[Boromir88]

I also wanted to know about the Istari staff. What is the importance of this staff? Is the power within the Istari, and the staff is just the necessary "tool" to perform their power, for example the light used to rescue Faramir, or the storm/darkening summoned by Gandalf at Bag End, and again in Meduseld. Or another theory, maybe the staff was necessary in Valinor, a necessary "tool" in Valinor, and the only reason they bought it to Middle-Earth was because they became attatched to it. If that is true, then we ask, why did Gandalf go and get a knew staff, if it wasn't important? As a personal anecdote, I've been working with hockey players for about 3 years now. I know the players can become quite attatched to their hockey sticks, and even when the sticks break, they will pay people to put them back together, or fix them. So, is the staff a "necessary tool" or a "sentimental attatchement?"

Forgive me, and just ignore me if this has no relevance to this thread, but I believe it does, as I truely think their is something magical, or atleast mysterical (is that even a word) about it. It's about Boromir's horn, here's a quote from The Bridge of Khazad-Dum,

The dark figure streaming with fire raced towards them. The orcs yelled and poured over the stone gangways. Then Boromir raised his horn and blew. Loud the challenge rang and bellowed, like the shout of many throats under the cavernous roof. For a moment the orcs quailed and the fiery shadow halted. Then the echoes died as suddenly as a flame blown out by a dark wind, and the enemy advanced again.

This is an interesting paragraph to me because Tolkien uses the term "challenge." As if, the horn's sound is sort of a "shield" or a "challenge" to the evil. Then we have the orcs quailing, and even the Balrog is stopped by the "challenge." Quickly the echoes run out, and once they do they advance again, but when that horn was blowing, it seemed as if it acted as shield, halting the Balrog. So, is it just a really loud horn? Or, is there something magical about it?

Here's the other quote we see, when Boromir blows the horn at Amon Hen.

Even as he gazed his quick ears caught sounds in the woodlands below, on the west side of the river. He stiffened. There were cries, and among them, to his horror, he could distinguish the harsh voices of Orcs. Then suddenly with a deep-throated call a great horn blew, and the blasts of it smote the hills and echoed in the hollows, rising in a mighty shout above the roaring of the falls.

Then we also know, Faramir also heard the horn, so it's obviously pretty loud.

In the first quote Tolkien said "like a shout of many throats," in the 2nd it's "deep-throated." Also, the horn is so loud it "rises" above the falls of Rauros. Again, is there something magical, or mysterious about the horn, or is it just really, really loud?