Meoshi, the first quote refers to the Mouth of Sauron who was a Black Númenórean. The Númenóreans, under my flimsy theory, would be the only the humans able to learn magic. My point of contention has evolved to not whether or not magic is learned per se, but that it can only be learned by a select, otherworldly, few. The second quote is a demonstration of perspective that was discussed above. However, I have a vague recollection of sorcerers under the influence of evil that were Easterlings of Rhûn. I’ve searched through a good portion of UT, but haven’t been able to find anything. Of course, if my recollection proves accurate, my theory is basically out the window.
Iarwain, the Ainur I suppose fit perfectly into this otherworldly scheme. However, I can’t really think of any mythologies that seem to reflect the Ainur/Valar theme in Tolkien (their entrance into Arda), except perhaps the Origin of Nephilim from Genesis 6;1-4:
Quote:
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When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of heaven saw how beautiful the daughters of man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose. Then the Lord said: “My spirit shall not remain in man forever, since he is but flesh. His days shall comprise one hundred and twenty years.” At that time the Nephilim appeared on earth (as well as later), after the sons of heaven had intercourse with the daughters of man, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown.
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Since I’m on the Bible, I have a tendency to down play Tolkien’s religiosity in regards to the crafting of his mythology. It seems to me from reading HoME (and this has been debated elsewhere, and I’m open to correction and various opinions) that Tolkien began to craft his mythology using only his mythological sources, not excluding Judeo-Christian myth, but not consciously depending on that particular myth. In fact, it seems to me that his initial crafting was based almost completely on the mythologies of northern Europe. However, after reviewing his work later in the process he realized the many Christian themes he had unconsciously inserted, and “consciously in the revision” attempted to make these Christian themes more apparent and cogent. So in reply to Mornie, I would say that Tolkien first attempted to capture of the “magic” of the Edda, which is not “occult” in origin.