>Over 3000 years of history
>No technological advancements
>Over 3000 years of history. >No technological advancements
This phonograph "reads" a rock’s rough surface and transforms it into beautiful ambient music pic.twitter.com/PYDzYsWWf8
— Surreal Videos (@SurrealVideos) March 3, 2023
dont need technology when you have magic
Magic doesn't have the same impact as an AR15 anon.
does a ar15 have splash?
no but grenades and explosives do
something with more heat
*makes your head explode from 1k miles away*
Psshhh, nothing personnel, ARfag.
Magic has range gay.
Is is subject to the inverse square law?
>is is
lmao gay can't speak
I have covid and i'm not a practicing gay.
>what is a sniper
>God made wizards and God made muggles, but Samuel Colt made them equal.
>t. john dillinger
What's the impact of an AR15? Losing wars and getting overrun by the smallest population on earth?
hahaha what a FAG.
Dosent work like that. It's not about efficency. But about necessity. That's why slave economies ended up stagnated. No need to innovate when you could just raid around for slaves to do the job.
>Magic is just waving around a light stick
>Nothing personal, fantasyfags
wtf is that?
White Phosphorus
Hispanicy rain
Stars falling from the sky, as "prophesized".
Looks like the Radahn Festival is over.
>Nothing personal, technologyfags
Why are anti-tech fags always so cringe?
Why did you get triggered by an obvious joke post? Well either that or you responded to the wrong one. Either way you're not very bright.
Because it's becoming one of those Cinemaphile "auto-trigger" things, buzzwords like atheism/christianity/trans/tattoos/Jordan Peterson/muscle girls etc. Everytime it's mentioned the thread gets flooded with anti-X fags who are being as obnoxious as humanily possible about their contrarian thing of the month.
The valar basically sank an entire continent with their bullshit wars. I don't think thermobarics would impress them much.
Michael from Supernatural used superpower angel technology made with enochian magic to destroy the world's military power when he took over the universe. In the episode, angels were flying, dropping apple sized bombs on whole cities. The explosions were the equivalent of atom bombs. It was pretty based.
So foggy I expected this guy to come screaming about racism in the second age
lord of the rings is a low tier magic setting and only a few people can wield magic.
Yes and no. There aren’t “spells,” per se, but the entire setting is magical. It’s pervasive and organic. The most mundane characters are the Hobbits, the most magical, the Elves of course. None of the human kingdoms doubt or even question the existence of magic, because they are touched by it as well. While only the Ishtari and the most powerful of Elves are ever shown actively using magic, it touches them all in the sort of way that the cultures of Northern Europe call “wyrd.”
And it's important to note that only men and hobbits really talk about "magic". The Elves don't understand the term; to them it's just craft, or nature.
Exactly. That might be my favorite thing about the whole trip to Lothlórien.
realistically, magic would accelerate technological advancement.
but setting that fact aside, human technological achievements irl have taken ages. 4500+ years without real advancement beyond better metal refining techniques(which ultimately lead to everything else).
not really, for a one time instance of an organism achieving what human's have it's been very fast, far outstripping even evolutionary processes. You are probably just underestimating the vast gulf between each development.
Why didn't frodo just ride an elvish bicycle into Mordor?
Saruman invented gunpowder
Nah, his colonist ass stole it from the kingdoms of Rhûn.
The Hobbit's had watermills and windmills from memory.
So did we 3000 years ago but now we've got nukes.
And 3000 years before that?
>And 3000 years before that?
We literally had flying castles.
What do you think the Mordorites were trying to do? Only a chud believes the good guys won the war of the ring.
Become master of the sword, hunt for treasure, have amazing life changing adventure, drink mead all day every day, eat red meat straight from the bone, fuck hobbit, elf, human sluts until orgasm and impregnation.
It's like Star Wars, the technology of the Empire era is almost exactly the same as in KotOR set 4000 years before. People in fantasy are just lazy bastards.
