July 21, 2002

Invisibilty and Elves
Baldrick

In following the last two postings on invisibilty. My reading of LOTR and his other works leaves me to suspect that Tolkien may have considered the elves inhabited two parallel 'planes of existence', the original land of stars under the two trees' and the human world. Hence the way the rings power operates. This presumably derives from Sauron's Maiar (super-elvish?) power and 'magic' which he transfers to the ring where it is presumably amplified and the forging of which is grounded in his elvish skills. Hence elves can see the ring bearer and the ringwraths. They themselves can draw / exercise the power from the three great elvish rings to perform 'magic' but having a dual presence in the 'human' world remain visible. Other artifacts with a dual presence would not disappear when the ring is worn ? As half-elven Elrond presumably still counts as an elf. Note what the elves regard as unremarkable / normal in their 'world' the Hobbit's regard as magicical. Similarly would this explain why those who had worn the ring and seen the elven world could also "cross the sundering seas to the uttermost west" ?