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Originally Posted by Rumil
In the end, of course Tolkien teases our thirst for further detail but leaves the specifics vague. Middle Earth hygiene, like the Blue Wizards and Balrog wings must therefore belong to the realm of supposition and speculation. Who indeed can envisage the facilities of wondrous Gondolin or those employed by fair lady Galadriel? The authour does, however, wonder if there is any further information in the Letters or indeed if there is any relevant Biblical applicabilty, even allegory, pertaining to this problem but leaves such undertakings, and the attendant problems of canonicity, to the pens of those more expert than he.
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First, I must commend
Rumil's familiarity with the distinguished lexicographer, Eric Partridge, whose
Dictionary of Slang ranks with the OED as one of the great resources of the language--unless
Rumil is himself a Cockney and familiar with the rhyming slang which produces khazi for privy. An association with Khazad which would make Tolkien proud I'm sure.
As to Lothlorien, one would suppose that the elves' great admiration for the mallorn trees would make it less likely they would be lumbered for their pulp and turned into any kind of paper, much less one of the humbled closet. Perhaps the bidet would be the convenience of choice in this fair land?
As happens so often in early literatures, domestic arrangements are passed over in silence in the Legendarium. In fact, we have very little information about, for example, how children are raised in Middle-earth. Would the different races, for example, have differing practices regarding training in the use of their facilities? At what age would such training commence? Humans typically debate the age at which such training should start (
) but would the debate be even more pronounced with races who are longer lived and whose children might experience a longer toddlerdom than ours? When would potty training start with a race as long lived as elves? Or even with hobbits, who don't reach puberty until much later than the race of men. If dwarves typically live approximately 250 years, would this mean that dwarven children are not trained until 5 or 6 years old? Image the laundry--assuming that disposables would not be a choice in the environmentally-friendly times of the first three ages.
