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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5323953" data-attributes="member: 4937">There are many important things in this world I am completely ignorant of.  There are a few trivial things which I probably have too much knowledge of.  Tolkien lore probably fits in this later category.  I have publically on several occasions challenged the interpretations of leading Tolkien scholars.  I have shelves filled with Tolkiens books, the collections published by Christopher, and scholarly essays on Tolkien.  To be frank, I consider your link to give a very shallow and often inaccurate treatment of magic in Tolkien's works.  The only part I strongly agree with is the statement, "Yet, for all this, Tolkien used magic sparingly and for good reason; if used too much it is no longer special or supernatural."  That's the actual mechanic underlying the text.  The trick is to use game mechanics that create a similar effect.Just as a for example of one of the many places the essay is wrong, "Dwarves, men, hobbits, orcs, and the other races of Middle-earth are seemingly devoid of "inherent power", and can not perform magical effects.", is in fact wrong (and is demonstratable from almost any place in the text the word 'magic' is actually used, from the opening pages of 'The Hobbit' to the discussion between Galadriel and Sam).  Those races were not devoid of inherent power, but rather, the power that was native to them was largely what we would find 'mundane' and 'ordinary'.  Therefore, when those races actually performed magic, we as observers don't recognize it as magic because it seems to use only the skillful application of ordinary power.  But it's important to observe that from the perspective of the elves, there is nothing 'supernatural' or 'uncanny' about their 'magic' and that it is just as mundane to them as those things that are mundane to us.  As far as the elves are concerned their 'magic' is only the skillful application of ordinary power.</blockquote>

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