That's on Bioware. The TOR era pre Bioware was a lot more primitive in aesthetic and a lot of technologies were new or unrefined compared to later eras. Bioware was going to follow what was set before, but legal issues and desires to cash in on the prequels led them to just copy what was familiar. Even then, the tech developed over 4K years is pretty ridiculous, but it wasn't quite as blatant pre-Bioware.
they did suffer a 1000-year galactic war that set technology back
The Numenoreans had steam powered boats
Eärendil had a spaceship.
no oilfields means no industrial revolution.
The industrial revolution never started because of oil you unbelievably stupid cunt.
ya it did
It was coal, not oil.
It was coal, not oil.
It was steam, not coal, you retard. The ancient Greeks and Romans used coal, and there's evidence mankind was using coal to create heat in the stone age.
Steam power was also known in antiquity. The availability of large deposits of coal enabled industrial development in England as it was a more abundant and secure fuel source than firewood or charcoal, neither of which could have sustained the rise in population without becoming depleted.
zoomer history 101
Water mills started industrialization until engineers discovered steam could move turbines as well as water
England is known for its oil fields
Er actually it is. They're in the sea.
>reach highly advanced European medieval metallurgy and engineering
>then all technological progress ends.
great world building.
Shut the fuck up, you retarded commie. J.R Tolkien has build an amazing world.
>make the time skip 100 years not 3000
>now you can have your sword and sorcery larpfest ripped off of European fairytales without it making no goddamn sense
greatest genre-fiction author in all of history apparently.
Yes, a basement dweller in the 21st century would have done much better, no doubt.
>Capital of the Elves is called "Lindon"
Bravo, Tolkien!
The Silmarillion was not written by Tolkien. It was written by his hack son "based on notes by Tolkien", just like Brian Herbert's garbage Dune books are totally based on Frank's notes. I can't believe people are still falling for that shit.
this is actually legit
as grand as the whole work is, this is precisely what we look like when we gush about Arda like a bunch of nerds.
Most Tolkienfags need to develop more tact.
>implying a steady state society isn't comfy
That's kind of the point of that story though.
Tolkien believed a simple rural life was good, and industrialization and "progress at all costs" will destroy the world.
>ya it did
>island remnants of Beleriand way too far from Lindon
>weirdly-shaped Gulf of Lhun
>gigantic Withered Heath
>weirdly-shaped Dol Amroth peninsula
>lower course of the Anduin is completely off
>Umbar due south of Gondor instead of Southwest, with no gulf of Umbar somehow
That's a pretty atrocious map of Middle-Earth
>Over 3000 years of history
>No technological advancements
>#VoteNo
I get your point but they did have some advancement, or at least specific tribes advanced in specific ways compared to other tribes. Most of them just didn't need to advance because winter in Australia doesnt effect the food situation like it does in Europe.
I assume dwarfs made lots of technological advancements in mining during that time. There just isnt a need to talk about it in the story.
>Most of them just didn't need to advance because winter in Australia doesnt effect the food situation like it does in Europe.
What the fuck are you trying to say? That winter is warm enough not to effect crops because that's a retarded assertion on two levels, the 2nd level being that coons never invented farming.
If you want a serious answer its because Australia is a hell hole and no body has time for advancing tech when its a struggle just to survive.
https://voca.ro/15wzxgCJvWMB
there were advancement though, especially on the Numenor side, the only new invention the elves "made" were the rings.
So.... what did Middle-Earthians eat? Rocks?
lamb ass bread
What was the export levy on eleven grain?
Finish writing the books George.
Technology regressed from Numenorean times but survived here and there before starting to build back up. Grond is quite advanced.
Why did the hobbits have pipe tobacco, potatoes, silverware and waistcoats in the otherwise iron age/medieval setting?
What would age have to do with the tobacco plant
Tobacco didn't exist in European culture before the 1500s and the discovery of America, same with potatoes.
Okay?
The hobbits were a holdover from The Hobbit when the story was more of a children's fairy tale. There's also mention of pop guns, clarinets, clocks, umbrellas and fucking golf. Tolkien got rid of the hobbits completely for Silmarillion.
