J.R.R. Tolkien pioneered high fantasy in his magnum opus, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies confused this idea of magic somewhat, not adapting their source material to the letter. Nonetheless, the 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 timeline extended from a time before time when only the Ainur and the One Eru Ilúvatar were around until the Fourth Age, with Tolkien's life's work fleshing out the stories in-between. Tolkien told of Third Age Elves in The Lord of the Rings and of Elves of ages previous in The Silmarillion, published with a little help from his son, posthumously. Tolkien's idea of Elf "magic" evolved along with him and his beliefs, with early drafts of his work offering differing perspectives. This can be tracked in his published letters and The History of Middle-earth series, edited by his son.

The Elves' Connection To Valinor Does Grant Them Spiritual Gifts

Melian Instructed Galadriel

Elves can't 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 at will if their old body gets destroyed. Elves awoke in Middle-earth, and many traveled to the land of the Ainur, Aman. There, these Elves learned much from the Ainur race, so that they became known as the enlightened Eldar.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim comes out on December 13, 2024.

The Flight of the Noldor involved a great family of Elves, the Noldor, leaving Aman for Middle-earth. As one of these Elves, Galadriel found herself in the forest kingdom of Doriath in the First Age. There she met her future husband, Celeborn, and importantly, befriended Melian the Maia. Galadriel, and other Elves, could never take on the innate abilities of a Maia, but were able to learn their technological prowess, which seemed magical to many. The art of baking the unnaturally filling lembas bread was ed down from the Valier Yavanna to Melian, to Galadriel.

Elves Didn't Consider Their Skills & Crafts To Be Magical

Hobbits' Supernatural Was Nature To Elves

What seemed supernatural to Hobbits was nature to Elves, and lembas bread is a good example of this. In The Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit Samwise Gamgee 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 didn't think of her mirror as magic and was only trying to explain the mirror in that Sam would understand. The Eldar's wisdom, inherited from Ainur and probably developed thereafter, didn't seem like magic to them.

Galadriel said to Sam of her mirror, "this is what your folk would call magic, I believe; though I do not understand clearly what they mean; and they seem to use the same word of the deceits of the enemy." The Elves' mirror and waybread displayed a greater understanding of the world and its resources than Hobbits were used to, but utilized natural tools and materials. The Elves were Middle-earth's version of a technologically advanced society - "Their 'magic' is Art," as Tolkien said in a letter to Milton Waldman from 1951. Tolkien clarified that "magic" proper was darker:

...[The Lord of the Rings] is mainly concerned with Fall, Mortality, and the Machine... the sub-creator wishes to be... Lord and God... He will rebel against the laws of the Creator, especially against mortality... these... will lead to the desire for Power, for making the will more quickly effective, - and so to the Machine (or Magic). By the last 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 corrupted motive of dominating...

Elrond's Biggest Moment Of "Magic" In LOTR Was Actually His Ring

Elrond Wore A Magic Ring

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie created the sense of a magical deluge from Arwen, washing the hostile Ringwraiths into the Ford of Bruinen and saving Frodo. In The Lord of the Rings book, Glorfindel saved Frodo, rather than Arwen. The book also revealed that "Elrond commanded it," explaining the "magic" - Elrond wore Vilya, the magical Ring of Power that warded off the decays of time and helped him protect his realm. Forged with Sauron's process but without the taint of his touch, the Ring contained magic that Elrond himself did not.

It was Sauron's domineering of "the Machine" that was the Rings of Power and their forging that initiated this magic. The Elves were not blameless, deceived by Sauron into helping him create the rings through their prideful desire to sur the glory of their forefathers. The Rings of Power were formed from "the creative... desire which seems to have no biological function, and to be apart from the satisfactions 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 Maia.

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 itted "I have not used magic consistently, and indeed the Elven-queen Galadriel is obliged to remonstrate with the Hobbits on their confused use of the word both for the devices and operations of the Enemy, and for those of the Elves." Tolkien used the word magic differently throughout his legendarium, with earlier drafts, in particular, contradicting the definition he laid out in his letter to Milton Waldman. For instance, in The Lays of Beleriand, the third in The History of Middle-earth series, Tolkien referred to "magic-wielding Elves."

Published in 1993, Morgoth's Ring was the tenth in The History of Middle-earth series.

It's important to note that Elves and Ainur alike could communicate telepathically, but that Tolkien didn't consider this magic. This was a part of Middle-earth's reality, although it is supernatural by real-world human standards, and any who didn't understand it in Middle-earth saw it as magic too. J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay, Ósanwe-kenta, ‘Enquiry into the Communication of Thought’, published in Morgoth’s Ring, made it clear that all visions, telepathy, foresight, and domination of another's agency were a form of ósanwe - “interchange of thought.” Although magical to book readers and movie-goers, Tolkien saw this as Middle-earth's nature in The Lord of the Rings.