01-28-2006, 11:51 PM | #1 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: LI-woods, NY
Posts: 653
|
How real is Tolkien's world?
Everybody knows about the recent discovery in South Africa of a hobbit-like humanoid, nicknamed "the Hobbit".
Now it's another discovery of the giant eagles. Huge eagles dominated NZ skies Just stop for a minute and visualize the enormous size of the bird. Such "Thorondors" in american measurement had 10-foot "truncated" wingspan in flight, which is considered an angled span for flight purposes. Wonder if anything else could come out? Probably,the discovery of the remnant of "elf" is not in so distant future? |
01-29-2006, 08:26 AM | #2 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium)
Posts: 14,363
|
Curious news fact about the giant eagle. With a weight of 10-14kg I'm inclined to believe this extinct eagle still wouldn't be a match for Middle-earth Eagles who could carry dwarves and wizards. Although carrying abilities would probably more determined by wing muscle mass and wing span than weight, but I confess I don't know enough of this. Still, it's interesting, if this Haast's eagle was large enough to dominate his environment, than Tolkien's Eagles should have had a greater impact on their environment as well.
I'm not waiting until they find an Elf, their skeletons should be too similar to humans to see a difference. Even those who believe in the pointy-eared variety of Elves would find nothing as soft tissue doesn't preserve, unless it's a bog body or something. Although I am curious whether they'll ever discover Tengwar writings in some old tomb in England. I could be wrong but I thought the Hobbit-like hominid was found in Asia, not Africa.
__________________
We are not things. |
01-29-2006, 10:45 AM | #3 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol
Posts: 3,114
|
Would that be an Asian eagle or an African Eagle? Rather like the swallows in MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, eh?
Actually, I'm holding out for an Orc skeleton myself. Though I suppose one could say that all the archeologists have missed the point about the actual origins of what they consider pre-human hominids.
__________________
Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941 Last edited by inked : 01-29-2006 at 10:50 AM. |
01-31-2006, 01:43 AM | #4 | ||
Elf Lord
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: LI-woods, NY
Posts: 653
|
Quote:
Quote:
according to their researches on the earth at one time existed about 15 types of hominids. (Thanks inked for correction ) So, maybe inked is right in his suggestion that archeologists have missed the point about an actual origin of prehistoric men There is "Forbidden Archeology", a very interesting book on this subject written by Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson, where they presented acheological evidence, which is not accepted or ignored by the scientific community since this discoveries are contradicting the dominant views of human origins, suggesting that Homo sapiens existed on earth millions of years ago. Like the discovery of the parts of human skull which shows all characteristics of the skull of contemporary man, but chemical and radiometric analyses astonishingly manifested that ths kind of men had been living 11 millions years ago!!! Hey,Eärniel it could be your elves! |
||
01-31-2006, 05:48 AM | #5 | |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium)
Posts: 14,363
|
Quote:
__________________
We are not things. |
|
01-31-2006, 04:51 PM | #6 | |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: LI-woods, NY
Posts: 653
|
You absolutely right! I meant Homo Floresiensis from South Pacific, but have got mixed up. It happened sometimes at 3:00 at night Sorry for misleading.
Here is another interesting relic. Remnants of Treebeard?? Quote:
I remember some interesting comments about surviving Huorn, made be Jerseydevil. He even posted a picture of the tree with story how people have been caught by the tree. I think his notes also belong to this topic. Wonder, if any of mooters can contribute something to this discussion. Come on, guys! Let's the thread keep going! Last edited by Olmer : 01-31-2006 at 10:09 PM. |
|
03-02-2006, 10:08 PM | #7 |
Spaceman Spiff
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: In the belly of a Firefly, living in Serenity is where you'll find me
Posts: 1,438
|
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6346939/
Heres another link about the "hobbit" that i found which talks about their relationship to homo sapiens. I remember seeing something on the Dicovery Channel awhile back that taked about the ancient creatures of New Zealand and it talked about the giant eagles that lived there. I did a google search and even went to the Discovery web site but couldn't find it. They were able to pick up humans and even hunted them. The people that lived there would send out one person to get water from a spring why another would watch the sky for this bird. They said it would sometimes swop down and pick up two people at a time and take them back to it's nest to feed its eaglets! It would be so cool if they found a troll skeleton in an ancient cave. Maybe one of a fell beast in the mountains.
