Daily life in M-E - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Baran · 06-06-2002, 09:11 AM

How do you reckon daily life in Midle Earth was for normal, working people, lets say in Gondor at the beginning of the 4. age? Was it anything like Europe before the industriall revolution? How long did they live (average lifetime for the Vikings was about 25-30 years, mainly due to lack of hygiene and knowledge about curing deceases and wounds)? Did they have to give birth to 5-6 children to be sure one of them grew up? How effective was their agriculture?

If we look 2000 years back in our own history things were very different from now (and if you compare year 0 and year 1000 things were very different too, something actually to the worse).
I like to look at them as just as developed as we are now, just in another way, they didn't follow the same path as us if you understand what I mean (I'm not sure I do myself [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] ) Maybe they are what we could have been if we had gotten a second start. If we never invendet electricity, steam machines and electronics, but instead used nature, and and adjusted to nature instead of, like we are doing, adjusting nature to us.
They had some machinery (the lutring of hobsyssel) but I think most people looked upon it with the same disgust as the hobbits.

So, how was daily life for the ordinary man and woman in M-E? Was life a struggle to survive every winter, like for many people 500 years ago, or was it more like life is today for us, just without Internett?

06-06-2002, 09:11 AM	#1
Baran Haunting Spirit Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Mordor/Lothlorien Posts: 71	Daily life in M-E How do you reckon daily life in Midle Earth was for normal, working people, lets say in Gondor at the beginning of the 4. age? Was it anything like Europe before the industriall revolution? How long did they live (average lifetime for the Vikings was about 25-30 years, mainly due to lack of hygiene and knowledge about curing deceases and wounds)? Did they have to give birth to 5-6 children to be sure one of them grew up? How effective was their agriculture? If we look 2000 years back in our own history things were very different from now (and if you compare year 0 and year 1000 things were very different too, something actually to the worse). I like to look at them as just as developed as we are now, just in another way, they didn't follow the same path as us if you understand what I mean (I'm not sure I do myself [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img] ) Maybe they are what we could have been if we had gotten a second start. If we never invendet electricity, steam machines and electronics, but instead used nature, and and adjusted to nature instead of, like we are doing, adjusting nature to us. They had some machinery (the lutring of hobsyssel) but I think most people looked upon it with the same disgust as the hobbits. So, how was daily life for the ordinary man and woman in M-E? Was life a struggle to survive every winter, like for many people 500 years ago, or was it more like life is today for us, just without Internett?