Why is golf an unrealistic idea? All they have to do is cut the grass short.
golf is just the idea of hitting a rock with a stick while you're taking a walk on a heath. if anything it's surprising that the sport was only invented once
its intentionally written like that
The hobbits are an anomaly, the actual world of the Legendarium is the mythical time you see in the elf/dwarf/human kingdoms. The elves had magic and lived more in communion with nature, they didn't need mobile phones or trains, not to mention that a lot of the elf kingdoms were destroyed and the remnants were either frozen in time, like Lothlorien, or backwater places, like Mirkwood. Men were constantly hunted and when they did have their own developed place, Numenor, they got uppity and were drowned, then they had to start anew. The dwarves were probably the most technologically advanced, but they were super isolated and ended up dooming themselves.
The point of Tolkien's work is that the great things, which did not involve evolved machinery, functioned mostly with magic which diminished over time and was eventually replaced with machines. It basically goes from something innate to something external, artificial. Also if you're going to compare it to real life, you shouldn't forget all this evolution happened in the past ~170 years.
>silverware
So did Late Medieval people
>potatoes
They might grow in those lands, nothing to do with technology
>pipe tobacco
Neolithic people had pipes, opium was consumed in Neolithic Europe... not exactly a groundbreaking technology
Yeah... the Fantasy lands of LOTR are NOT Europe though
>Fantasy lands of LOTR are NOT Europe though
hear that chuds? That means we can have black dwarf qweens and moron elves. checkmate racists!
>iron age/medieval
Pick one. They are eras hundreds if not thousands of years apart.
You retarded gays need to stop fishing for these "gotcha" takes. Tolkien was extremely autistic and has explanations for literally every single one of these:
>pipe tobacco and potatoes
Numenorean sailors journeyed to the New World at some point and brought back tobacco and potatoes as trade goods to Middle Earth. At some point both species of plant died out in the Old World before the beginning of our recorded history.
>waistcoats
Tolkien is using the conceit as a translator of an ancient text of a dead culture. Words like "waistcoats" and "umbrellas" appear in translation to refer to articles of clothing and tools which fulfilled a similar function while not being literally identical to their modern counterparts.
>silverware
Either another example of Tolkien using modern words to refer to ancient analogues or alternatively attributable to the fact that the metallurgical technologies of the men/elves/dwarves of Middle Earth were capable of making such tools. In the latter case this knowledge was simply lost over time before postdiluvian history begins.
This guy knows his Tolkien
I love how silly Tolkien's Gondolin looks.
>silly
I think it looks based.
Tolkien's drawings are infused with so much Soulful and Energetic Delight for his world that I can't look at a single one without feeling his Love.
The man was a wonder-factory.
Is there a website which has all of his paintings?
Yeah.
Here:
https://www.tolkienestate.com/painting/
thanks
>Words like "waistcoats" and "umbrellas" appear in translation to refer to articles of clothing and tools which fulfilled a similar function while not being literally identical to their modern counterparts.
Does this mean the black elves in the new show weren't actually black back in the day either?
Probably not, just like black numenoreons were not literally black its a descriptor of thier allegiance
Another interesting example of in-Universe Book-Tolkien's translations are character names. Frodo wasn't actually his name; it's an Anglicization of his actual Westron name which would have been pronounced "Maura Labingi."
Or Pippin's name which was actually "Razanur Tuk." The Westron root of this name (Razan, meaning foreign) was translated by Book-Tolkien into Peregrin (from Latin Peregrinus). Don't underestimate the man's savant-level of autistic attention to detail.
Very stupid, why didn't he just refer to them by their real names? How is "Frodo" an anglicization of "Maura"?
Because Frodo is a real name derived from Fróði (Frōda in Old English) that has a meaning (clever in this case) similar to what Maura probably does in Westron.
It's very autistic but to Tolkien names contain meaning and since the translated work is in English the Westron meanings of the characters' actual names should be considered when adapting them.
As a real life example of this if we were going to try to translate the English "John" into a completely unrelated language like Chinese we could either just try to find Chinese characters that mimic the phonetic sound or alternatively (and much more autistically) we could try to find the etymological origin of the name and then translate that into Chinese.
Since "John" derives from an ancient Hebrew name meaning "God is gracious" you would thereby translate that meaning into Chinese to get a functional equivalent.
