Magic in Tolkien's works

[Eita]

How exactly does it work? Plot-powered? Willpowered?

[The_Snark]

There's probably a great deal of information and debate on this buried in some of those old versus threads that involved Middle-Earth, but I can't in good conscience recommend anyone dig through all of them. Fortunately, we had a nice little thread discussing this a while ago: here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80550&highlight=Middle-Earth).

[CarpeGuitarrem]

A very nice thread, and WalkingTarget brought up the clincher: Tolkien's Letters, which outlined his unique view of magic. Nothing like D&D magic at all, but something far different. Like...you'd never have Gandalf in a D&D setting, because he's nothing like any of the spellcasting classes around. Because D&D magic is based on "energy resource", as opposed to Tolkien's idea of "Wizard as one who transcends nature."

[Bago!!!]

Finally Someone Tells Me!!!