Magic

@Dragon-Snapper I would disagree. The definitions are wrong. Sorcery in our world is demonic power, and since our fantasy worlds should be copies of God’s nature and God’s creation, sorcery should be bad in fantasy worlds as well. Spells and dark incantations and witches and the like should always be portrayed as bad. I do not think you necessarily shouldn’t have them, but they should always be portrayed as the evil they are.
With Gandalf, I would argue he is not a wizard, and his ‘magic’ is not sorcery. Have you read the Silmarillion? Gandalf is one of the five ‘wizards’ (Miaar/angels) that Illuvatar (the God figure) sent into Middle-Earth to help men in their fight against Sauron. I’m frankly not quite sure why Tolkien decided to call him a wizard (possibly because ‘wizard’ is more human than ‘angel’) and I probably would not have called him that, but my point is, it’s where the power comes from that’s important.

@Alia, as I see it, magic is really only a question of the powers that govern your world. What governs it? If it’s a pagan system with blurred lines and rituals and fuzzy power that no one really understands but feels dark and wrong, yes, you have a problem. As a fantasy world should always be a shadow of our world (fantasy is merely reality stripped of its common familiarity) then there should only be one source of power in your world— God. That is Light. That is ‘white magic’, to utilize a common fantasy definition, though obviously I believe ‘magic’ is a wrong and misleading word. All power originally stemmed from that source. The evil in your world is a perversion of that Light. The Light came first, and therefore has dominion over all other power. There will be Darkness, yes— sorcery perhaps, and witches, and spells, and demons— these things are what God abhors because they belong to the perversion of Darkness. But faeries don’t necessarily have to be that. They could simply be a race your Creator figure has endowed with special gifts for the bettering of the world.
Such gifts should not be treated lightly— they are power and responsibility and everything has the potential to go wrong, but I do not believe they are un-Biblical.

*takes back two cents*

@kate-flournoy Ah, okay. I have not read the Silmarillion yet, though I see that it would make a difference. 😀 I do think that it is important how magic is portrayed, but my book went a little whacko with it. 😛 Thanks for clarifying that.

@Northerner I see your point… but I think the correctness of the moral foundation is more important than what the power’s used for. God may allow Darkness (how else would it still even exist? But that’s another discussion) but He does NOT condone it, and by its very definition it cannot be used for good. Out of the heart the mouth speaks. A spring cannot give forth both fresh water and bitter. Power cannot do what it is not. Therefore it logically follows that the only way to do good is through God’s way, and that the only thing that can be done with Satan’s way is evil.

@Northerner you seemed to imply that as long as a witch was using her power for good (even if it was the same power a bad witch had) then the magic was good. Perhaps I misunderstood you?

@Northerner all right, I see. Yes, we’re talking fantasy, and as I believe fantasy is only a representation of the reality of truth (to us; in our world) and that it should be a copy of our world in its moral laws and ruling powers (as those are what determine truth) I don’t necessarily like it when a fantasy world is governed by rules/laws whose moral foundations contradict or ignore our own. But I see where you’re coming from.