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It's been a while since I last read The Silmarillion, so some details might be wrong. The reason why Middle-earth did not have an industrial revolution is supe
by jltsiren 4y ago
It's been a while since I last read The Silmarillion, so some details might be wrong.
The reason why Middle-earth did not have an industrial revolution is supernatural. When the Ainur sang the songs of creation, there was discord. Melkor, the mightiest of them, wanted to create something of his own, which was the root of all evil. The world they created was flawed. Within the world, the minds of those who seek to create were easily corrupted.
Middle-earth is a world where the creations of engineers often make the world worse and the engineers themselves tend to become bad guys. Think of dwarves or the Noldor in general. Or think about Fëanor who created the Silmarils or Celebrimbor who created the Rings of Power. Sauron and Saruman were both servants of Aulë the Smith, and look what they became.
There was industry in Mordor and in Isengard. Dwarves also had it, and the Noldor probably as well. Even hobbits managed to create some by the end of the LotR. But that industry never led to sustained prosperity. In the end, there was always war and destruction, because the world was flawed from the beginning.
- swayvil 4y agoAn engineer has a dream of a work, of a machine he can build. That is to say he has a vision, or hears a song. This could be called a lesser song, compared to Ainur's. Just a distraction really. And in this state of distraction he acts. Of course he's the bad guy.
- saagarjha 4y ago> Middle-earth is a world where the creations of engineers often make the world worse and the engineers themselves tend to become bad guys. Ah, so it’s the Bay Area.
- _carbyau_ 4y agoThere really is a bubble effect. Everything is always about the Bay area... :-P
- samus 4y agoPresumably also the Numenoreans had it. The description of latter-day Numenor reads like they were technologically very advanced. The question is how far, but it seems fair to assume there was a sharp drop after the Fall because of the colonies not being self-sufficient enough to maintain their tech level. If we consider the stories in the Silmarillon to be handed down orally, the most advanced technologies could have simply been left out or summarized as "magic". No point detailing them if there's nothing in the daily lives of your audience that is comparable.
- pm90 4y agoNumenor always sounded like a reference to the United States; virgin land blessed with immense resources, ideal conditions for a centralized power to grow wealthy materially and dominate the rest of middle earth. I doubt if they had “industry”; they probably had “advanced feudalism” with large capacity for shipbuilding and manufacturing arms. But that was because of the large continent and population. In a sense, its more similar to the Roman Empire.
- btmcnellis 4y agoNumenor was explicitly an allusion to Atlantis.