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- Newsgroups: alt.fan.tolkien
- Path: sparky!uunet!stanford.edu!nntp.Stanford.EDU!alderson
- From: alderson@cisco.com (Rich Alderson)
- Subject: Re: Sorcerers (Was Power of Races)
- In-Reply-To: zombie@EBay.Sun.COM (zombie)
- Message-ID: <1993Jan22.191932.3737@leland.Stanford.EDU>
- Originator: alderson@leland.Stanford.EDU
- Sender: news@leland.Stanford.EDU (Mr News)
- Reply-To: alderson@cisco.com (Rich Alderson)
- Organization: Cisco Systems (MIS)
- References: <1j6p4vINNc2g@rodan.UU.NET> <1j74neINNof2@male.EBay.Sun.COM>
- Date: Fri, 22 Jan 93 19:19:32 GMT
- Lines: 30
-
- In article <1j74neINNof2@male.EBay.Sun.COM>, zombie@EBay (zombie) writes:
- >In article 1j6p4vINNc2g@rodan.UU.NET, crerar@rodan.UU.NET (Andy Crerar) writes:
- >[...]
- >>
- >>My questions are, basically, are there any other sorcerers in Tolkien's
- >>cosmos, and where did the Mouth of Sauron come from?
- >
- >I just reread LOTR and it described the Captain of the Nine "who was
- >Fell King of Men and Sorcerer" or some such. If you like, I could
- >bring in the book and post the quote and tell you where it is located
- >in the story. It confused me because I had always thought that
- >sorcerers were all Maia, so how could a man be a sorcerer?
-
- Everyone seems to have confused several terms here:
-
- The Istari are referred to as *wizards*, not as sorcerors. There is a
- difference in connotation between the two words, with sorceror implying
- something a bit nasty about the practitioner. In another mythos, Merlin was a
- *wizard*, Morgan le Fay a *sorceress*.
-
- A *seer* is not a magician at all, but simply someone who can see the future
- *by some innate ability*.
-
- A *necromancer* is a sorceror who specializes in communication with and control
- of the dead. (Further, it *sounds* more ominous. :-)
- --
- Rich Alderson 'I wish life was not so short,' he thought. 'Languages take
- such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about.'
- --J. R. R. Tolkien,
- alderson@leland.stanford.edu _The Lost Road_
-