I don't speak Chinese so I don't know what it would be but you probably wouldn't end up with anything that sounds similar to the English pronunciation but it would more accurately convey the true "meaning" of the name.
Adding to that, it's important to remember that this extends to translations of Lord of the Rings. Place-names and characters not using their "original" names in the elven languages or whatever else are to be translates just like that to the target language. Tolkien did not approve of the original Swedish translation for example; the first translator came from more of a French tradition which led him to diverge from the original Nordic tone (ironic), and he translated the names to make them sound similar, rather than retain their meaning.
Celeborn's actual name is Teleporno. Not making this up.
>teleporno
Hehe
Middle Earth in LoTR and the Hobbit is as close to post-apocalyptic fantasy as you can get. Everything, including Mordor and its allies are a downgrade from previous ages.
What about Shannara? Those books are literally post nuclear holocaust Pacific Northwest.
Wheel of time is explicitly post apocalyptic on many levels. Not only from the age of legends down fall, but one of oldest artifacts on record is a Mercedes Benz logo from untold ages ago
I'm sure it is because the wizards conspire to keep the population destitute and feudal.
I don't see the problem.
This is a shit map
Post a better one then.
Not him, but
Is this made by Tolkien himself?
Christopher Tolkien drew it
All technological progress in middle earth has been backwards, just like in real life.
That's a weird map of africa
it's a mythological world you autismo
>3000 years with no technological advancements?
>rookie numbers
Agreed
Too busy getting high and being comfy.
For most of human civilization, "progress" has been a meme. It's only after Europeans spontaneously developed a technological fetish that we ruined everything. This is also the theme of LOTR.
>Hobbits are a traditionalist society in which things are passed down from generation to generation and in which change comes slowly, if at all. Any change or new technologies etc. are eyed with suHispanicion by default.
>Men are in an eternal existential battle against Sauron and so far have barely managed to hold their ground. They can't afford putting any resources into research to increase their crop yield by .5 % or whatever.
>Dwarves are the most technologically advanced race, however they focus all of their research on mining and how to get rich even faster. Also they're isolationist, which hampers scientific and technological exchange.
>Elves are basically the equivalent of a nursing home boomer who looks out the window and is sad and melancholic all day long. Can't expect any progress from them.
>Orcs are abbo-tier retards. Also, evil cannot create but only copy.
Further issues:
>TA Middle Earth is a fallen world in pretty much every aspect. It's basically the post-apocalyptic remnants of past civilizations.
>Tolkien was a pretty reactonary and throughout his work he portrays change as something that's by default bad and destructive.
>Tolkien's world is a mythological fairy tale and should be read as such. Kinda like the bible. And why would the bible mention technological advancements? That's not the topic of the story. It's like you were complaining the bible didn't tell you exactly when the Israelites invented the plough or whatever.
The bible mentions the discovery of napththa
I downloaded music on there
>Orcs are abbo-tier retards. Also, evil cannot create but only copy.
didn't they created gunpowder and seige weapons
The White Wizard Sauruman invented gunpowder
was a pretty reactonary and throughout his work he portrays change as something that's by default bad and destructive.
This is why Tolkien is excellent as a first book to recommend to a son and daughter. They absorb's Tolkien's Britcath reactionary sense of the world as well as his Milton-like prose which prepares them to read classics
You must remember that in the LoTR universe there are giant monsters, dragons, trolls, orcs, goblins, supernatural spirits, and far more creatures that will set back technological breakthroughs for centuries on end. There is a reason the Dwarves stay in their mountains, the Elves their woods, the Hobbits their shire. I don't know much about the lore actually but it all seems rather self-explanatory.
only sauron was all for technological advances. and he was the bad guy
>only sauron was all for technological advances. and he was the bad guy
Yes, he was.
Fuck off, the Germshits are the real orcs.
This is much better tuhan those dumb maps with square of mountains around Mordor like a fence. Tectonic plates don't work like that. Fantasy maps are so cringe.
The gods sang the world into existance, your argument is invalid.
kys
warned you about h*ngarians bro
>when you lived in barad dur all along
pls bring back surcoats in movies.
