Foresight? really?

[Frodo Baggins]

This may seem to be an incredibly stupid thread but I would like to know one thing. Do some elves really have a gift of 'foresight' or was that a fabrication made by deranged movie producers?

[Finwe]

Elven mothers were said to have foresight into their children's fates, and that was how they gave them their mother-names.

I don't recall of any other documented cases of "foresight," per se, but I'm sure that the mightier of the Elves had that gift, or some semblance of it.

[Knight of Gondor]

There are several instances of foresight in the books. Elrond, whom you are probably asking the question because of ("Tell me what you have seen; you have the gift of foresight."), said at the Fellowship's departure that the road ahead was dim, and he could foresee very little of it. This implied that he could see some...and that, aside from the Quest, he could probably normally see very much.

[Kalimac]

You could say that Galadriel has foresight, if not of a very specific or necessarily reliable nature; she's got her mirror, after all. Her explanation to Sam shows what a two-edged sword foreseeing can be, though, because of the conundrum wherein a bad thing foreseen might never come about if it weren't for the steps taken to prevent it.

[Legolas]

Only some of the very wisest or powerful elves are mentioned as having it - I haven't been able to find much else. Note the later quotes about the differences in foresight and forecasting from Ósanwe-kenta. This may note that what others call foresight is just forecasting (as it defines, reasoning upon present evidence), in which case only the Ainur have true foresight (granted by Eru) as mentioned in The Silmarillion (though they may pass it along to the Children of Ilúvatar).

Yavanna spoke before the Valar, saying: "The Light of the Trees has passed away, and lives now only in the Silmarils of Fëanor. Foresighted was he!"

Now King Finrod Felagund had no wife, and Galadriel asked him why this should be; but foresight came upon Felagund as she spoke, and he said: 'An oath I too shall swear, and must be free to fulfil it, and go into darkness. Nor shall anything of my realm endure that a son should inherit.'

Foresight which is prevision, and forecasting which is opinion made by reasoning upon present evidence, may be identical in their prediction, but they are wholly different in mode, and they should be distinguished by loremasters, even if the daily language of both Elves and Men gives them the same name as departments of wisdom.

(and the footnote to that comment)

Pengolodh here elaborates (though it is not necessary for his argument) this matter of "foresight". No mind, he asserts, knows what is not in it. All that it has experienced is in it, though in the case of the Incarnate, dependent upon the instruments of the hröa, some things may be "forgotten", not immediately available for recollection. But no part of the "future" is there, for the mind cannot see it or have seen it: that is, a mind placed in time. Such a mind can learn of the future only from another mind which has seen it. But that means only from Eru ultimately, or mediately from some mind that has seen in Eru some part of His purpose (such as the Ainur who are now the Valar in Eä). An Incarnate can thus only know anything of the future, by instruction derived from the Valar, or by a revelation coming direct from Eru. But any mind, whether of the Valar or of the Incarnate, may deduce by reason what will or may come to pass. This is not foresight, not though it may be clearer in terms and indeed even more accurate than glimpses of foresight. Not even if it is formed into visions seen in dream, which is a means whereby "foresight" also is frequently presented to the mind.
Minds that have great knowledge of the past, the present, and the nature of Eä may predict with great accuracy, and the nearer the future the clearer (saving always the freedom of Eru). Much therefore of what is called "foresight" in careless speech is only the deduction of the wise; and if it be received, as warning or instruction, from the Valar, it may be only deduction of the wiser, though it may sometimes be "foresight" at second hand.

There was also a thread a while back on Galadriel's "foresight" - here it is. As doug quoted,

Even the very wise cannot see all ends.

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 1:47 AM January 16, 2004: Message edited by: Legolas ]