4 ms·
Tolkiens Middle-Earth is though _our_ Earth. It is an instance of the "found manuscript conceit" with Tolkien just being the english translator of Bilbos writin
by ralfd 3y ago
Tolkiens Middle-Earth is though _our_ Earth. It is an instance of the "found manuscript conceit" with Tolkien just being the english translator of Bilbos writings. A copy of Bilbos manuscript (with later notes and additions by other scribes) survived until our time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_of_Westmarch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_of_Westmarch
That backwater agrarian villages/hunter gathering tribes have the same diverse ethnicites as downtown Los Angeles is a different issue.
- pvaldes 3y agoEarth = terra, Middle = Medio Mediterranean middle earth is a borrowed concept
- veddox 3y agoYes, but it comes from Norse mythology, not Latin: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Midgard https://www.britannica.com/topic/Midgard As a scholar of early medieval literature, Tolkien borrows tons of ideas from the Edda and other mythological sources. (To give him his due, he masterfully reinterprets and combines what he „borrows“.)