__________________
Do you hear that? |
03-02-2006, 10:45 PM | #8 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: I'm living in the only place teenagers are neither adults nor children, where we are free from the expectations of the world. This place is the insanity of our minds.
Posts: 144
|
Just wondering , but...
Where in the world do you get all this information? Do you guys just kinda... pick up this info, hear it around, what? I find it interesting to see what sort of stuff people know and keep up with, (wierd habit, I know ) and this is something pretty interesting. Do ya mind lettin' me know?
__________________
Maturing Teenager With Lots of Voice I'VE GOT A LOVELY BUNCH OF COCONUTS, THERE THEY ARE ALL STANDING IN A ROW. BIG ONES, SMALL ONES, SOME AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD, GIVE THEM A TWIST, A FLICK OF THE WRIST, THAT'S WHAT THE SHOWMAN SAID. ROLL-A-BOWL-A-BALL, A PENNY A PITCH. ROLL-A-BOWL-A-BALL, A PENNY A PITCH. ROLL-A-BOWL-A-BALL, ROLL-A-BOWL-A-BALL, SINGING ROLL-A-BOWL-A-BALL, A PENNY A PITCH! |
03-02-2006, 10:55 PM | #9 | |
Spaceman Spiff
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: In the belly of a Firefly, living in Serenity is where you'll find me
Posts: 1,438
|
Quote:
__________________
Do you hear that? |
|
03-03-2006, 02:16 AM | #10 |
of the House of Fëanor
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 6,150
|
Yes, a big welcome to ElvenLover!
That bit about the oldest living tree organism reminded me of something I'd read somewhere once, so I looked it up just now on - you guessed it, Google, and got a few things back. Here's some: King's Holly (Lomatia tasmanica) - found in the rainforests of Tasmania. Scientists estimated the age of the plant using a nearby fossil of an identical plant. It was found to be over 43,000 years old! The plants appear to be sterile - incapable of producing flowers and viable seeds. Lomatia is triploid, that is, it has three sets of chromosomes instead of two. Because of this it is unable to sexually reproduce. The clonal thickets reproduce vegetatively by root suckering. Fossil leaves found in a late Pleistocene deposit may be genetically identical to present-day plants. The plant is a rare freak of nature whose origins and age are as yet unknown. King's Lomatia is unusual because all of the remaining plants are genetically identical. Because it has three sets of chromosomes (a triploid) and is therefore sterile, reproduction occurs only vegetatively: when a branch falls, that branch grows new roots, establishing a new plant that is genetically identical to its parent. Although all the plants are technically separate in that each has its own root system, they are collectively considered to be the oldest living plant clone. Each plant's life span is approximately 300 years, but the plant has been cloning itself for at least 43,600 years. This estimate is based on the radiocarbon dating of fossilised leaf fragments that were found 8.5 km away. The fossilised fragments are identical to the contemporary plant in cell structure and shape, which indicates that both plants are triploid and therefore clones due to the extreme rarity of the occurrence of triploidy. (that's from Wikipedia) AND... The Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) is generally considered the largest living organism on earth. The Sequoia is native primarily to the Sierra Nevada Mountains of eastern California. The largest Sequoia is the General Sherman tree with a height of 250 feet and a diameter near the base of 24.75 feet. The trunk of the tree weighs almost 1400 tons or equivalent to 15 adult blue whales. It can be argued, however; that the tree is not the largest living organism since most of the tree consists of dead, not living tissues. tree trivia 4 all y'all!
__________________
Few people have the imagination for reality.
