It drives me nuts when words like technology are used in the context of
Tolkien's characters' devices or "magics". It is discoverable and harnessable
through "craft", not "technology".
Technology is the "science of making". It is application of the principles of
modern science (empirical experimentation to prove ideas) to the concept of
invention of devices that work.
Although the Elves no doubt had devices that "worked", I think it is deceptive
to used the term technology to describe how they discovered those devices.
Craft conveys better the work of an inspired maker who by trial and error
discovers the better mousetrap. Technology implies a task force that defines
the better mousetrap as a goal, and works toward it with deliberation and
purpose, using experiments and hypotheses to minimize the error until the
better mousetrap is proved. It is applied science combined with industrial
management techniques, and it is utterly, completely, modern.
We only and mistakenly use the term technology to describe Tolkien's craft,
because powerful craft is so rare in our own era, and because the power of
Elven craft is so great we imagine only technology similar or analogous to our
own could produce it.
To us, maybe, the palantir is like a videophone; the Mirror of Galadriel a
telepathic computer in a truly liquid(!) LCD screen; the Rings are molecular
dematerializers utilizing the power of some unknown nth dimension. Nonsense!
Technology is not involved. The Gods of Tolkien's universe are real personages
that the Eldar have met. The real, practical power of the spiritual side of
life is far greater than it appears to be in our own world. Elven magic is
mostly the use of totems or other channeling devices to harness or manipulate
that spiritual power. It is intuitive, natural, and appropriately
"magical".
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'Thinking hard'.
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