The Power of Words

I was thinking today about LotR and The Silmarillion, and Tolkien's poem of the contest between Felagund and Sauron came to mind:

He chanted a song of wizardry,
Of piercing, opening, of treachery,
Revealing, uncovering, betraying.
Then sudden Felagund there swaying
sang in answer a song of staying,
Resisting, battling against power,
Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,
And trust unbroken, freedom, escape;
Of changing and of shifting shape,
Of snares eluded, broken traps,
The prison opening, the chain that snaps,
Backwards and forwards swayed their song.
Reeling and foundering, as ever more strong
The chanting swelled, Felagund fought,
And all the magic and might he brought,
Of Elvenesse into his words.
Softly in the gloom they heard the birds
Singing afar in Nargothond,
The sighing of the sea beyond,
Beyond the western world, on sand,
On sand of pearls in Elvenland.
Then the gloom gathered; darkness growing
In Valinor, the red blood flowing
Beside the sea, where the Noldor slew
The Foamriders, and stealing drew
Their white ships with their white sails
From lamplit havens. The wind wails,
The wolf howls. The ravens flee.
The ice mutters in the mouths of the sea.
The captives sad in Angband mourn,
Thunder rumbles, the fires burn-
And Finrod fell before the throne.

Now, I really like that poem. A lot. But what I got to thinking was that they sing. Their duel is a duel of songs and chanting. I thought that that was kind of weird. After all, Sauron had them in his power. Why not just smack Finrod upside the head and then, when he's unconscious, just torture them for information or something. Why bother singing?

I was thinking about that, and then I recalled other instances where it was song, not force, that won--or lost--the day. For instance, when Lúthien and Beren were in Angbad, Lúthien sang Morgoth to sleep.

It was a really interesting question, so I thought about it, and what I came up with is that, beyond the fact that 'magic' seems to be used in Arda via spells and such, it's a way of Tolkien showing the power of words. Words can hurt, a lot more than people think. Words have a lot more sway than most people think. I mean, just through this post, I'm influencing your thoughts for a while, perhaps with permanent (and traceable) consequences. Unfortunately, some people (like in the Media) do realise how much power words have, and abuse it. I hate the media.

Anyway, I just thought that that was one of Tolkien's more subtle things. Words have power, both to heal, or to harm and destroy. A lot can happen because of one word.

But, I also have other things to say. For instance, I feel miserable still. We got snow yesterday, but by this morning it had been rained away. Then, my head still felt terrible this morning. Then the cat got it (I'm allergic to cats) and my day worsened, since my allergies acted up along with my cold. Then I found out that I only got a 90.0 on my Physics Quarterly, because of several mistakes that I shouldn't have made, which made my day even worse.

But, it got brighter after I read a bunch of Calvin & Hobbes after school. And then I did something absolutely awesome--I drank Kofola. And not just any Kofola--I drank the new Cinnamon flavour. Which is actually really similar to normal Kofola, since the cinnamon is a background flavour and not that noticeable. Regardless, it was good, like all Kofola, so now my day (with the exception of my cold and allergies) is going better.

And I saw this really cool quote from Ursula K. LeGuin's The Earthsea Quartet--

Only in silence the word,
Only in dark the light,
Only in dying life:
Right the hawk's flight
On the empty sky.

It's in reference to realizations and stuff. But I don't remember what the last two lines are referring to, and I don't feel like puzzling them out. :P