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Last edited by Lotesse : 03-03-2006 at 02:19 AM. |
03-23-2006, 10:36 AM | #11 | |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: LI-woods, NY
Posts: 653
|
That's really interesting piece about King's Holly, Lotesse.
Farimir Captain of Gondor thank you for giving the link of more in deepth report on "Hobbits" account. Quote:
|
|
04-05-2006, 07:55 PM | #12 | |
Fenway Ranger, Lord of Red Sox Nation
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: College!
Posts: 1,976
|
Quote:
I thought that was Piltdown Man?
__________________
Adventure...betrayal...heroism... Atharon: where heroes are born. My wife once said to me—when I'd been writing for ten or fifteen years—that I could always go back to being a nuclear engineer. And I said to her, 'Harriet, would you let someone who quit his job to go write fantasy anywhere near your nuclear reactor? I wouldn't!' (Robert Jordan) |
|
04-21-2006, 06:58 PM | #13 | |
Enting
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: in the clean air
Posts: 84
|
Quote:
not "Homo Floresiensis" from South park be? |
|
04-22-2006, 01:47 AM | #14 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Posts: 251
|
as Olmer said, let's the thread keep going
I think that we would all agree that history shows us that as we go further back in years, animals seem to get bigger, but not humans.
This culd be why the mumaks, spiders, and eagles were sooo huge while the humans were the same. But then again, if you go by what I just said, the insects in Tolkien's world are nowere near the size that they should be.
__________________
Sam, son of Mark |
04-22-2006, 03:55 AM | #15 | |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium)
Posts: 14,363
|
Quote:
__________________
We are not things. |
|
04-22-2006, 03:58 AM | #16 |
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 301
|
I don't think even the giant New Zealand eagle would be able to carry a human- maybe a toddler- though they probably attacked them.
I do recall reading an essay by Jared Diamond on New Zealand's extinct wildlife (in "The Third Chimpanzee"?) where he pointed out that one of the eagle's main prey was the Moa, an ostrich-size flightless bird- so when the first Maoris started strolling around, the eagles figured, hey, it's tall, it's got two legs... |
04-22-2006, 09:29 AM | #17 | |
Spaceman Spiff
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: In the belly of a Firefly, living in Serenity is where you'll find me
Posts: 1,438
|
Quote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4138147.stm http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfact...les/3044.shtml
__________________
Do you hear that? |
|
04-22-2006, 11:43 AM | #18 | ||
Elf Lord
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: LI-woods, NY
Posts: 653
|
Quote:
Quote:
Last edited by Olmer : 04-22-2006 at 11:48 AM. |
||
04-23-2006, 02:04 AM | #19 | ||
Elven Warrior
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 301
|
Quote:
To show how many sickos are out there... The Taung Child Load Limerick contest: Quote:
Surprised that there were no "Holy Grail" references. Puts on poet's cap.... |
||
05-30-2006, 11:00 PM | #20 |
Hobbit
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Vancouver, CANADA!
Posts: 32
|
Wouldn't it be weird if tolkien had made Arda based on what the world could have turned into. Instead of Asia and Africa there was The undying lands and the Easterling, and in the middle was all middle earth. Wouldn't it also be weird to think that right now instead of being on the computer we were caught in the middle of the war of the ring, or after having survived it. It is something interesting to think about. What if tolkien somehow got transported into a parellel universe, and came back to write about the legends and things he had seen?
__________________
Gwilwileth, the Easterling |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Proof: Tolkien's world is real | Sister Golden Hair | General Messages | 23 | 05-09-2010 07:21 AM |
Tolkien's Elves - our Earth | Olmer | Middle Earth | 13 | 07-14-2005 03:46 PM |
Entering A New World | Entling | RPG Forum | 78 | 08-28-2004 11:38 PM |
I made a song!!!!! | StrawberryIcecream | Lord of the Rings Books | 999 | 08-11-2002 01:58 AM |
women in tolkien's world | eric | Middle Earth | 27 | 04-20-2001 06:50 AM |