The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Branch thread: Tolkien's military technology

Alfirin · 05-03-2011, 07:16 AM

[QUOTE=Kuruharan;653767]Hmm...I don't know about that. I don't think the climate of northern Middle earth would ever have been particularly well suited to them...at least through the time periods described to us.
QUOTE]

I'm not saying that POV is incorrect, all I want to point out is that the Hobbits must have heard of Oliphaunts from SOMEWHERE for the poem to exist, and if they never existed further North than the landmass of Far Harad this would seem unlikely (I sort of get the impression that travel between the North and the South of ME was NEVER all that common and that Near and Far Harad and the lands beyond have always been sort of terra incognita to the north). I suppose that some proto hobbit could have heard of oliphaunts from an elf who had seen them in Valinor (or had him or herself heard of them from one who did) where they supposedy are also (as per that whole "Ivory in Gondolin Argument".) but this seems tenous. And the theory that the connection between the real life Oliphaunts and the ones in the Hobbit poem is purely coincidental (i.e. that the Hobbits happened to create a made up creature that matched up exactly to a real life one.) seems to fly against the Tolkein ethos.
I will also point out the climate might not be as big an impediment as it seems on the surface. Our modern day elephants actually used to range far further north than they do now. And if you factor in such things as Mammoths (and not just the wooly kind, also things like the less hairy Colombian Mammoth) and Mastodons you have an orginal range that streches all the way to near the artic circle. Some the Greek islands had thier own, tiny version of elephant or mastodon (whose skulls whne found were thought to be the orgin for the legend of the Cyclops) It's really not all that different from the fact that in bibical times, there were lions to be found throughout a lot of southern europe and the middle east and out to India (where there still are some) and bits of Indonesia (Or how Singapore "city of the lion" got it's name, when the first people arrived there, there were lions). And africa still has a kind of elephant in the North that likes forests over grassy plains (and was recently declared a seperate species). I see no real climate problem with elephants in the north of Middle Earth.

05-03-2011, 07:16 AM	#34
Alfirin Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 435	[QUOTE=Kuruharan;653767]Hmm...I don't know about that. I don't think the climate of northern Middle earth would ever have been particularly well suited to them...at least through the time periods described to us. QUOTE] I'm not saying that POV is incorrect, all I want to point out is that the Hobbits must have heard of Oliphaunts from SOMEWHERE for the poem to exist, and if they never existed further North than the landmass of Far Harad this would seem unlikely (I sort of get the impression that travel between the North and the South of ME was NEVER all that common and that Near and Far Harad and the lands beyond have always been sort of terra incognita to the north). I suppose that some proto hobbit could have heard of oliphaunts from an elf who had seen them in Valinor (or had him or herself heard of them from one who did) where they supposedy are also (as per that whole "Ivory in Gondolin Argument".) but this seems tenous. And the theory that the connection between the real life Oliphaunts and the ones in the Hobbit poem is purely coincidental (i.e. that the Hobbits happened to create a made up creature that matched up exactly to a real life one.) seems to fly against the Tolkein ethos. I will also point out the climate might not be as big an impediment as it seems on the surface. Our modern day elephants actually used to range far further north than they do now. And if you factor in such things as Mammoths (and not just the wooly kind, also things like the less hairy Colombian Mammoth) and Mastodons you have an orginal range that streches all the way to near the artic circle. Some the Greek islands had thier own, tiny version of elephant or mastodon (whose skulls whne found were thought to be the orgin for the legend of the Cyclops) It's really not all that different from the fact that in bibical times, there were lions to be found throughout a lot of southern europe and the middle east and out to India (where there still are some) and bits of Indonesia (Or how Singapore "city of the lion" got it's name, when the first people arrived there, there were lions). And africa still has a kind of elephant in the North that likes forests over grassy plains (and was recently declared a seperate species). I see no real climate problem with elephants in the north of Middle Earth.