Before we look into that, though, we should ask a larger question. Middle Earth is often referred to
as a magical place, but what kind of magic is it? What counts as magic? Are the Dwarves and Elves, by existing, proof
of magic? At the Mirror of Galadriel,
Sam asked if they are going to see Elf-magic.
Galadriel responds, “This is what your folk call magic, I believe;
though I do not understand clearly what they mean; and they seem also to use
the same word for the deceits of the enemy.
But this, if you will, is the magic of Galadriel.” What is magic to the
Hobbits is evidently not magic to the Elves.
Gandalf does not ever refer to himself as magical, either. When he and the others approach Saruman, he advises them to be wary of his voice, but doesn’t actually call it 'magic'. When Saruman tries to leave the discussion, Gandalf demands he returns – and he does. He also breaks Saruman’s staff by verbal command. This certainly seems magical, but would Gandalf, like Galadriel, also hesitate to use the word 'magic'? Is it simply "what your folk call magic"?
But it isn't just people. The Caradhras prevented the Fellowship from crossing. The Ring has a will of it’s own, and has given Gollum (and Bilbo) unnaturally long life. The trees (and not just the ones in Fangorn) have emotions, and can lean to purposefully block the sun when they wish. There was a moment in the previous chapter when Frodo laughed, and “Such a sound had been been heard in those places since Sauron came to Middle Earth. To Sam suddenly it seemed as if all the stones were listening and the tall rocks leaning over them."
And still, there are many things the Creative Wizard hints at, but does not fully reveal. Middle Earth is fantastical, and whether we call it magic is perhaps irrelevant. There are powerful forces, all of them dangerous.
And so we return to Shelob’s Lair:
Gandalf does not ever refer to himself as magical, either. When he and the others approach Saruman, he advises them to be wary of his voice, but doesn’t actually call it 'magic'. When Saruman tries to leave the discussion, Gandalf demands he returns – and he does. He also breaks Saruman’s staff by verbal command. This certainly seems magical, but would Gandalf, like Galadriel, also hesitate to use the word 'magic'? Is it simply "what your folk call magic"?
But it isn't just people. The Caradhras prevented the Fellowship from crossing. The Ring has a will of it’s own, and has given Gollum (and Bilbo) unnaturally long life. The trees (and not just the ones in Fangorn) have emotions, and can lean to purposefully block the sun when they wish. There was a moment in the previous chapter when Frodo laughed, and “Such a sound had been been heard in those places since Sauron came to Middle Earth. To Sam suddenly it seemed as if all the stones were listening and the tall rocks leaning over them."
And still, there are many things the Creative Wizard hints at, but does not fully reveal. Middle Earth is fantastical, and whether we call it magic is perhaps irrelevant. There are powerful forces, all of them dangerous.
And so we return to Shelob’s Lair:
Here the air was still, stagnant, heavy, and sound fell
dead. They walked, as
it were, in a black
vapor wrought of veritable darkness itself that,
as it was breathed, brought
blindness not only to the eyes but to the mind, so that even
the memory of colors
and of forms and of any light
faded out of thought. Night had been, and always would be, and
night was all.
But for
a while they could still feel, and indeed the senses of their feet and fingers
at first seemed sharpened almost painfully… But after a time their senses
became duller, both touch and hearing seemed to grow numb... The breathlessness of the air was
growing as they climbed, and now they seemed often in the blind dark to sense
some
resistance thicker than the foul air… And still the stench grew. It grew, until almost it seemed to them
that smell
was the only clear sense left to them, and that was for their torment…
Is this magic? This is not just a dark cave - it is suffocating. Sound is muffled, the air numbs the mind, all senses except smell are repressed. Whether it is truly magic or not, it is surely not of this world.
They hear something approach from behind. They begin to panic, when Sam has a vision of Galadriel giving her gifts to the Fellowship. He reminds Frodo of the star glass. Frodo says, partially quoting Galadriel "A light when all other lights go out! And now indeed light alone can help us."
He draws the phial out and holds it up. A brilliant light shows from it. They see a monster with what the text says has thousands of eyes. “No brightness so deadly had ever afflicted [those eyes] before. From sun and moon and star they had been safe underground, but now a star had descended into the very Earth.” Whoever said a star had been brought into the cave?
The monster flees the light, and they move forth with the Phial's light piercing the darkness. They come upon a giant web, and Sam exclaims that the monster must be a spider. Frodo uses Sting to cut the web (Sam's sword is no use against it). They see the exit into Mordor. "It seemed light in that dark land to his eyes that had passed through the den of night... Yet it seemed to Frodo that he looked upon a morning of sudden hope." (I should mention that the first sentence of the chapter is, "It may indeed have been daytime now, as Gollum said, but the hobbits could see little difference, unless, perhaps, the heavy sky was less utterly black." Mordor is not a land reached by the sun. There is no morning of sudden hope, nor anything else good.)
There is much "what your folk call magic" here. Sam's vision of Galadriel; that Shelob's web is only affected by Sting (An Elven blade - which Sam's is not); that he Phial of Galadriel would literally bring the light of a star to Earth. And what of the suffocating nature of the cave? So strong was it that, when Frodo found the exit, even the gloom of Mordor seemed bright and welcoming.
And there's Shelob, herself! “There agelong she had dwelt, an evil thing in spider form." She is not an evil spider. Evil is not the adjective, it is the noun! Shelob is evil, and happens to appear as a spider. We get a brief history of Shelob, how she terrorized the old Elf kingdoms, and how she has inhabited Cirith Ungol even before Sauron made his throne in Mordor. All spiders - "lesser broods" - are her descendants. This is not just a servant of Sauron, nor a wild monster like the Watcher in the Water. Even the Balrog that Gandalf battled is less historied. Shelob is an evil, ancient and beastial.
