Did Elves Use Magic?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Galadriel

By the way, I'm not talking about magic like the Palantir or the 'magic' that Galadriel uses...I'm talking about that Harry Potter kind of magic where...well, the doors are simply sealed by magic

Originally Posted by Nerwen

What's the difference?

I am not sure if I understand this correctly either, but if the idea is of magic as a "science working on the basis of waving a wand and shouting certain words in certain order", then I certainly say: no. Even more in the case of Thranduil, who is a wood-elf, and thus even if it existed normally among other Elves, I would think him far from such "ordered" way of doing it.

But generally I think the Elves are sort of "above" that kind of "primitive magic", their "magic" is more subtle, even though it has a lot to do with words (very likely), the power is in the word itself, and it can be any word, it does not have to be almost-unpronounceable word (which is anyway just a "normal" word, only in some language which is unknown to the speaker and thus, is mysterious).

As it was said, the Elves used magic - from the point of view of the mortals, who are, after all, the assumed readers (and writer) of the Hobbit. But this "magic" was a completely mundane thing for them. It was closely related to art and I think it was only another, more powerful way to influence the world around themselves similar to the way humans do it (like carving sculptures etc.). The sentence about Thranduil's doors simply means that "they were kept closed by some way which could not be explained on the basis of Bilbo or the Dwarves' mundane experience". It does not mean that you had to say "alohomora" when opening them.