I got a VR headset recently and you can download different settings to explore. One was Bag-End. Damn place is so huge with so many rooms that I kept getting lost
Comfy
>this was an affordable hole in the 90's
was this before or after Bilbo returned from Lonely Mountain?
kek
Bag End was Bilbo's family home since before he was born
That is such a comfy setting. Relaxing and listening to the clocks tick and the fire crackle is heaven.
That's the one. I was blown away when I could go outside and explore the shire too
Where is a bathroom?
Tolkien was a Victorian writer, sex and bathrooms didn't exist.
To be fair, Bilbo is the Donald Trump of Hobbiton
>Atrium
Not canon Tolkien would LOSE HIS SHIT seeing this remember no Latin based words
Where does it lead?
Toilet.
The treasure hoard
Secret sex dungeon.
There's a Balrog down there
No wonder every Hobbit wanted Bag end
no surprise sackville-Bagginses wanted the bag-end so much
They had cutlery, crockery and glass which require a well developed manufacturing base.
Gandalf don't even know how the palantir works, that's how long ago they was made
And doesn't Saruman live in a tower that they don't have the technology to recreate or destroy?
Yeah the works of ancient Numenor were beyond anything men could make in the third age. When the ents attack Isengard they're so strong that they destroy the huge stone ring wall and tunnel easily by hand, like breaking bread crust. But they can't even scratch the tower itself.
If it's not broken, don't fix it. Technology exist to solve problems and they didn't have problems that required new technology.
>Mordor is Ottoman Empire
Makes sense, I always thought the Battle at Pelennor Fields was inspired by the Siege of Vienna, with the Prussians and Poles coming to their rescue like the Rohirrim.
Pretty much. It also has elements of Belgrade (the White City).
ATEŞ YAKIN OROSPU ÇOCUKLARI
Do you know how the turk came to be? they were greeks, once...
>Turkey / Romania / Bulgaria
>Sauron and orcs
t..thanks Tolkien
>spanish don't exist and french are useless in tolkiens world
10/10 bant
What are the palantirs then? Plus what technology do you need when you are an immortal elf that can ride horses straight from valinor that go faster than most motorcycles.
that was the point, man was in decline for thousands of years
Orcs are the industrial people as they are suppose to portray human folly in over industrialization and all the "bad" things that came with the industrial revolution
You do know Tolkien hated the modern human and the elfs are his ideal idea of humans clean and never advancing beyond bow n arrows
In truth the Orcs are the good guys from a modern perspective in many ways
>the inherently evil subhuman monsters are the good guys from a modern perspective
Sounds about right
Did they?
No, she has kept her virginity for you.
yeah probably on the way to work
>Initially think this is cute.
>Then think of all the times this has happened to me throughout my life.
>"Oh, I'll just get anon to help me. He's big, and strong and dependable. He'll handle it fine."
>Always end up screwing up dramatically, getting sick, looking like I'm struggling or in some way failing.
>They quietly stop asking for my help and lose interest.
>Wonder if I really am a fuckup, or on some level I'm intentionally sabotaging myself so as not to be bothered.
They're using you, i dont see the problem. They're the rude ones
>using you
Just say "no", lmao, what a fucking pussy.
>ask guy for help (penis in vagina)
>guy actually does that thing you made up as an excuse
>no penis in vagina
>keeps happening
>ask someone else for help (penis in vagina)
Great fucking shit.
I've read somewhere that J.R.R. Tolkien was inspired by the alps when he created middle earth. What's so great about that shit? It's just mountains and grass and Germanic peasants with their weird pygmy dialect.
Looks boring as fuck when I saw it in a movie:
I did a short four day hike in the Himalayans a few years back. I want to live in the alps, mountains and green vallys are comfy beyond rational thought.
Well, do you speak German, Italian or French?
No, but I can learn.
I do speak French, what next?
Maybe you read that Rivendell was inspired by Lauterbrunnen.
>hrumph Germans are... le BAD hmph
Sorry Tommy, not everyone lives in a grey third-world shithole without sunshine like you do.
I prefer the sea, but this is gorgeous. I'd stay here for a couple of weeks.
This confuses and scares the average globohomo urbanite city dweller
Heartbreakingly beautiful.
