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Headcanon: The Elvenking's Magic
Dec. 20th, 2012 07:26 pmTolkien is pretty vague about magic and its properties, and this was a pre-D&D. Meaning there's no laundry list of abilities given to these magical folk. So. This is an in-progress thingy about what I think Thranduil can do and why.
Sleep magic
The Enchanted River Bombur falls into puts him into an enchanted sleep. Bilbo and Thorin both hit the ground asleep when they step into thefairy ring party of the wood-elves, and all the lights go out at the same time. Later, the elves remove the spell from Thorin after capturing him. Without much else to go on, I'm headcanoning that Thranduil has some pretty damn powerful sleep magic. Most of the wood-elves probably have some, since it is the elves who remove the spell from Thorin and not Thranduil himself. I'm going with the idea that the river and the fire circle were examples of variations on the same magic--a magic that must have even more variations.
So basically, Thranduil can put people to sleep.
Effect: unless he or another elf removes the spell, it's a pretty damn long time before the sleep/grogginess wears off, and the person is prone to clairvoyant-ish (but not unpleasant) dreams.
Shutting-Spell
"I could think of nothing to do but put a shutting-spell on the door. I know many; but to do things of that kind rightly requires time, and even then the door can be broken by strength."
The great stone doors of Thranduil's halls will only open and shut at his will. This seems to be an ability found across multiple races, looking at dwarf-doors and Gandalf's reference above to a "shutting-spell." In my headcanon, the doors open and shut with a single spell cast only once for all time, not with an individual spell each time the door must be open or shut.
Beast Handling
Elves seem to be able to have a sort of calming effect on some animals. This may be magic, or it could just be some lore they picked up along the way. It obviously doesn't work on the likes of orcs or giant spiders. Personally, I headcanon it as lore rather than magic, but since it seems like magic to some, it goes on this list.
Sleep magic
The Enchanted River Bombur falls into puts him into an enchanted sleep. Bilbo and Thorin both hit the ground asleep when they step into the
So basically, Thranduil can put people to sleep.
Effect: unless he or another elf removes the spell, it's a pretty damn long time before the sleep/grogginess wears off, and the person is prone to clairvoyant-ish (but not unpleasant) dreams.
Shutting-Spell
"I could think of nothing to do but put a shutting-spell on the door. I know many; but to do things of that kind rightly requires time, and even then the door can be broken by strength."
The great stone doors of Thranduil's halls will only open and shut at his will. This seems to be an ability found across multiple races, looking at dwarf-doors and Gandalf's reference above to a "shutting-spell." In my headcanon, the doors open and shut with a single spell cast only once for all time, not with an individual spell each time the door must be open or shut.
Beast Handling
Elves seem to be able to have a sort of calming effect on some animals. This may be magic, or it could just be some lore they picked up along the way. It obviously doesn't work on the likes of orcs or giant spiders. Personally, I headcanon it as lore rather than magic, but since it seems like magic to some, it goes on this list.
