Visit The *EVEN NEWER* Barrow-Downs Photo Page |
01-10-2008, 01:04 PM | #41 |
Wight
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: In front of my PC
Posts: 164
|
Bree is even farther from the Blue Mountains than the Shire. And it's unlikely that the Dwarves grew it themselves, as it needed open spaces and lots of sunlight. And the Elves didn't smoke, so they wouldn't grow it either. So trade it is.
|
01-10-2008, 01:31 PM | #42 |
Princess of Skwerlz
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: where the Sea is eastwards (WtR: 6060 miles)
Posts: 7,500
|
Lommy brings up a good point - fresh food doesn't keep long, so if Dwarves bought it from others, the producers would need to live fairly close to them. After all, there were no refrigerators nor trucks with freezer compartments in Middle-earth!
Pipeweed is a different matter - it could be kept for a considerable time and was transported in barrels. The fact that Dwarves had pipeweed would indicate that they did come to or near the Shire occasionally, but not necessarily frequently.
__________________
'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth...' |
01-10-2008, 01:34 PM | #43 |
Shady She-Penguin
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: In a far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 8,093
|
They did - one should not forget the fact that curious Hobbits got most of their news of the big world from Dwarves.
__________________
Like the stars chase the sun, over the glowing hill I will conquer Blood is running deep, some things never sleep Double Fenris
|
01-10-2008, 02:11 PM | #44 | |
Wight
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: In front of my PC
Posts: 164
|
Quote:
Exactly how long would it take to transport goods from the Shire to the Blue Mtns by horse cart? Let's say a week. Grains, cereals and nuts can be stored for several months, meat can be preserved for weeks by salting and smoking(and still taste good), and fruits and vegetables can be pickled, so it's still possible. And if the Dwarves wanted fresh fruits and veggies they could buy it from the Elves, who are better at growing them than any other race. |
|
01-11-2008, 07:07 AM | #45 |
Woman of Secret Shadow
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: in hollow halls beneath the fells
Posts: 4,511
|
I don't think (even food) trade with hobbits is a completely impossible thought. It just doesn't make sense that the dwarves had no way to get food without trading, which I think is what you zxcvbn are saying (or at least coming up with points that back it up).
I bet it takes more people & resources to travel quite a distance just to buy food than it takes to farming, keeping of cattle, hunting or whatever. And dwarven products would sell even without barter. How many dwarves live in the Blue Mountains anyway? Even though dwarves were a dwindling race at the end of the Third Age, I dare to say there were still more than could be feeded with traded food only. And how much food does a dwarf consume per day? How much does a dwarf work per day? Buying all their food would soon have made their work unprofitable.
__________________
He bit me, and I was not gentle. |
01-11-2008, 07:40 AM | #46 | ||
Wight
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: In front of my PC
Posts: 164
|
Quote:
Quote:
Heh. I'm really enjoying this discussion. |
||
01-11-2008, 08:04 AM | #47 | |||
Woman of Secret Shadow
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: in hollow halls beneath the fells
Posts: 4,511
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
__________________
He bit me, and I was not gentle. |
|||
01-11-2008, 09:04 AM | #48 | ||
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Facing the world's troubles with Christ's hope!
Posts: 1,635
|
Quote:
I like zxcvbn's idea about the mushrooms. Quote:
Ahhh... a man after my own heart!
__________________
I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Their old, familiar carols play. And wild and sweet the words repeatof peace on earth, good-will to men! ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
||
01-11-2008, 09:27 AM | #49 | |
Woman of Secret Shadow
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: in hollow halls beneath the fells
Posts: 4,511
|
Quote:
It requires so much fodder that it wouldn't be profitable to keep them inside all year.
__________________
He bit me, and I was not gentle. |
|
01-11-2008, 10:47 AM | #50 |
Wight
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: In front of my PC
Posts: 164
|
The reason I don't think Dwarves were given to farming is because their halls were not well-aired, and were mostly cut off from sunlight. Plants need both fresh air and abundant sunlight to grow, and unless the Dwarves had UV lamps like those used in modern greenhouses it would not be possible to obtain a good crop underground. Plus I don't think the rocky, gravelly soil down there would be very fertile.
The only exception is mushrooms and other fungi, which grow well under such conditions inside dark caves. |
01-11-2008, 10:56 AM | #51 |
Woman of Secret Shadow
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: in hollow halls beneath the fells
Posts: 4,511
|
Ah, but I didn't think either that they were growing plants inside a mountain. Rather that they had some fields on the slopes and in the vales.
__________________
He bit me, and I was not gentle. |
01-11-2008, 12:00 PM | #52 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Facing the world's troubles with Christ's hope!
Posts: 1,635
|
Plus even if they did have crop fields I'm sure we will never find out. Dwarves love to keep things a secret.
__________________
I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Their old, familiar carols play. And wild and sweet the words repeatof peace on earth, good-will to men! ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
01-14-2008, 08:51 PM | #53 |
Doubting Dwimmerlaik
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Heaven's basement
Posts: 2,466
|
Why were prehistoric bugs so big?
