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09-04-2006, 10:14 AM | #1 |
Pile O'Bones
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: IL
Posts: 16
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Sorry...Have to ask about historical analogy...
I know Tolkien hated the perception of historical analogy in LOTR, correcting anyone who tried to make connections between the history of Middle-Earth and of this Earth...but I have to ask if anyone else sees some racial, cultural, and historical parallels between the fictional world and this one?
I have my own theories, but I'd like to see some others first. Just ignore Tolkien's advice, and go crazy.
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09-04-2006, 09:00 PM | #2 | |
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 5,997
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09-04-2006, 10:16 PM | #3 | |
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Washington, D. C., USA
Posts: 299
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Let us set aside the Lord of the Bible thread from this other thread for the moment. Certainly the battles, and the battle techniques used were as close to a variety of battle techniques actually used in Medieval times. While this a "Books" thread, I think this is something Peter Jackson did quite well in the movie. The "travelling" army, the orcs of Mordor, used catapults, while the entrenched army (Gondor) used trebuchets. This was very telling about Medieval warfare, I think. not that an army could not construct a trebuchet on-site if they needed to, but that catapults were probably more reliable when carted a long distance. I'm no expert, but I would think this is as close to historical accuracy as you can truly find. The overall story cannot be accurately correlated to any historical war that I can think of. Of course, I don't look for it. It is it's own story set in its own world.
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09-05-2006, 05:50 PM | #4 |
Sage & Onions
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Britain
Posts: 894
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I've always reckoned that the relief of Gondor by the Rohirrim was partly inspired by the crusades, except with a happy ending this time!
Gondor representing Byzantium, one half of a formerly great and powerful Empire now to an extent decayed and under threat from the Turks and Saracens, but with the Rohirrim, a force of chivalric hard charging knights riding to their rescue (not that the crusaders were mostly chivalric or knights and they eventually ended up sacking Byzantium, but you get my drift!). Also an element of the relief of Vienna by the Poles maybe?
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09-05-2006, 07:27 PM | #5 | |
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 5,997
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I wouldn't see Harad south of Byzantium. It would seem more probable that, given Minas Tirith is home of the loremasters, Alexandria with its famous library might make a closer fit. Just talking hypotheticals here.
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I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. |
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09-05-2006, 08:20 PM | #6 |
Stormdancer of Doom
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Well, some of this stuff is thirty years old-- but here are the things that brought a yelp of recognition to me when the teacher mentioned them in history class.
"The Seven Walls of Constantinople." Minas Tirith had seven, too. "The Song of Roland" where he blows his horn bil his temples burst. Boromir's horn, of course. Ah-- there was this guy (Persian? Assyrian?) who invaded cities back before Alexander the Great, and he did the bodyparts-catapult thing to dispirit cities he was besieging. I guess it's all old news. Was it Ashurbanipal? Can't remember. Vienna-- if Vienna had fallen, Europe would already be Islamic. Venna was the gateway to Europe. If I think of any others, I'll be back...
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