What is "magic" and what properties can one wield from it? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Mithalwen · 10-02-2010, 01:59 AM

.Being a cynic I am inclined to say that the vast majority of what is termed magic is due to a disparity in skill or technology... certainly I think this is why the Elves were bemused by Sam's question.

I remember my grandmother telling me how her father was amazed when he heard a live radio broadcast - the child of someone in the village was playing at the Albert Hall - and that they in a village in Gloucestershire could hear something as it occured in London was pretty much magic to him. Even for me as someone who was born into a world where we were impressed by digitalwatches and simple calculators it is mind boggling the diffence in technology - I never expected at the time I first read the Silmarillion that I would be discussing it twenty odd years later with peple all over the world on my own "palantir" ...

However at times there is clearly more going on and there are some threads already where this has been looked at already (but not especially recently).

http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=11261

This is one - not necessarily the best but one I can find easily because I started it...

10-02-2010, 01:59 AM	#2
Mithalwen Pilgrim Soul Join Date: May 2004 Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle... Posts: 9,463	.Being a cynic I am inclined to say that the vast majority of what is termed magic is due to a disparity in skill or technology... certainly I think this is why the Elves were bemused by Sam's question. I remember my grandmother telling me how her father was amazed when he heard a live radio broadcast - the child of someone in the village was playing at the Albert Hall - and that they in a village in Gloucestershire could hear something as it occured in London was pretty much magic to him. Even for me as someone who was born into a world where we were impressed by digitalwatches and simple calculators it is mind boggling the diffence in technology - I never expected at the time I first read the Silmarillion that I would be discussing it twenty odd years later with peple all over the world on my own "palantir" ... However at times there is clearly more going on and there are some threads already where this has been looked at already (but not especially recently). http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=11261 This is one - not necessarily the best but one I can find easily because I started it... __________________ “But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.” Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace Last edited by Mithalwen; 10-02-2010 at 02:19 AM.