The magic in Middle Earth is mysterious. Our text does not seek to explain it, generally because those who use it don't really consider it magic. I am reminded of a quote by Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Certainly someone unfamiliar with our technology might think our phones are magic. Even the idea of a light switch could be mind-blowing. The only reason it doesn't surprise us is because we're used to it.
We call what happens in Middle Earth magic because it is unusual to us. But to them it is not. Galadriel knows how the mirror works, as we know how a light switch works. But when Saruman uses what is essentially gunpowder at the battle of Helm's Deep, Aragorn calls it "Devilry of Saruman." But, to us, gunpowder isn't any kind of Devilry.
Middle Earth seems very magical, but perhaps it is better to say it just works differently. From our vantage point, it is magic. But from those who understand, it is a skill like any other. Sometimes we see someone do something with such skill we wonder how they got so good, and our minds attribute it to magic because that is easier. But then there are times when we practice, we hone our style, we examine our work and tweak it and try it again, and examine our work and tweak it again and try it again again. And then after days, weeks, months of preparation, we show our skill to someone, and all they can say "Wow, that's really good! You have a gift." The only gift we had was the desire and dedication to the work necessary to get better.
And yet, I wonder if those we said were gifted felt similarly dismissed. No doubt they also worked hard to achieve their skill. As maybe Galadriel did, as maybe Gandalf did. Maybe Shelob worked to create that suffocating darkness. And so "what your folk call magic" is just a comment of ignorance. If they understood, they wouldn't call it that.
We should, when we see someone do something amazing, try to imagine the work they had to put in to achieve that success. In this way we can make what is sometimes seen as "a gift" to some people instead accessible to everyone. Provided you're willing to work at it.
They hear something approach from behind. They begin to panic, when Sam has a vision of Galadriel giving her gifts to the Fellowship. He reminds Frodo of the star glass. Frodo says, partially quoting Galadriel "A light when all other lights go out! And now indeed light alone can help us."
He draws the phial out and holds it up. A brilliant light shows from it. They see a monster with what the text says has thousands of eyes. “No brightness so deadly had ever afflicted [those eyes] before. From sun and moon and star they had been safe underground, but now a star had descended into the very Earth.” Whoever said a star had been brought into the cave?
The monster flees the light, and they move forth with the Phial's light piercing the darkness. They come upon a giant web, and Sam exclaims that the monster must be a spider. Frodo uses Sting to cut the web (Sam's sword is no use against it). They see the exit into Mordor. "It seemed light in that dark land to his eyes that had passed through the den of night... Yet it seemed to Frodo that he looked upon a morning of sudden hope." (I should mention that the first sentence of the chapter is, "It may indeed have been daytime now, as Gollum said, but the hobbits could see little difference, unless, perhaps, the heavy sky was less utterly black." Mordor is not a land reached by the sun. There is no morning of sudden hope, nor anything else good.)
There is much "what your folk call magic" here. Sam's vision of Galadriel; that Shelob's web is only affected by Sting (An Elven blade - which Sam's is not); that he Phial of Galadriel would literally bring the light of a star to Earth. And what of the suffocating nature of the cave? So strong was it that, when Frodo found the exit, even the gloom of Mordor seemed bright and welcoming.
And there's Shelob, herself! “There agelong she had dwelt, an evil thing in spider form." She is not an evil spider. Evil is not the adjective, it is the noun! Shelob is evil, and happens to appear as a spider. We get a brief history of Shelob, how she terrorized the old Elf kingdoms, and how she has inhabited Cirith Ungol even before Sauron made his throne in Mordor. All spiders - "lesser broods" - are her descendants. This is not just a servant of Sauron, nor a wild monster like the Watcher in the Water. Even the Balrog that Gandalf battled is less historied. Shelob is an evil, ancient and beastial.
The magic in Middle Earth is mysterious. Our text does not seek to explain it, generally because those who use it don't really consider it magic. I am reminded of a quote by Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Certainly someone unfamiliar with our technology might think our phones are magic. Even the idea of a light switch could be mind-blowing. The only reason it doesn't surprise us is because we're used to it.
We call what happens in Middle Earth magic because it is unusual to us. But to them it is not. Galadriel knows how the mirror works, as we know how a light switch works. But when Saruman uses what is essentially gunpowder at the battle of Helm's Deep, Aragorn calls it "Devilry of Saruman." But, to us, gunpowder isn't any kind of Devilry.
Middle Earth seems very magical, but perhaps it is better to say it just works differently. From our vantage point, it is magic. But from those who understand, it is a skill like any other. Sometimes we see someone do something with such skill we wonder how they got so good, and our minds attribute it to magic because that is easier. But then there are times when we practice, we hone our style, we examine our work and tweak it and try it again, and examine our work and tweak it again and try it again again. And then after days, weeks, months of preparation, we show our skill to someone, and all they can say "Wow, that's really good! You have a gift." The only gift we had was the desire and dedication to the work necessary to get better.
And yet, I wonder if those we said were gifted felt similarly dismissed. No doubt they also worked hard to achieve their skill. As maybe Galadriel did, as maybe Gandalf did. Maybe Shelob worked to create that suffocating darkness. And so "what your folk call magic" is just a comment of ignorance. If they understood, they wouldn't call it that.
We should, when we see someone do something amazing, try to imagine the work they had to put in to achieve that success. In this way we can make what is sometimes seen as "a gift" to some people instead accessible to everyone. Provided you're willing to work at it.
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