I too have been wondering where those Dwarves got all of their food. Think of the fair city of the Dwarrowdelf - in its hay day, more than a few busy dwarves lived there. Did they eat much of what Hollin produced? Then what of the elves? How many acres were given over in these lands to food production/procurement, and how many were required to keep a dwarf on its feet all day?
... So why were prehistoric bugs so big (imagine a bug with a wing span of over two feet/70 cm!)? It's speculated that, with an atmospheric oxygen concentration up to 35 percent, bugs could be bigger back then. Did you know that bugs breathe through tiny holes and tubes and sacs that passively or actively get the air inside the bug? This ventilation mechanism limits the size of the bug - too big, and oxygen can't get to those cells deep inside the bug, those cells die and then...We, in case you haven't noticed, use our lungs and heart to circulate the oxygen around - and to rid ourselves of carbon dioxide, the same thing those bugs have to do. What does this have to do with dwarves? I've been wondering just how far away from an air source they can tunnel before they no longer can get air. Sure, Gandalf and company note air holes in Moria when they are camped outside the Chamber of Mazarbul, but what of the Mines? As with the Romans, surely the dwarves encountered the ventilation and heat issues that plague miners even today. Toxic gases can be released when mining, water has to be diverted to somewhere, and when they lit fires in the upper chambers, you end up with chimneys sucking out the air from below. Deep they delved them. So, that said, did the dwarves, seemingly with scant food resources and possibly low oxygen concentrations, have the ability to 'live on less?'
__________________
There is naught that you can do, other than to resist, with hope or without it.
|
02-08-2008, 12:15 PM | #54 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Facing the world's troubles with Christ's hope!
Posts: 1,635
|
The Dwarf's Rings
I was thinking about starting a thread about this, but I think this is as good a place as any to discuss it.
What power did the dwarven rings posses? Just like Narya was called the Ring of Fire and Nenya was called the Ring of Water and the Ring of Adamant. I know that all the rings of power had the strength to govern each race, but is that all that they could do? Yay, 300th post! |
02-08-2008, 12:21 PM | #55 | |
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In that far land beyond the Sea
Posts: 7,431
|
Quote:
Concerning the Rings: I am not sure if there is much said anywhere, but one thing I can remember for sure is that in the Appendices to LotR, there is said about the Ring of Durin's tribe that "it needed gold to breed gold", therefore, it probably was capable of - somehow - increase the wealth of the owner. I don't imagine it the way that i.e. the Ring would "generate" a pile of gold every morning (though even this is not totally impossible - in the Norse mythology, Odin's ring did similar thing; and some inspiration here could be imaginable); but I think rather it helped the person, somehow gave him luck in trade, making profits, finding deposits of gold etc. You may look there what's the exact quote; it is in the Appendix A III in the part about Thorin in exile in the Blue Mountains. I can't look it up, I'm leaving in a few minutes for an RPG-weekend
__________________
"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
|
02-08-2008, 12:24 PM | #56 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Facing the world's troubles with Christ's hope!
Posts: 1,635
|
|
02-13-2008, 09:24 AM | #58 | ||
Regal Dwarven Shade
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: A Remote Dwarven Hold
Posts: 3,592
|
Quote:
Quote:
__________________
...finding a path that cannot be found, walking a road that cannot be seen, climbing a ladder that was never placed, or reading a paragraph that has no... |
||
02-14-2008, 08:37 AM | #59 | |
Wight
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: In front of my PC
Posts: 164
|
Quote:
As such, it wouldn't seem wrong to the Dwarves(considering their preference for crafts rather than food-growing) to buy all their food from the Men, especially if the Men were literally living right outside their Gates(Dale). |
|
02-14-2008, 09:26 AM | #60 |
Regal Dwarven Shade
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: A Remote Dwarven Hold
Posts: 3,592
|
For a little more information on this system and an explaination of how it could go horribly wrong look here.
__________________
...finding a path that cannot be found, walking a road that cannot be seen, climbing a ladder that was never placed, or reading a paragraph that has no... |
03-13-2008, 07:26 AM | #61 |
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The cave under the Misty Mountains. Just take a wrong turn in the goblin's tunnels.
Posts: 34
|
There are no Dwarf women in Lord of the Rings Online. Hmmm...if Dwarven women are so alike to dwarven men, does that mean that you could go on a date with a Dwarf and not know whether they were male or female?!? Creepy...
__________________
Leave now, and never come back! Gollum, Gollum! See? You made him mad. |
03-15-2008, 01:54 PM | #62 |
Flame Imperishable
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Right here
Posts: 3,928
|
Terry Pratchett definitely had fun with this...
__________________
Welcome to the Barrow Do-owns Forum / Such a lovely place
|
03-16-2008, 12:07 PM | #63 | |
Woman of Secret Shadow
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: in hollow halls beneath the fells
Posts: 4,511
|
Quote:
Seriously, though, at least dwarves themselves should be able to distinguish males from females even if the other races couldn't do that.
__________________
He bit me, and I was not gentle. |
|
03-16-2008, 12:09 PM | #64 | |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Facing the world's troubles with Christ's hope!
Posts: 1,635
|
Quote:
__________________
I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Their old, familiar carols play. And wild and sweet the words repeatof peace on earth, good-will to men! ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|