referring to was somewhere in the start of The Hobbit. I don't own a copy (lost mine years ago), but I'm pretty sure Tolkien actually uses the word magic and says that the only magic Hobbits have is the 'everyday' type to disappear 'when huge, big folk like you and me come blundering along' (something like that, anyway). I liked your analysis on the type of 'magic' the different races/powers of the world wielded, if any. I'll throw another example of magic into the fray; Finrod bewitched his company and himself to take on the exact appearance of orcs- pretty decent.

[Neithan]

From FotR, Prologue, 1 Concerning Hobbits, pg 20

They possessed from the first the art of disappearing swiftly and silently, when large folk whom they do not wish to meet come blundering by; and this art they have developed until to Men it may seem magical.

Of course he may have mentioned it in the Hobbit as well, I can't remember.

[Garen LiLorian]

Although everything you've said is reasonable, I remain unconvinced. There are several times when the people in question call what they are doing magic. Like, for example, the dwarf song in the hobbit; The Dwarves of yore made mighty spells, and Gandalf puts 'a shutting spell' (in his own words) on the door in Moria, and says at the west-gate of Moria 'I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves or Men or Orcs, that was ever used for such a purpose.'

Now, it seems fairly reasonable that, whether magic consists of just knowing something extra, or actual spells (although, I don't really see the difference) if the person doing the spell calls it magic, than so can we.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

It’s interesting that you cite those particular instances of magic Garen insofar as they are “spells”. The earliest appearance of the word spel in English was in none other than Tolkien’s favourite work, Beowulf where it means a narrative or prolonged (and learned?) discourse, and sometimes, even, a sermon. Now, as time went on, “spell” began to become more and more closely associated with magical incantations, but the references to story or narrative, and even to time (“let’s sit here for a spell”) remain.

Tolkien, obviously, knew very well what a ‘spel’ was: a discourse or narrative told by someone. In the case of the magical spells “cast” by his characters, then, they are not doing anything ‘un’ or even ‘supernatural’ they are just telling particular kinds of stories or narratives. More intriguingly, they are doing so with an idea to instruct. In all the instances of spel in Beowulf the word is used not just to tell a story, but a story that is being told with a specific purpose: there is a point to the telling, and this point is invariably to provoke action from the listener, or to sway their opinion.

So these narratives, or discourses (or sermons?) that people give to inanimate objects in Middle-earth are being told in order to ‘convince’ or to sway these inanimate objects to behave in particular ways. Just as the ‘magic’ that lies behind the Lorien cloaks or the One Ring are really just forms of ‘technology’ that we don’t understand, so too are the spells cast really just forms (or even dialects) of language that we don’t know. In effect, when Gandalf casts his spell on the door he is speaking a ‘stone-language’ and ‘convincing’ the door to remain shut.

(As I write this, I seem to recall davem making very much this same point in another thread, somewhere, sometime. Should try to dig that up and reference it here.)

[Garen LiLorian]

Most instructive, Fordim. I learn something new every day around here.
And, although that all makes sense, why does Tolkien then only use 'spell' in a context that could mean magic? At other times, when the 'convincing' is a bit more mundane, there is no mention of spells. (See Theoden and Bilbo) Indeed, with Bilbo, although Gandalf does a good deal of convincing, he later tells Frodo that Bilbo gave up the ring of his own accord. I don't actually know what that might mean, but it seems to be significant somehow. I mean, if he was compelled by spell to give up the ring, gandalf says that it would break him. (well, actually Frodo. But, since Frodo had had the ring at that point for about 24 hours, we may assume that it would have broken Bilbo as well)
Although, I still don't really get why spel makes it not magic. Wherever the word came from, it certainly now carries the magic connotation. I can't remember where the quote is from, but I've always agreed with whoever said "ninety nine percent of magic is simply knowing one extra fact)