Indeed
Nature is great and there are beautiful places in Germany but yeah Germans ARE le BAD.
>I- is that an idyllic mountain village full of prosperous, hard-working wypipo?
>AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHI’MGOINGINSAAAAAAAAAAAAANE!!!
>SAVE ME, CRACKAHMAN!
Looks nice but would be greatly improved by a few hundred Africans and a Dollar General
WHERE'S THE FUCKING WALMART
Keep in mind he lived in South Africa and Englan, both countries with no real mountain ranges like the Alps, and to his nordic soul the Alps must look like paradise.
England is just swampy plains, grassy hills and rocky hills.
GHROND
GHROND
GHROND
GHROND
This looks so much more badass than the Jacksom version of thos scene. I love his ROTK for sentimental reasons, but there are ap many swings and misses in that movie. It is absolutely carried by the previous two, Tolkein's writing, and a couple of really strong acting performances.
>hmm what should I do... Gandalf's tense confrontation with the Witch King or a comedy relief moment with some trolls
Bravo Jackson!
yeah that was a mistake, and he compounded it by making the Witch King actually win their awkward and shoehorned confrontation in the extended edition.
>The Witch-King shattering Gandalf's staff
Absolutely pathetic drama created by Jackson and his hack script-writers.
Better than Game of Thrones Universe when they talk of event occurring like 9,000 years earlier with more or less the same technology
It was steam not coal
Why don't we have more popular gunpowder fantasy universes? I really liked that orc cop movie concept. Too bad Will Smith ruined it.
tank > balrog
How is this thing and Gandolf the same level of being?
I think Gandalf's spirit was nerfed into old man physical form so he wouldn't mog everyone on Middle Earth. His purpose was to nurture and bring the best out of humanity rather than fight their battles for them.
Why did God do this when Melkor let his angel equivalents assume the form of big fire demons that basically mog everything?
Gandalf is a minor god the same as the Balrog, but when the Valar sent him and the other Wizards to Middle-Earth to help unite them and guide them in the right direction and prevent them all from being enslaved by Sauron, they didn't want to repeat the destruction of the War of Wrath so they made them all go as frail old men, not the full power of their forms in Valinor.
Don't forget that the whole reason the balrog is in Moria in the first place is because it ran away from the War of Wrath and hid in the darkness.
When Gandalf invokes the secret fire he's basically saying "I'm one of the guys that nearly exterminated the balrogs last time around. You don't want this fight".
Unfortunately for both of them the balrog didn't get the message.
I did not forget.
Hard to imagine what the Balrog was thinking, but it probably was long the lines, "huh that happened 6 thousand years ago, and since then nobody but puny dwarves have even bothered me. This old man is probably bluffing."
Gandalf killed that thing with lightning and a sword. He threw it down and it smote the mountain in it's ruin.
Ever heard of Australian Aboriginals?
On the way home, do you think the hobbits stopped by old Tom Bombadils house?
I'm pretty sure it's mentioned in the book that they did.
No, but Gandalf did. The hobbits were concerned with the Shire rumors and were eager to eeturn there as fast as possible.
Tom didn't help stop the scouring?
Tom was balls deep in Goldberry at the time
I just read this part in Return of the King and Gandalf said something interesting about Tom Bombadil. They got warned in Bree that there was some trouble in the Shire, and Merry or Pippin said something like 'we'll be fine with Gandalf here' and then Gandalf gave them a Gandalf speech about how his time of setting things right is at an end and they were all strong enough to deal with their own problems now.
Then he says 'But if you would know, I am turning aside soon. I am going to have a long talk with Bombadil, such a talk as I have not had in all my time. He is a moss-gather, and I have been a stone doomed to rolling. But my rolling days are ending, and now we shall have much to say to one another.'
Maybe it's looking too far into what he said since Tom is such a mysterious guy, but it's interesting that Gandalf lumps the two of them together that way.
Tom is Eru Himself.
I have always thought of Tom as Tolkien. I suppose in that passage, Gandalf intends to discuss being written out.
That's a cool thought but we all know the red book is a real account of pre-history of our planet and Tolkien was probably a distant descendant of Bilbo.
