u/elkoubi

While trying to correct some misunderstandings on whether men can or can't perform "magic" in Middle Earth, I sort of discovered a new head canon, or at least a head canon that is new to me:

• Arda, being the creation of the Music of the Ainur, is inherently imbued with "magical" force. How closely tied up with Arda a particular being is is directly proportional to how much of that magical force that being can tap into.
• The Ainu helped create Arda with their music, and Morgoth paramount among them all shaped it most profoundly. This is why the Ainu are the most powerful beings of magic in the world and why Morgoth was the most powerful among them.
• Elves, being tied to Arda and unable to leave it until the unmaking of the world, are most in tune with it and able to tap in to its deeper magical nature.
• Dwarves in turn were created from it, with Aule shaping them from rock and stone.
• Men are less in tune, not being tied to Arda but rather able/forced to pass beyond the walls of the world to only Iluvatar knows where. As such, they are less able to use the magic.

This also explains the relationship that those who can use the "magic" don't truly consider as such. Take the lines about the ropes from the Galadhrim not understanding what Sam means by "magic." To the elves, they just get that if you make rope or cloth or a sword this way or that way, it is the nature of Arda to give them these properties. To the elves, it really is just "science" because it's about using the nature of the world they were created in. To those more disconnected from Arda and therefore its inherrenet magical nature, it's magic in the colloquial way we say it. Again, this is why the Ainur, who are the ones who helped create Arda in the first place with their music, are able to be even more "magical."

Someone tell me if I'm making sense here.

Edit: It may be worth noting that there is likely a difference between the prophetic extension of will a la "you shall not pass" vs. the winding of spells onto the barrow blades. The later is more in line with what I'm talking about. The former is likely a different type of magic altogether.