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LoTR had an industrial revolution. It was called Isengard and people didn’t like how it turned out. Elves were anti technology so there would be downward pres
by jleyank 4y ago
LoTR had an industrial revolution. It was called Isengard and people didn’t like how it turned out. Elves were anti technology so there would be downward pressure until they upped and left. Dwarves probably reproduced slowly and were recovering from being orc and dragon chow. Numenorians reproduced slowly and they were also recovering from the plagues and wars. This leaves hobbits who were idyllic. Oh, and the wizards were forbidden to show their abilities.
When the age of men begins, the modern world begins. Tolkien was not interested in writing about that having seen it’s horrors first hand. And as others have written, the population density was very low. Rohan mustered 7-10k riders from the adult male (+1j population.
- jcranberry 4y agoThe Numenorians actually also had a technological revolution, although I don't know whether it was industrial. They unfortunately faced the setback of being almost entirely wiped out when their continent was sunk by Illuvatar.
- jleyank 4y agoBoth the Elvish and Numenorian comments discussed hand-made, almost magical creations similar to what we imagine pre-industrial. So I think we're all in agreement that there were some amazing things created, but not at scale (perhaps aside from weaponry, but that's probably a long, slow accretion) and not for consumption.
- matkoniecz 4y ago> Elves were anti technology Depends on how you define it, they had no problem with metallurgy, cloth-making (with properties better than high-teach real world clothes and considered as magic by outsiders), advanced food processing, excellent weaponry, shipbuilding and so on...