Music and Magic in Middle Earth

[Boromir88]

Mithalwen, great topic! I have one small thing to add right now, because it's all I can think of.

This has made me think a lot about magic in Middle Earth. Firstly that it is not a matter to be taken lightly - none of the casual playing around with magic that occurs in, say Harry Potter,

There have been a lot of people who mistake the power of the Istari with Harry Potter wizards. And we've all heard the question asked if Gandalf is a wizard why doesn't he use his "magic" to just kill all the orcs? Thinking that the Istari can shoot flaming balls out of their staffs, and what not. We both know that the istari were forbidden to match their power with Sauron's power. Now, there have been many times where the Istari are referred to as "wizards." To me, this is a term given by the peoples of Middle-Earth, who see the power of these Istari, and give them the name of "wizard" because their powers are like no one elses. In the eyes of the peoples of Middle-Earth they are indeed "wizards" but they aren't the now adays general thought of wizards being people who shoot laser transmatic beams all over the place.