Tom Bombadil is an elemental being, in that he is both the world, the animals, Eru, and yet he is none of those.
Which is sadly why he cares not for politics and only the land.
Gandalf goes to talk to him because Tom is effectively the same as God. He wants to ensure Tom understands that this land he lives on will no longer be under the protection and people like Gandalf and if Tom wants his beautiful world to stay alive he needs to take up the mantle that is his responsibility.
People like to over-analyze Tolkien's world and I think most of them are missing the point. Sometimes the unknown should remain unknown; it's a mythological setting filled with legends and contradicting stories. Was Tom Bombadil a maiar, a valar or maybe even Eru himself? I don't really know or care; Tom Bombadil was Tom Bombadil.
Exactly, he is supposed to be mysterious because he's like one of those myths or mythical creatures with no discernible background that just pop into legends out of nowhere. I appreciate trying to discover Tolkien's sources, but sometimes it feels like people look too deep into stuff that isn't supposed to be looked too deep into.
I dunno if it's Dungeons and Dragon's fault or something, but people are overly eager in establishing absolute truths for these fictional settings, "canons" etc. despite the works themselves being mythopoeic and not particularly concerned with precision and coherent, but rather deliberately contradicting itself. I absolutely cannot stand Brandon Sanderson's type of fantasy where magic is reduced to engineering - making it, essentially, not magic at all
Tom Bombadil lives in that very dangerous forest, that would have killed them if Tom hadnt saved them, and they only went there because of the nazgul.. they'd never go there on their way back.
But there have been technological advancements. In reality, human agriculture dates back 12,000 years. The Bronze Age and proper civilization came about 6300 years ago. LotR itself describes early industry. Besides, the last half of the Third Era was marked by the decline and end of several major civilizations and the collapse of trade and communication.
they didn't have a Jesus to break the mymetic cycle
There weren’t enough dead dinosaurs to burn.
Sounds like Africans
isn't that the point?
it offered idyllic escapism right around when modern technology was presumably associated with wars.
didnt Saruman tried to industrialized Middle earth but got his ass kicked by the tree people
exactly. tolkien didn't hate any type of advancement that could be helpful but the was absolutely anti industrialism and lotr is in big part an anti industrialist story
>>Over 3000 years of history
>>No technological advancements
maybe everyone was black
/misc/ owes amazon an apology
I love how the Shire and the general northern regions are like a thousand years more advanced than fucking Gondor. Literal Victorian-tier luxuries like pipes and top hats and 18th century architecture. The ruined mines of Moria also point to an industrial revolution of some kind.
(Reminder that the elves don't treat a lot of their shit/amenities as magic, since they take it in stride. It is only magic to humans. The elvish bar for what is and isn't magic is higher than it is for men. Lembas bread to a human is like giving an Oh Henry bar to a medieval peasant. Tolkien understood Arthur C. Clarke logic.)
it kind of fits since Gondor is actually a decadent society locked in its glorious past and because the north doesn't have to fight orcs often.
The kingdom of arnor was destroyed by the witch King and his hordes of rhudaur hillbillies and orcs. I think Aragorn points out to the Hobbits that the only reason why the shire is so comfy is because of the endless, invisible toil of the dunedain.
amazon was right to cast so many blacks
Technology is evil.
just trust science chud
it is not evil per se, but it definitely is born out of evil
no one invents things without the incentive of another party's loss
>>Over 3000 years of history
>>No technological advancements
Hmm, maybe Middle Earth was filled with black people.
>main villain is named Sauron
>powerful wizard who betrays the good guys and joins forces with Sauron is named... SAURON-MAN
...
>the place where the Evil Ring of power was created and destroyed is a volcano named MOUNT DOOM
...
>the evil country is called MURDER
...
>it's not an elephant, it's an oliphant!
Bravo, Tolkien.
I think oliphant is just Sam's country speech impediment, he also says 'durstn't'
the books are popular thanks to the trilogy and no one wants to say it
Yeah, thank god the movie trilogy finally helped those obscure little books gain recognition after 50 years.
yes
>there is a villain who is an even darker dark lord than Sauron... his name is... MORE GOTH
>30,000 years of history
>No technological advancements
Just because the last 600 years have seen a huge ramping up and increase of technological innovations and inventions, doesn't mean that it is the norm at all. Civilizational progress is the exception. The norm is civilizations rising and falling carrying humans up and down in a cyclical wave pattern.
