Coffe, Tea or ME?...a pragmatist guide to all three

[Man-of-the-Wold]

Well now, if you’re looking for some European period that would cover all or any of the nearly seven thousand years presented in Middle-Earth since the Leaguer of Angband, you will not find it.

Whether intentional, or as logical as JRRT may have later wished, the Books relate as much to his memories of Victorian English countryside, as they do to the Iron Age Europe inhabiting the legends and so forth that he studied.

This Iron Age existed—-depending on the place and the scholar-—anywhere from one to several thousand years ago. Yet when it comes to cultural virtues and values, political economy, and low-population settlement patterns, Iron-age society is, arguably an excellent model for Middle-Earth.

In terms of commercial, social, political and military organization, the early Middle Ages, especially Anglo-Saxon Britain is the world that best animates the vision in the Books, particularly by way military technology and techniques.

But you are really looking at circa 17th Century Europe, when it comes to the style and feel of places like the Shire or Minas Tirith, as well as various foodstuffs and other technologies—-with two very critical exceptions-—the absence of movable-type printing and of firearms.

What’s really remarkable is that for the typical, historical European, at least, there was little in the way of serious technological change from the Classical Age up until pre-Industrial times, apart form the above two exceptions. When The Hobbit was written, there were no doubt a few corners of Europe left, for which its descriptions would not have seemed alien.

And to all of this, I say: So What? Middle-Earth is not the “Middle Ages,” but rather Endor that lies between the Land of the Sun and the immortal Blessed Land of Valinor. What does it matter…if it includes goods and commodities unknown to Alfred the Great?

There is paper, coffee, tea, coal, clocks, tobacco, optics, matches, violas, powder-based fireworks, marine navigation, forms of metallurgy, textile types, masonry methods, postal systems and other things that were not much invented, rediscovered, or introduced into Europe (from the Americas, Africa or East Asia) until the High Medieval period or centuries later.

In Middle-Earth, however, Elves, Dwarves and even Men can do things only comprehensible as “magic,” but JRRT leaves no doubt that that is not the proper way to think about such matters.

For me, I simply look at NW Middle-Earth as comparable to some generic, composite “Past” of our Western World, especially in relationship to Teutonic/Celtic/Baltic areas. But to cross the Channel, it might all be equally at home in the era of Louis XIV or in Frankish Gaul, but of course, it is in reality not even close to either of those.

I think it’s fine to assume a general distinction between things noted by derivation from the Red Book and items that we might buy today in the store, but I see no compelling reason to make Pipe-weed out as an unknown form of Nicotina; or to ascribe “pa-tat-oes” to another type of tuber; or to speculate about “malt coffee” whatever that may be! The things in the Books are what they are, and certainly relate to common enough references, even if irreconcilable with our own world’s antiquity. You can always think of our world as having only rediscovered these things, if you like.

Nonetheless, for certain food commodities, geography and trade would have been challenging, given the apparent isolation and insular nature of communities such as the Shire, and the vast stretches of “mostly” uninhabited and treacherous areas that existed.

Yet, I think it can be argued that such conditions were relatively recent by Frodo’s time and highly emphasized to underscore the troubles brewing with the impending War.

For one thing, the very ubiquity of the Westron suggests a not so distant time, in which considerable communication occurred on an actively sustained basis.

Even by SR 1400, the Butterburs were doing a fair amount of business, and Shire-folk had quite a bit of indirect and imprecise knowledge of distant lands and events, and certain Hobbits such as Farmer Maggot and others might have had regular intercourse with Lindon Elves, Big Folk and Dwarves.

However treacherous, the distances were not so great, when not trying to elude servants of the Enemy. And the dwarves in The Hobbit were inexplicably slow. Perhaps, they took detours in Eriador and the Elf Path’s power depended on it following an extremely wavy route to & fro among the woods.

Commerce was, nevertheless, fairly limited, and local self-sufficiency the rule. But one gets the sense that Dwarves never tilled the land or practiced husbandry, and that West-Elves didn’t much either by that time. So, they had to trade with others, either far or near, and that besides towns like Bree, there were likely still villages and hamlets dispersed across some other regions Eriador and not entirely cut-off. The Rangers must have been trying to protect more than only Bree-land and the Shire.

One can easily imagine Men or Dwarves with laden wagons traveling the Old South Road from time to time, or small cargo ships rather safely plying the largely uninhabited coastlines (Dunlending-like fisher-folk supposedly dwelt in parts of Enedwaith), as well as navigable lengths of the Gwathlo and Branduin. Cirdan’s mariners could have been quite involved, too.

This would have all been, at best, a medieval form of commerce—-no direct merchants between producer and consumer, but rather a network of middlemen, and the risks were certainly great with Orks, Trolls and other evil, along with foul weather, &c.

By our standards, however, the greatest challenge would have been the lack of readily interchangeable currency. But the hobbits’ dealings in Bree suggest the existence of species money that had recognizable value and utility for exchange.

Also, one can easily presume that prior to Boromir’s time, boats going up and down the Anduin were not so uncommon. The total desertion of Tharbad is treated in the FotR, as something not fully expected; maybe, the passing of the Nine Riders had been the final blow. I would think that the refugees in Bree, while aware and frightened by events in Ithilien, were themselves directly displaced from no farther away than areas west of Rohan, where their particular communities had, perhaps, run foul of Saruman’s growing power structure. Of course, all this did not prevent his maintaining connections to the South Farthing, or his (or the Black Rider’s) seeding such fugitive groups with spies.

In Bilbo’s time, I see no reason why districts south of Gondor, which either were not suppressed by Sauron’s hegemony, or were allowed to undertake trade to raise tribute, somehow didn’t transport non-strategic, non-perishables like coffee to ports in populous Gondor. From there it made its way to the Shire in exchange for dwarvish gold or hops. It seems not at all peculiar for the well-to-do Baggines or Dwarves of Durin’s Royal Line to be familiar with and often possess relatively exotic commodities such as tea.

Also, at the time of the Long-Expected Party, when North-South trade was evidently ebbing, there were thanks to the Bardings and Beornings, rather useable trade routes stretching from the Ered Luin to Dorwinion on the western shores of the Sea of Rhûn.