Pleasant anachronisms in the books

Angularity · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 157

There aren't many things that JRRT didn't think through, but I've always wondered where Bilbo's tea was grown...

What's your favourite anachronism?

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Wed Dec 01, 2010 7:47 pm

Saurons forces where fed from the expance of farms away from sight to the rear of his lands. But if everything is in darkness, what will grow ? Even heards need fresh food to produce meat.

Angularity · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 157

And another one; why do orcs with black blood, have red tongues?

Witch king of Angmar · **Joined:** Sat Nov 13, 2010 9:29 am **Posts:** 63

Because the tongue is red by normal take for exaple a mosquito Tongueinto they have red tongues altohught their blood is green.

Amarthadan · **Posted:** Fri Dec 10, 2010 9:11 pm

I always wondered how it is possible that the hobbit's seem to be way more developed in terms of technology than for example the much older elves, yet do not control the world with all that knowledge.:p For example, a clock is mentioned somewhere... why didn't the elves invent those?!:p

General Elessar · **Posted:** Mon Dec 13, 2010 5:15 pm

Why didn't warfare change at all from the beginning of the First Age to the start of the Fourth Age? That's a long time.

Angularity · **Joined:** Fri Jun 25, 2010 7:56 am **Posts:** 157

Amarthadan wrote:

I always wondered how it is possible that the hobbit's seem to be way more developed in terms of technology than for example the much older elves, yet do not control the world with all that knowledge.:p For example, a clock is mentioned somewhere... why didn't the elves invent those?!:p

I would guess that a clock is only useful if you're running out of time...immortality would deal with that little problem

General Elessar · **Posted:** Tue Dec 14, 2010 7:56 pm

Angularity wrote:

Amarthadan wrote:

I always wondered how it is possible that the hobbit's seem to be way more developed in terms of technology than for example the much older elves, yet do not control the world with all that knowledge.:p For example, a clock is mentioned somewhere... why didn't the elves invent those?!:p

I would guess that a clock is only useful if you're running out of time...immortality would deal with that little problem

Lol

Elros of Numenor · **Posted:** Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:54 am

Some of these technically are not really anachronisms, just continuity problems, or the only things that tolkien DIDN'T remember to cover (as opposed to everything else :-D

)

As for the issue about the clocks, my opinion is that they were more concerned with other things at the time and didn't really have a need to know the exact time of day that it was, they probably just looked where the sun was and from it they got a pretty good idea of the time of day

Morgoth's Dad · **Joined:** Wed Oct 20, 2010 9:08 pm **Posts:** 38

Angularity wrote:

There aren't many things that JRRT didn't think through, but I've always wondered where Bilbo's tea was grown...

What's your favourite anachronism?

How can anything be anachronistic when the time line and the setting is entirely fictional? Nothing in Tolkien's fictional universe is necessarily out of place in time is it? There are no anachronisms.

Morgoth's Dad · **Joined:** Wed Oct 20, 2010 9:08 pm **Posts:** 38

Gandlaf the Grey wrote:

But if everything is in darkness, what will grow ?

Fungi and plenty of deep water fish, algae etc... lots of things grow without sunlight or only some sunlight.

Elros of Numenor · **Posted:** Thu Feb 24, 2011 6:05 am

Not when there's little or no water to live on.... :roll:

Zogash · **Posted:** Thu Feb 24, 2011 11:27 am

Elros of Numenor wrote:

Not when there's little or no water to live on.... :roll:

Well, there is the Sea of Nurnen in southern Mordor, so water shouldn't be a problem. Also, there is no sun over Mordor proper (i.e. Gorgoroth) because of Mount Doom's ashes. That doesn't mean that the sun is blocked out from all the more distant parts as well. The part of Mordor we can see is only Sauron's mustering ground, not his breadbasket. Furthermore, Mordor receives supplies from its tributaries (Rhûn, Khând, Harad) where the ashes from Mount Doom certainly don't block out the sun.

BlackReaper · **Posted:** Thu Feb 24, 2011 4:10 pm

General Elessar wrote:

Why didn't warfare change at all from the beginning of the First Age to the start of the Fourth Age? That's a long time.

Well Sarumon came up with Gun Powder and Cross-Bows while the Khands came up with chariots,my guess is that the elves didn't want to find further means of destruction while men were to busy with there own menish things like being prideful and not admitting that Sauron was around,etc.. But I guess your right though because it was still medieval warfare,Gothmog was at the very least(and some of the orcish overseers) was trying to get orcs into ranks so if stayed around it would've escalated into slightly civilized warfare,lol (Btw,i'm not trying to be a prik i'm just bored and am feeling longwinded about talking about LotR's..lol)

As for weird mixups my favorite would probably be:..Well,um..hmm..uhhhhh..Ok,I can't really think of any.. :^P

Ring_of_Gyges · **Posted:** Sun Feb 27, 2011 1:49 am

Why are most of the population centers inland? Rohan, Minas Tirith, Mirkwood, Rivendell, Fornost, Erebor, Moria, Barad-Dur, not a one of them on a coast. Name me a major real world city that *isn't* on the coast.

Ring_of_Gyges · **Posted:** Sun Feb 27, 2011 1:55 am

3,000 years of no technological progress is probably the weirdest thing to me. Humans in the real world went from the keystone arch to space flight in significantly less time than that.

Elros of Numenor · **Posted:** Sun Feb 27, 2011 6:02 am

Ring_of_Gyges wrote:

Why are most of the population centers inland? Rohan, Minas Tirith, Mirkwood, Rivendell, Fornost, Erebor, Moria, Barad-Dur, not a one of them on a coast. Name me a major real world city that *isn't* on the coast.

London, moscow, Beijing, seoul,...there are several examples.

BlackReaper · **Posted:** Sun Feb 27, 2011 4:58 pm

Well you have to remember technology wise us humans had no electricity or gunpowder for about 10,000 years. With coastal towns there are 3 distinct towns/cities:Dale(ok,a town but it prospered after Smaug),the Grey Havens,and lastly but my all-time favorite..Umbar. Ok,not much of a defense but still

Sticky Fingersss · **Joined:** Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:20 am **Posts:** 1776

@Ring of Gyges, Dol Amroth is on the Coast, Umbar, Grey Havens, Minas Tirith is located next to a river, rivendell is also located next to a river, Moria has it's natural water in the mountains, Erebor is on the Iron Hills, where many rivers start off.

As for real life cities, LA, Mexico City, Moscow, Zurich, Madrid and the list goes on...

whafrog · **Posted:** Mon Feb 28, 2011 3:26 pm

Ring_of_Gyges wrote:

Why are most of the population centers inland? Rohan, Minas Tirith, Mirkwood, Rivendell, Fornost, Erebor, Moria, Barad-Dur, not a one of them on a coast.

You're forgetting Pelargir, a massive coastal and trading city, and all the settlements crowding the Anduin. Rivers were important byways for trade, he got that part right.

Ring_of_Gyges wrote:

3,000 years of no technological progress is probably the weirdest thing to me. Humans in the real world went from the keystone arch to space flight in significantly less time than that.

We weren't in space when Tolkien wrote LotR, not even Sputnik had been launched. From the point of view of the time, in many ways very little had changed for centuries. Railroads were probably the biggest deal in the early 1800s, but before that, the average person (who would have been a farmer/peasant) had seen no change in his lifestyle since the Romans. Tolkien simply expanded that sense of continuity.

Pleasant anachronisms in the books

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