Could you expand on that? I never got the impression that the quantities of magical power were a fixed reserve capacity. It explains a lot, I suppose, but it seems oddTribble wrote:I don't think there's any meaningful difference in the "magic" being used, the scale is simply a lot bigger because the world and characters involved are a lot younger. In the Tolkien universe only Eru has the "secret fire" to create new things, everything else has a fixed amount of power/magic that is used up over time. By the End of the Third Age, there really wasn't that much "magic" left in Middle-Earth, and most of that was due to the Rings of Power holding things in check.The Romulan Republic wrote:Frankly, the Valar vs. Melkor goes a bit beyond mere magic. Its essentially Middle Earth's version of Satan vs. Angels.
[It doesn't just explain why the elves are 'fading' and leaving; it also explains, for example, why Gandalf was often reluctant to use magic except in life-or-death situations. If he could legitimately run out of magic by expending it when swordsmanship, stealth, or running away would suffice... that would do it.]