What are muggles, anyway?

[Aberforth's Goat]

No: HPFGUIDX 20145

Just a thought that has been bugging me for a while:

What *is* the essence of mugglehood? Is there some positive characteristic
which muggles possess but wizards don't, or are muggles simply human beings
lacking the "magic gene"?

I completed my yearly re-read of LOTR & Simirilion last week and noticed
that Tolkien's men are not simply diminished elves but fundamentally
different beings. They are mortal and they are less magical than elves--but
they are physically stronger than elves, and the humans with no elvish blood
are more vigorous about having babies. [At least the normal ones: according
to Joywitch's reports, there may be something Numenorian about us lot... ]

Do you all think Rowling's world is utterly different in this respect, and
that muggles are simply diminished wizards? Or could it be that muggles have
certain positive characteristcs that wizards lack, such that the two parts
of the species complete each other?

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray)
_______________________

"My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practising
inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers,
but did Aberforth hide? No he did not! He held his head high."