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x3iv130f | 2 years ago

Elves are a magical race.

Without a source of magic they eventually lose their bodies and diminish into woodland spirits.

You can't have elves without magic and still have them be elves.

They literally disappear any place without some amount of magic.

discuss

order

Amezarak|2 years ago

Elves "fade" because they live so long their spirits gradually "wear out" their bodies due to the fallen nature of the material world (thanks to Morgoth), which the power of the Valar can repair - the Valar also literally reincarnate them when they die, because Elves are not supposed to be without bodies in Valinor period (unless they've been bad.) They are quite capable of living for many, many thousands of years without any "source of magic".

I think RoP introduced this idea, but it is not in Tolkien.

saberience|2 years ago

I'm not sure I like that you say this as though it's an absolute truth versus your own interpretation of what "elves" are and this theory about them turning into woodland spirits.

First of all, elves appear in many different books, series, movies, and there are no hard and fast "rules" for elves. I mean, they're fictional first of all! There are no dogmatic universal laws governing them.

Also, in the Lord of the Rings, there is nothing canonical that states elves lose their bodies and become woodland spirits without "magic."

Amezarak|2 years ago

Elves do Fade and become disembodied spirits haunting remote places, maybe even to this day, according to Tolkien. Manipulating those spirits was the main reason Sauron was called the Necromancer.

It’s just a natural process that has nothing to do with “sources of magic”, Elves lived the vast majority of their time in ME without “sources of magic.” This conceit came from Rings of Power, I am pretty sure.

DeathArrow|2 years ago

> Without a source of magic they eventually lose their bodies and diminish into woodland spirits.

Maybe an external battery might help?

firtoz|2 years ago

Electricity is for the orc