Magic in Middle-earth

[Michael Wilhelmson]

It's also entirely possible that "magic" refers to two different things. The Lorien elves used advanced camoflauge, extremely nutrional food, and other types of technology Tolkien could have easily seen or even used in the Great War. What the Fellowship saw as magic, could easily have been a form of modern invention, like the Dwarves, or the Numenoreans.
Examples include:

Orthanc- Unbreakable Numenorean stone
Mythryl- invincible rings
Blasting-Fire- All too well described by Peter Jackson's movies
Fireworks


Real "magic" probably refers to what we consider to be magical. That is, the powers of the Eldar in the old days and the Valar, both in Creation and Middle-Earth

Wizardry- Used by both wizards and elf-lords
Rings
Alien life to ME- Mallorns, the white tree
"Genetic" Engineering- Orcs, Trolls, Fel Beasts, Uruks, Wargs
Phial of Galadriel
Undeath- Natural (Oathbreakers, ghosts) or artifical (Nazgul, wraiths)
Elf-ships