Modern World references in Middle-Earth

[Gandalf_theGrey]

Hullo Birdland:

* bows a friendly greeting * [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Thanks for bringing this topic to the fore. As you aptly point out,

I imagine there was nary a mantel clock in Rivendell, and when it rained in Minas Tirith - well, you got wet.

* comes inside and settles in on a chair by the fire to smoke comfortably on an unusual evening where both lightning and moon were visible at once in the same sky *

From what I've observed during my stays among Elves, I would venture that one reason why time pieces are not as prominent at Rivendell has to do with Elvish immortality and how that colors their relationship to the passage of time. Of course it's possible to calculate calendar dates according to both Elvish and Shire reckoning, and confer with a clock to tell time. To be at Rivendell, however, is to stand on a hypnotizing shore where drops of time meet the ocean of eternity, and the tide pulls West.

Gandalf the Grey, who does not wear a watch