![]() |
![]() |
Visit The *EVEN NEWER* Barrow-Downs Photo Page |
![]() |
#41 | |
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 40
![]() |
Quote:
![]() As far as we know, Ents didn't write anything down. I suppose they didn't need to as their memories stretched back virtually to the dawn of time.
__________________
Visit the Walking Tree Publishers |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#42 |
Pilgrim Soul
Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
Posts: 9,455
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
I don't think Ents would approve much of writing on paper, probably not think it was worth killing trees for... though you can, write on parchment which involves killing animals... maybe they could have used paper made from oliphaunt dung with a clear conscience ( I was givem some elephant dung stationery once).
__________________
“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”
Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#43 | |
Gruesome Spectre
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Heaven's doorstep
Posts: 8,036
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Quote:
![]() It seems Hobbits would have used wood pulp for their paper, though they no doubt practiced careful forestry to preserve wood used for that and other applications, as well as to enjoy the woods for natural beauty.
__________________
Music alone proves the existence of God. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#44 | |
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 40
![]() |
Quote:
__________________
Visit the Walking Tree Publishers |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#45 | |
Pilgrim Soul
Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
Posts: 9,455
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Quote:
__________________
“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”
Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#46 |
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 435
![]() |
Actually cotton is an odd one, origin wise. Species were domesticated in the old and new worlds simultaneously. Most cotton TODAY comes from the New World species. But cotton existed in both Africa and Asia for millennia, and was known to the ancients. In fact many authorities on folklore believe that the origin of the mythical animal know as a barometz, or vegetable lamb of Tartary (basically a sheep that grew out of the ground and remained attached to a stalk through it's umbilicus) was the attempt of an ancient Hebrew writer to try and describe cotton, and using a word that could me either "apple" or "sheep" depending on the vowels (which as in modern Hebrew are often not written down) Certainly some bits of the barometz mythology certainly sound like they are talking of cotton (especially the bit about the wool of a barometz being makeable into a fabric equal to the finest wool, but unlike wool, being easily washable without shrinkage). So ME could have had cotton (maybe from the South or East, before the shadow ultimately consumed them.)
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#47 | |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,506
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Quote:
__________________
And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#48 | |
Animated Skeleton
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 40
![]() |
Quote:
__________________
Visit the Walking Tree Publishers |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#49 | |
Pile O'Bones
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 18
![]() |
Quote:
I will also say that, from personal experience, living in a very small town in the American South, that who you are related to matters to other people. I am not from this town or county - work brought me here and I am, thus, an outsider. People here are always asking me who my "kin people" are and where they (and I) are from. They care. Rural societies have not changed much in that regard. Genealogy is how you keep track of that. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#50 | |
Gruesome Spectre
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Heaven's doorstep
Posts: 8,036
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Quote:
The Shire Hobbits, being such a closed community, would naturally have been the same way. That's also evidenced in Bree, where the Underhills from Staddle were convinced Frodo was a relative, and took him to heart as such.
__________________
Music alone proves the existence of God. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#51 |
Pile O'Bones
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 18
![]() |
Not only that but in a small community, as the communities of The Shire no doubt were, the same families would have known one another, intermarried with each other, and done business with each other for generations.
We're talking hundreds of years here. In a society with few (if any) written laws, no real government, and relatively low populations, those family histories and relationships would matter A LOT. |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#52 | |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,506
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Quote:
An excellent example is the Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker character in Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake". Although his family has resided in the environs of Dublin for well over 1200 years, his surname is of Danish derivation and recalls the Viking invasion of Ireland; thus, Earwicker is accused of "Scandiknavery".
__________________
And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#53 | |
Pilgrim Soul
Join Date: May 2004
Location: watching the wonga-wonga birds circle...
Posts: 9,455
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Quote:
![]() The breadth and depth of knowledge round here never ceases to amaze me. It may also be that in a relatively small and isolated community of the Shire it made sense to keep track of families so as to discourage too close intermarriage. Obviously they wouldnt' have known about genetics and I am not suggesting that but they may have observed problems when there was too much shared blood. I am not suggesting that they went in for hispanic Hapsburg style inbreeding but in small static communities the gene pool could get a bit murky.
__________________
“But Finrod walks with Finarfin his father beneath the trees in Eldamar.”
Christopher Tolkien, Requiescat in pace |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
#54 |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,506
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
As a parallel, look at the U.S. Short-lived as it is in comparison to European states, still there are organizations like the Daughters of the American Revolution who are more than willing to overlook any number of cutthroats, drunkards and spendthrifts as long as they can number one of the Founding Fathers as their direct ancestor.
One signer of the Declaration of Independence moldering in his grave trumps a host of skeletons in the closest.
__________________
And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
![]() |