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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 489777" data-attributes="member: 2205">Sorry, I don't want to come across as overly antagonistic.  I've been participating in M-E related discussions for a long time.  At one point, I had the opinion that all magic in M-E was the result of your bloodline -- and regular Men didn't have it.A few things I've learned for sure over the course of these years of debate and discussion:  1)  Don't state something authoritatively.  No matter how much you think you know, you'll find that other folks know just as much as you, and they'll be prepared to back up their assertions with quotes from the book and 2) Back up assertions with quotes from the book that are actually relevent to your point (unlike most of what fusangite provided, where the relationship between what was written and what he claims it says is dubious) and 3) accept that Tolkien wasn't necessarily writing in a way that is inimical to easy classification, so be prepared to accept the fact that other interpretations may be just as valid as your own.  Doesn't mean you should change your opinion, but you have to at least accept that your interpretation isn't the only one that makes sense given what the text says.</blockquote>