Technology in M-E?

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Paradus

Greetings.

I have been reading the details of the races of the Noldor, Numenoreans etc and it seems that they were were a fairly advanced civilisation.
My question is when it says advanced technology how would one interprit this? i.e did they have mechanized components, development of gunpowerder? I'm not really sure.

I don't think they had gunpowder– at least, I can't recall anything that might suggest it.

Originally Posted by Paradus

P.S Also I've always wondered on wether the silmarils were really magical or they were prehaps just uranium for they have very similar components and effects.

cheers.

Now that you mention it, I suppose Tolkien might have had some thought of radium (not uranium) at the back of his mind when he dreamed up the silmarils– but that's a long way from saying he meant them to be made of it. (If nothing else, the description of how Fëanor created them ought to rule that out.)

As a more general answer: it's been suggested that a lot of the "magic" in Middle-earth is simply "sufficiently advanced technology" (in Arthur C. Clarke's phrase). Up to a point I agree with this, but I'd be wary of being too literal about it, and casting it too much in terms of the present. I doubt you'd find a bunch of wires and microchips inside a palantír, for example. I don't think these books are just "hard SF" disguised as a fantasy.

Although, we might look at how that quote concludes: "...indistinguishable from magic". I'd say that often technology, magic and art in Middle-earth can't really be separated from each other at all; it's more a matter of knowledge and ability.