[…] Tolkien’s world is literally enchanted, too. Not only does it contain talking swords, moving islands, and spells of sleep, but even its most ‘normal’ objects and inhabitants possess a spiritual value that has nothing to do with any practical usefulness; no one has argued more energetically than Tolkien that a tree is more than a source of wood. Furthermore, according to ‘The Music of the Ainur’, the world is a spell in progress, a work of enchantment — etymologically, a magic that is sung.
~ John Garth in “Postscript. ‘One Who Dreams Alone,’” from Tolkien and the Great War.