The relationship betwen Music/Singing and Magic

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Eönwë

I think that Men are part of the Music, but it's just that not all they do was decided beforehand, or something like that. Anyway, the main point I was trying to get across is that it seems that Elves are more in tune with the Music than Men.

I think that this is often most people's understanding (and was mine for quite some time). It is easy to read of Bilbo's love of elven song in Rivendell and assume that the elves had some kind of higher ability at aesthetics.

However, it is also possible, given the passages in The Silm regarding the creation of the Children, that men sang the form of song which the Music intended them to sing, and that only by the long passage of time would they come to harmonise better, so that their choir would sing triumphantly at the end of days. After all, even the Ainur needed practice before they could harmonise.

Originally Posted by Morth

Music and magic have been closely associated throughout history. Music as a source to draw closer to a deity is a very biblical point of view, which Tolkien obviously drew from. The O.T. abounds in song/prayer -- the Psalms of David, for instance, and Solomon's Song of Songs. From a more Pagan point of view, incantations are often rhymed and hummed or sung (Santería, aboriginal tribes, New Age Wiccan dimestore variety witches, etc.). There is a cadence to Buddhist chants, as well as Islamic prayers. Music abounds in Religions, most of whom eschew the term 'magic', yet who practice the same liturgical spells in their rituals as did the first Shamans of the Cro-magnon.

Tolkien merely harnessed this age-old process as a fundamental tenet of Middle-earth's creation and its ongoing creativity. In fact, Tolkien reaches the point of lunacy when folks start singing or reciting poems at the drop of a hat, sometimes at the most inopportune times throughout the story.

Originally Posted by Skip Spence

Haha, I must admit that I cringe at times when the singing reaches the point of absurdity. Though I suppose that if we are willing to accept dragons and Elves, we should also be able to accept a bit of, to our modern sensibilities, inopportune singing.

It isn't just accepting dragons and elves, but a culture of respect for words where even inanimate objects like swords and knives are given special names which seem to hold their power.

But it isn't just ancient cultures or religious cultures which use non-verbal forms of communication such as music and rhythm. Music is exceptionally important to adolecents of our age and woe betide the teenager whose musical choice matches that of mum and dad!

But other than Tom the Bomb, who, it can be argued, functions as Tolkien's Holy Fool, just where are these inopportune, cringeable moments of song?