The Weather of Middle Earth...

[curiouswombat]

I thought some of my friends might find this article in The Guardian interesting.

A Bristol University expert on past climate change has traced some of Tolkien's detailed maps, and then effectively "scanned" that into the university's computer to determine the weather patterns of Middle Earth.

He has come up with a number of interesting observations - for example

• Much of Middle Earth would have been covered in dense forest if the landscape had not been altered by dragons, orcs, wizards etc.

And that the climate around Mount Doom is very like that of Los Angeles...

Comments

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Oh this is right up my alley. Thank you!! =D *bookmarks for later*

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

My pleasure - it is not terribly long - but it is interesting.

[spiced-wine.livejournal.com]

This pleases me :) Thank-you for posting it!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

My pleasure - it made me smile.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

I need to read this article! Before I do, I wonder if Mount Doom was meant to be somewhat like the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories near Berkeley -- which admittedly is near San Francisco, not Los Angeles, but considering poetic license.... Must read!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Enjoy - it is not terribly long, but it is quite fun.

I liked the consideration into why the Elves sailed from The Grey Havens especially.

[samtyr.livejournal.com]

Oh how cool! :)

And even though you probably know all about this, I thought I'd share this link with you anyway:

Herd of rare cattle 'move to Isle of Man Jurassic Park'

http://www.bbc.co.uk /news/ world-europe-isle-of-man-25018473

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yes - I did know, but interesting to see people off-island also knowing, like you.

The description made me giggle - the local newspaper said 'Noah's ark' which was a slightly better comparison.

Those particular cattle aren't the only ones - there are three or four other rare breeds also kept here as a sort of back-up, too. To be hoped we don't sink some day!

[suzll.livejournal.com]

Haha, this is great!! Bookmarking for later *g*

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I thought it might appeal to a few friends :)

[shirebound]

there are even translations of his paper for Dwarvish and Elvish readers.

*grins* What a fun project to know about.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

And he probably got paid to do it.... :)

[(Anonymous)]

Well I can believe that about L.A./Mordor when they are not sending us smog, we are shipping ours up there.

Tolkien did base the Shire on rural England, or an idealized version of it.

Total off topic but who paid for the Gray Ships? From what you read, the Elves just hopped on a ship and were taken to the Blessed Land!

Huggs,
Lynda

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Tolkien did base the Shire on rural England, or an idealized version of it.


It is the idea of it being Lincolnshire that is interesting to some people - the assumption is that Tolkien was thinking of Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Leicestershire. Visually I'm sure he was, not Lincolnshire - so now we have to think of those counties with the weather of Lincolnshire. Hopefully without the flooding!

I have wondered, too, about the cost of the Grey ships - the wood they doubtless simply cultivated, but the shipbuilders, presumably, were paid to be able to provide for themselves and their families. Perhaps the usual passengers each paid a fare?

In one of my drabbles they left their horses, if they had them - and maybe poorer elves would give some token or another?

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

That's fascinating. Will have to go read the article now.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It isn't terribly long - but fun.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I'll have to bookmark that to read when I have time. I'm always trying to figure out the meteorology of M-e, so this will be very helpful. Thank you!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It's not terribly long - there is a link to the whole paper, but I can't get it to open.

[sulien.livejournal.com]

I knew it!!! I knew Los Angeles was a hellish ash pit like the plain of Gorgoroth! Yeah, I grew up in a suburb east of Los Angeles and truly hated that area. :-p

Thanks kindly for this post, it is a fascinating idea to scan in fictional geography to find out what the weather patterns and climate would be like. It makes me wonder if there has been a meteorology student who has used Middle Earth as the basis for a thesis, considering how many people have used various aspects of Tolkien's legendarium for such purposes.

[sulien.livejournal.com]

Sadly, Dr. Lunt seems to have just selected a Tengwar font for his Elvish paper and pasted his work into the document without running the words through a transcription program or hand coding it using character mapping. It's all gibberish. :(

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oh dear - better not to have bothered, really.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

it is a fascinating idea to scan in fictional geography to find out what the weather patterns and climate would be like.

The whole idea is really interesting, isn't it?

Now I want full scale weather maps of annual temperature, rainfall, hours of sunshine, prevailing wind direction and speed - and so on!

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Very interesting.I wish he had told us about the climate of Gondor and Rohan,though!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I had hoped there might be something in the actual paper - but the link doesn't work for me.

[myrhiann.livejournal.com]

This was really interesting.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

And what a fun project to do, too.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

I saw that! I love stories like that. One of the things that makes the internet so great!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? Absolutely.

[chaotic-binky.livejournal.com]

Fascinating! I think I will give living in the Shire a miss if the weather is like that of Lincolnshire.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Me too - although I guess The shire would be less bothered by tidal surges!

[kathyh]

I'd never thought of the Shire as having a climate like Lincolnshire before. Makes so much more sense of there being a small village called Bag Enderby in the Lincolnshire Wolds, which now I come to think of it could double for the Shire!

Fun article. Thanks for the link :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Bag Enderby sound as if it was settled by a Viking Hobbit!

I reckon The Shire would be less troubled by tide surge, though!

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Mildly amused by "Much of Middle Earth would have been covered in dense forest if the landscape had not been altered by dragons, orcs, wizards etc."

... has the author not heard of Mirkwood and Fangorn? Even in the Third Age it, erm, quite substantially still is...

... and he clearly hasn't read his Silmarillion, or he could instead have pointed out that his climate models are confirmed by the canon evidence from Beleriand.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Ah - but there would have been even more forest! Although I would have thought that more of the deforestation may be laid at the door of Valar and men, than wizards and dragons.

Personally I now want full weather maps of annual temperature, rainfall, hours of sunshine, prevailing wind direction and speed for the whole place, in different ages allowing for, or possibly explaining meteorologically, changes in sea levels and so on...

off Topic

[(Anonymous)]

Another little snippet for you, did you know a group of Wombats is a Wisdom of Wombats?

I was checking out what a bunch of Rooks was as we saw a very large group of them the other day out at the mall, I know crows are a murder but found out rooks are a parliament!

One must, of course, never count Creban!

Huggs,
Lynda

Re: off Topic

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Ah - now I actually knew it was a parliament of rooks - but I didn't know it was a wisdom of wombats - I like it!

Re: off Topic

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

You can understand why rooks are a parliament - they make such a racket - but I've always been intrigued by "an unkindness of ravens"...

Re: off Topic

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It does seem unfair on the poor ravens, I say, wisely...

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was quite interesting:)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I wanted more - but the link to the full paper didn't work for me :(

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

What an interesting article. I have just spent a couple of minutes enjoying it.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It was fun, wasn't it?

[wheelrider.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh this is a subject I ponder quite a lot! (In an alternate universe, I'm a meteorologist...) Thanks for the link!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

My pleasure. I want more now, in detail!

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Oh this is marvelous! I loved that Mordor was similar to Los Angeles, and immediately thought - "Oh, smog" only to read the article, and sure enough - he mentions smog as part of that whole Mordor aura.

- Erulisse (one L)

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

>>Lunt, who undertook the work in his spare time, admits to being a bit of a Lord of the Rings fan.

No kidding.