Can elves use magic in Lord of the Rings: Misconception Explained

JRR Tolkien pioneered high fantasy in his magnum opus, The Lord of the RingsDefining a unique fictional magic in many races, including Ainur, elves, dwarves, hobbits and humans. Peter Jackson The Lord of the Rings And The Hobbit Movies confuse the idea of ​​something magical by not adapting their source material to the letter. Nevertheless, these movies expressed some of the core themes and values ​​of Tolkien’s powerful work and, to this day, remain the most famous Tolkien adaptations. elf”Magic“, in particular, was complex in both the movies and books, leading many to misconceptions.

The Lord of the Rings The timeline was extended from a time before time when only the Ainur and the One Eru Ilúvatar were around to the Fourth Age, with Tolkien’s life’s work flavoring the stories in between. Tolkien tells about third age elves in The Lord of the Rings and of elves from ages earlier in The SilmarillionPublished with a little help from his son, Posthuma. Tolkien’s Idea of ​​Elf”Magic” evolved along with him and his beliefs, with early drafts of his work offering different perspectives. This can be traced in his published letters and The history of Middle-earth series, edited by his son.

The elves’ connection to Valinor gives them spiritual gifts

Melian taught Galadriel

Elves cannot cast the multitude of spells that Gandalf the Istar can, being of a fundamentally different race, but they are party to certain skills above and beyond what is natural to humans and hobbits. Gandalf is a Maiar, a lower order of the Ainur race that also includes the 15 Valar, the demigods of Tolkien’s world. These spirit beings are immortal, and some can form a new body if their old body is destroyed. Elves were raised in Middle-earth, and many traveled to the land of the Ainur, Aman. There, the Elves learned much from the Ainur Race, so that they became known as the Enlightened Elder.

The flight of the Noldor involved a large family of elves, the Noldor, leaving Amman for Middle-earth. As one of the elves, Galadriel found herself in the forest kingdom of Doriat in the First Age. There she met her future husband, Celeborn, and importantly, she befriended Melian de Maia. Galadriel and others Elves, can never take on the innate abilities of a MaiaBut were able to learn their technological prowess, which seemed magical to many. The art of baking the unnatural filling of Lemba’s bread was passed from the Valier Yavana to Melian, to Galadriel.

Elves did not consider their skills and crafts to be magical

Hobbits’ supernatural is nature to elves

What was supernatural to hobbits is nature to elves, and Lemba’s bread is a good example of this. in The Lord of the RingsThe Hobbit Samwise God expressed his desire to “See some elf-magic“Without understanding what it meant. In response, Galadriel offered Sam a look in the Mirror of Galadriel, saying “This, if you will, is the magic of Galadriel.“Clearly, Galadriel did not think of her mirror as magic and only tried to explain the mirror in terms that Sam would understand. The wisdom of the Eldar, which was inherited from the Ainur and probably developed afterwards, did not seem like magic to them.

Galadriel said to Sam from her mirror, “This is what your people would call magic, I believe; Although I do not clearly understand what they mean; And they saw the same state of hatred.“The elves’ mirror and road bread showed a greater understanding of the world and its resources than hobbits were used to, but utilized natural tools and materials. The elves are Middle-earth’s version of a technologically advanced society – “Their ‘magic’ is art,“As Tolkien said in a 1951 letter to Milton Waldman. Tolkien explained that “Magic“properly it was darker:

…[The Lord of the Rings] is mainly concerned with falling, dying and the machine… the sub-creator wants to be… lord and god… he will rebel against the laws of the creator, especially against mortals… the… will lead To the desire for power, to make the will more effective, – and so to the machine (or magic). By the latter I intend all use of external plans or devices (apparatus) instead of developments of the inherent inner powers or talents – or even the use of these talents with the corrupt motive of dominating…

Elrond’s biggest moment of “magic” in LOTR is actually his ring

Elrond wore a magic ring

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring The movie created the feeling of a magical flood from Arwen, washing away the hostile Ringwraiths at the Ford of Bruinen and saving Frodo. in The Lord of the Rings In the book, Glorfindel saves Frodo, rather than Arwen. The book also reveals that “Elrond ordered it,“explain the”Magic“- Elrond wore Willia, the magical ring of power who rejected the restraints of time and helped him protect his kingdom. Forged with Sauron’s process but without the flavor of his touch, the ring contained magic that Elrond himself did not have.

This was Sauron’s dominating of “The car“It was the Rings of Power and their forging that initiated this magic Elves are not innocentTricked by Sauron into helping him make the rings through their proud desire to surpass the glory of their ancestors. The rings of power are formed from “The creative … desire that seems to have no biological function, and to be separate from the satisfaction of plain ordinary biological life” – exactly the dark magic Tolkien described in his letter. The horse-shaped waves, on the other hand, were Gandalf’s touch – the magic of a Maya.

Tolkien never properly defined “magic” in Middle-earth

Magic was complex in Middle-earth

Despite Tolkien’s ruminations on magic and its symbolism in his work, he admitted “I did not consistently use magic, and indeed the elven queen Galadriel is obliged to remonstrate with the hobbits on their confused use of the word both for the tools and operations of the enemy, and for those of the elves.” Tolkien used the word magic differently throughout his LegendariumWith earlier drafts in particular, against the definition he laid out in his letter to Milton-Waldman. For example, in The Lays of BelriandThe third in The history of Middle-earth series, Tolkien referred to “Magic-wielding elves.“

It is important to note that elves and Ainur can communicate telepathically, but that Tolkien did not consider this magic. It was part of Middle-earth’s reality, even though it was supernatural by real-world human standards, and anyone who didn’t understand it in Middle-earth saw it as magic, too. JRR Tolkien’s essay, Ósanwe-kenta, ‘Inquiry into the Communication of Thought’Out in Morgoth’s Ring, Made it clear that all Visions, telepathy, foresight and mastery of another’s agency were a form of osan – “Exchange of ideas.Although magical to book readers and movie-goers, Tolkien saw this as Middle-earth’s nature The Lord of the Rings.