I remember on Caradras Gandalf saying he had to have something to work with, he couldn't burn snow. Perhaps the staves act as a material to channel power. They way use it as opposed to just tossing magic into the air.
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There long the golden leaves have grown, upon the branching years, while here beyond the sundering seas, now fall the Elven-tears...
but if of ships I now would sing, what ship would come to me, what ship would bear me ever back, across so wide a sea?
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