For example:
>the Bronze age collapse,
>the fall of the Old Kingdom of Egypt,
>the fall of Nineveh, Babylon, and Sumer,
>the fall of the Han Dynasty of China,
>the fall of Rome,
>the fall of Constantinople
>the fall of Bahgdad
>the Black Death
Each of these events marked very significant downturns in human population and technological and cultural capability in their region.
In Tolkien's Middle Earth, there were similar cataclysms that brought down more advanced civilizations than those currently existing during the War of the Ring:
>Fall of Gondolin, Nargothrond, and Doriath and the sinking of all Beleriand
>Fall of Khazadum and Eregion
>Sinking of Numenor
>Fall of Arnor
>Fall of Minas Ithil
>Great Plague
If anything, Tolkien's world view is more consistent with the reality of humanity than your simple idea that time = advancement.
actually you are just equating downturns in literacy with technology/culture/population. Usually most 'downturns' actually play host to some of the most significant advancements, such as the supposed Bronze Age collapse actually leading to the advent of iron and a boom in population size in a very short timespan leading to cities like Rome. This is why you shouldn't read history as fact, historians don't have any other frame of reference so without archaeology they are limited to describing literacy and bias of surviving sources.
You're a contrarian gay.
Those downturns in literacy absolutely coincided with downturns of population and technology. It's literally proven by field data showing when fields stopped being tilled, and by first hand accounts from later generations wondering who and how could possibly have built the Walls of Nineveh, Aqueducts of Rome, Pyramids of Egypt, etc. from later people whoe were so unable to even consider building such things that they often invented myths of Giants doing so.
Denying the backslide in technology after huge cataclysms and civilizational collapses is so contrarian, that only a Cinemaphileer could state that with a straight face.
What you're describing is creative destruction that comes a few generations later where new people invent new things (rediscovering/reinventing some as well) and happen to make some decent progress because the Old Order is no longer in the way.
>tfw
An unparalleled work of beauty.
A truly inspired magnus opus.
A masterpiece.
I would only edit a few scenes like comic relief Gimli and replace the the ghost army's role with Imrahil of Dol Amroth in the entire trilogy.
K I N O
I
N
O
>No technological advancements
Did they have glass? If so that puts them ahead of 1800s China. The fact that Saruman thought to use black powder as a bomb also puts them ahead of all non European civilisations on our world.
There was actually a decline in technological advancement if you'd actually researched this before making this shit bait thread.
All of Middle Earth's history happened in the extremely distant antediluvean past by our measure. At some point things degraded to the point where our own record of history picks things back up again.
Look at native North Americans, Africans, Aborigones, and many others to see a parallel.
Elves and dwarves are set in their ways. Men are the one with the gift of Iluvatar, hence why when the age of men came and the elves fucked off, technology progressed.
Ever heard of China? 6,000 years of history and still living like bronze age people in stick huts until the whites showed up.
2000 years after the rise of Mesopotamia Egypt started building the great shinx. 2000 years after that Christianity popped up.
Took us much longer
It's actually 3000 years of regression.
>every balrog art has to be based on the movie
Makes me angry. He's described as a shadow man basically.
Is that a fucking D&D orc? Proof that most artists have no idea what they're drawing when it comes to Tolkien.
Now THIS is how I always imagined the balrog.
Perfect. It's such a pity that more accurate balrogs are so rare.
Jackson Balrog is way cooler.
Fuzzy
Didn't orcs have machinery and gunpowder? Which is pretty good considering they didn't really need to innovate in these fields wikce they had trolls to carry shit for them.
I think only Saruman had gunpowder and his forces were beaten before he could really innovate with it aside from crude bombs. Imagine an army of uruk-hai with muskets and cannons. They could destroy Sauron himself
Eh, Sauron is the last of the physically manifested maiar in middle earth, he operates on different rules. Who knows what sick tech numenor had.
No wonder they want to add nogs to the lore to make it more believable