The Shadow of the Maker

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

That's true. In Professor Tolkien's work, though, I feel like there's something of a parallel, and that the line between artistry and science is blurred into a more general sort of "artisanship". It reminds me of the statement he makes in Letter 154 about the intended effect of the Elven Rings upon Eregion (and Middle-earth in general) in the minds of the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, that they:

Thus I feel that an artist in Middle-earth could also desire control.

Tolkien made a distinction often between "pure" and "applied" science, or between science and engineering; the difference between the Ents and Entwives he likened to that between Botany and Agronomy.

He had little issue with the sort of "science", scientia, Knowledge, which seeks merely to understand, but he had no love at all for "minds of metal and wheels" which sought to control, making the desires of the Will into concrete reality-- whether through iron machinery or through "magic." (Compare also Galadriel's distinction between "Elvish magic" and "the deceits of the Enemy," in light of Tolkien's discussion in OFS of faerian drama.)

Celebrimbor and the Mirdain drifted from the former towards the latter- a constant temptation for the Noldor, whose bent always was towards stone and metal and their properties and manipulation, as opposed to, say, the Sindar whose concern was more for the kelvar and olvar of the world, which bred an Entish sort of attitude.