For those of you claiming that the Rune-keepers and the use of magic is breaking the LOTR lore, here is the contents of a post by MMSAGERUSN, as well as a link to the discussion on the official forums HERE.
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Original post by: MMSAGERUSN
To all you magic haters
Snipits from Tolkien's letters concerning magic:
(credit due to Cubrethil for posting this initially within another thread)
"I do not intend to involve myself in any debate whether 'magic' in any sense is real or really possible in the world. But I suppose that, for the purposes of the tale, some would say that there is a latent distinction such as once was called the distinction betewen magia and goeteia [sorcery]...neither is, in this tale, good or bad (per se), but only by motive or purpose of use. Both sides use both, but with different motives. The supremely bad motive is (for this tale, since it is specially about it) domination of other 'free' wills. The Enemy's operations are by no means all goetic deceits, but 'magic' that produces real effects in the physical world. But his magia he uses to bulldoze both people and things, and his goeteia to terrify and subjugate. Their magia the Elves and Gandalf use (sparingly): a magia, prudcing real results (like fire in a wet ******) for specific beneficent purposes. Their goetic effects are entirely artistic and not intended to deceive: they never deceive Elves (but may deceive or bewilder unaware Men) since the difference is to them as clear as the difference to us between fiction, painting, and sculpture, and 'life'.
Both sides live mainly by 'ordinary' means. The Enemy, or those who have become like him, go in for 'machinery'-- with destructive and evil effects -- because 'magicians', who have become chiefly concerned to use magia for their own power, would do so (do do so). The basic motive for magia -- quite apart from any philosophic consideration of how it would work -- is immediacy: speed, reduction of labour, and reduction also to a minimum (or vanishing point) of the gap between the idea or desire and the result or effect. But the magia may not be easy to come by, and at any rate if you have command of abundant slave-labour or machinery (often only the same thing concealed), it may be as quick or quick enough to push mountains over, wreck forests, or build pyramids by such means...
Anyway, a difference in the use of 'magic' in this story is that it is not to be come by by 'lore' or spells; but in an inherent power not possessed or attainable by Men as such. Aragorn's 'healing' might be regarded as 'magical', or at least a blend of magic with pharmacy and 'hypnotic' processes. But it is (in theory) reported by hobbits who have very little notions of philosophy and science; while A. is not a pure 'Man', but at long remove one of the 'children of Luthien'."
(the word that is obscurred above is a word meaning bundle of wood, sad it has to be censored)
" The particular branch of the High-Elves concerned, the Noldor or Loremasters, were always on the side of `science and technology', as we should call it: they wanted to have the knowledge that Sauron genuinely had... The particluar `desire' of the Eregion Elves - an `allegory' if you like of a love of machinery, and technical devices - is also symbolized by their special friendship with the Dwarves of Moria. "
Comments
Snipits from Tolkien's letters concerning magic:
(credit due to Cubrethil for posting this initially within another thread)
"I do not intend to involve myself in any debate whether 'magic' in any sense is real or really possible in the world. But I suppose that, for the purposes of the tale, some would say that there is a latent distinction such as once was called the distinction betewen magia and goeteia [sorcery]...neither is, in this tale, good or bad (per se), but only by motive or purpose of use. Both sides use both, but with different motives. The supremely bad motive is (for this tale, since it is specially about it) domination of other 'free' wills. The Enemy's operations are by no means all goetic deceits, but 'magic' that produces real effects in the physical world. But his magia he uses to bulldoze both people and things, and his goeteia to terrify and subjugate. Their magia the Elves and Gandalf use (sparingly): a magia, prudcing real results (like fire in a wet ******) for specific beneficent purposes. Their goetic effects are entirely artistic and not intended to deceive: they never deceive Elves (but may deceive or bewilder unaware Men) since the difference is to them as clear as the difference to us between fiction, painting, and sculpture, and 'life'.
Both sides live mainly by 'ordinary' means. The Enemy, or those who have become like him, go in for 'machinery'-- with destructive and evil effects -- because 'magicians', who have become chiefly concerned to use magia for their own power, would do so (do do so). The basic motive for magia -- quite apart from any philosophic consideration of how it would work -- is immediacy: speed, reduction of labour, and reduction also to a minimum (or vanishing point) of the gap between the idea or desire and the result or effect. But the magia may not be easy to come by, and at any rate if you have command of abundant slave-labour or machinery (often only the same thing concealed), it may be as quick or quick enough to push mountains over, wreck forests, or build pyramids by such means...
Anyway, a difference in the use of 'magic' in this story is that it is not to be come by by 'lore' or spells; but in an inherent power not possessed or attainable by Men as such. Aragorn's 'healing' might be regarded as 'magical', or at least a blend of magic with pharmacy and 'hypnotic' processes. But it is (in theory) reported by hobbits who have very little notions of philosophy and science; while A. is not a pure 'Man', but at long remove one of the 'children of Luthien'."
(the word that is obscurred above is a word meaning bundle of wood, sad it has to be censored)
Letter #153
" The particular branch of the High-Elves concerned, the Noldor or Loremasters, were always on the side of `science and technology', as we should call it: they wanted to have the knowledge that Sauron genuinely had... The particluar `desire' of the Eregion Elves - an `allegory' if you like of a love of machinery, and technical devices - is also symbolized by their special friendship with the Dwarves of Moria. "
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