Middle-earth Connections: Lore of the Rings

exile. Either he feared he might suffer the same fate as Melkor (who was executed and forced to leave Ea, the universe, in a terribly weakened state) or that he might be imprisoned for some interminably long time. The "reformed" Sauron at first wanted only to help heal the earth he had originally help to damage. Tolkien notes that "his motives and those of the Elves seemed to go partly together: the healing of the desolate lands." (Letters, No. 131) But Sauron's intentions changed, and in time he decided that he could best "heal" the lands by directing the Elves' efforts, and this ultimately evolved into a desire for domination over the Elves (and through them, Middle-earth). And so Sauron "found [the Elves'] weak point in suggesting that, helping one another, they could make Western Middle-earth as beautiful as Valinor. It was really a veiled attack on the gods, an incitement to try and make a separate independent paradise. Gilgalad [sic] repulsed all such overtures, as also did Elrond. But at Eregion great work began -- and the Elves came their nearest to falling to 'magic' and machinery. With the aid of Sauron's lore they made Rings of Power...." (Ibid.) In essence, Sauron was saying, "You don't have to fade. You don't have to sail over Sea. You can recreate Valinor here in Middle-earth and enjoy all the benefits it has to offer you." The offer was too tempting to some of the Elves, the Noldor of Eregion. Sauron (disguised as Annatar, or Aulendil, a Maia from Aulë's own people in Valinor) was offering the Eldar a chance to forestall the inevitable doom which had been decreed for them. But what does Tolkien mean when he says "the Elves came their nearest to falling to 'magic' and machinery"? Point 3: Art versus Magic Tolkien tried to explain his use of "magic" on more than one occasion, and he didn't always succeed. "I am afraid I have been far too casual about 'magic' and especially the use of the word," he wrote in a draft for an extension to a letter which was never sent (Letters, No. 155). "Though Galadriel and others show by the criticism of the 'mortal' use of the word, that the thought about it is not altogether casual." In his letter to Milton Waldman, Tolkien tried to explain Art and the Machine by speaking of "Fall, Mortality, and the Machine." The story was concerned with "Fall

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