which, as you probably know, states:

"Any suffiiciently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Notice that Clarke's Law doesn't preclude the existence of magic; only that advanced technology might be mistaken for it.

I think I can see why you dislike fantasy, Gary -- you see all the "special effects" as technology. They aren't. They're magic. Not hocus-pocus sleight-of-hand David Copperfield so-called "magic", but the genuine, internally-consistent (to the fantasy at hand) operation of esoteric supernatural power. God-like, if you will -- or in this case, "Vala-like".

jms reminds us in this same sub-thread that the palantiri, like the Silmarils themselves, were fashioned by Feanor, who learned his Craft (capitalized on purpose) at the feet of Aule, the Vala who Loved to Make Things. The Silmarillion tells us that Aule also created the Dwarves, instilling in them his own love of Craft... and either the Dwarves or the Noldorin Elves in their turn probably made the weapons in the Barrowdowns, and Bilbo's Sting and mithril hauberk, as well. In other words: god-like power passed to acolytes.

It's no linguistic coincidence that craft not only means "skill in making", but (especially when capitalized) an alternate word for Magic. The Orcs, of course, are the prime example of Dark Craft -- that's no "mere" genetic engineering ... Not technology: magic.

The inverse of Clarke's Law might read: Any magic is indistiguishable from sufficiently advanced technology. It's an "eye of the beholder" thing... or, since this is obviously fiction, a "willing suspension of disbelief".