noticed certain areas of agreement in them that may reflect somewhat of the truth, which runs something like this:
"In the earliest days, even before elves and dwarves and men, the world was a much different place than it is today. The beings inhabiting the earth were magical, as was the earth itself. Faerie beings of every description inhabited the forests and meadows, the rocks and streams, the clouds and rain, the wind and the sea; everything was imbued with magic. A forest nymph knew all the trees by name, and the trees were not silent as they are today. Every natural thing had a life and
language of its own.
"The earliest elves and dwarves were no less magical, but there were differences. Instead of committing knowledge to simple use and memory, they began to use the written word, and so wrote down all that they knew. At first there were some immediate gains from doing this. Similarities were found between the various magicks, and they found that they could put all forms of magic into one, by taking the similarities and putting them all together, and so eliminate all that was
redundant. This meant that one individual could concentrate great power in themselves, and at first much good was accomplished.
"But this also created unforseen problems. Magic, being part of the natural world, was, like all living things, in a constant state of change. This is not true of the written word, which once set down, changes not at all, for all eternity.