Agreed. I'd believe Tolkien deliberately chose a "small" world precisely so that he could make things coherent and consistent to _some_ aspects of reality (som

Agreed. I'd believe Tolkien deliberately chose a "small" world precisely so that he could make things coherent and consistent to _some_ aspects of reality (some because it is, after all, a world with magic). It is apparent that Tolkien focused on the aspects he cared for and understood best - language and military stuff^1; And because he quite literally wanted to described how the world started and how it got there, he had a few options: he could either make a small world, or hand-waive a lot, 99.99% of detail of a larger world, or just don't finish writing the equivalent of a 1-year period in his fiction's timeline during his lifetime, I guess? Another thing - as the author points out, George Martin strives actively to make the world in A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones 'larger'. He doesn't care that much about realistic coherence, though, and that is why he can copy-paste and mash historical elements. 1^ We all know about Tolkien and languages, but I, at least, was surprised by the 'coherence' in military stuff in Lord of the Rings (https://acoup.blog/2020/05/01/collections-the-battle-of-helms-deep-part-i-bargaining-for-goods-at-helms-gate/ https://acoup.blog/2020/05/01/collections-the-battle-of-helm...)