But I’d have been a smarter Sauron. First, when forging the One Ring, I would not have stopped with invisibility and control over the other rings. The latter becomes less useful if the other ring owners realize it and just stop using theirs (like the Elves). My ring would also allow me to create an invisible force shield around myself, and it would shoot fire. That rat-bastard Isildur would never have gotten close to me.
And once I’d conquered Middle Earth, I wouldn’t be a totally unreasonable evil overload… the people would still have their fields for tilling and food to eat, as long as my harem of elven maidens continued to do my bidding.
Probably not, the Middle-Earth we know of would be Eurasia not Chicago. We in North America live in an uncharted land that probably came into reach of Middle-Earth only after the fall of Numenor.
We could quibble (the Americas could be the far east of Gondwana Middle Earth or newly-created by Eru in the drowning of Numenor and the removal of the true west)–the shape of all lands has been changed–ME as a label and idea is used to mean ancestral earth (excluding Valinor or not, depending).
I think I would if I could be a human Ranger a couple of hundred years before Frodo pissed off Sauron.
And as long as I didn’t have to live next door to Tom Bombadil.
Not really Middle-Earth was the lands that basically correspond to Eurasia. The Mortal Lands. The Americas are either new lands or lands not discussed.
Don’t have any of my HOME volumes handy, but I think in early drafts Tolkien went so far as to explicitly state that the British Isles were all that was left of Beleriand after the destruction of Thangorodrim.
If I get the chance to study up on a few mining and metallurgy textbooks before I go, sure! Knowledge of how to refine mithril from common ores, and a few key dwarven contacts, would be quite enough to enable me to live like a king. Admittedly it’d take quite a lot of infrastructure, but dwarves are patient, and good at building infrastructure, especially when the potential reward is worth so much.
Even more so if I can bring back my pop can pull-tab collection to use as seed money. A few of those given as a gift would probably be enough to get any dwarf-king to listen to the rest of the plan.
Very good, sirrah!
Well said, donca know!
Since you are an advocate of Middle Earth, & of Dwarves, you get a Magic Axe.
Since I am an advocate of the 21st Century, I get a Submachine Gun.
I suspect a professor of Anglo-Saxon and a scholar of Old and Middle English knew more about the realities of the life of a peasant of those eras than anyone on the SDMB.
I seem to recall that the destruction of Númenor, the Fair Lands to the West were placed “away of the spheres of mortal lands” and the only way to reach them was if it was “granted”.
Somewhere I saw an Atlas where they explained that the destruction of Númenor was actually a transformation of the Middle Earth into a Sphere and the Elven Lands somehow floated away into space :eek:
Not quite true, as stated; the destruction of Numenor happened at the same time as the transformation of Aman from plane to sphere, but the island itself simply sank. As for the Deathless Lands, I never thought they were so much moved physically as it was the topological shift; that is, the path to Aman & Tol Eressea is no longer perceptible to Mortals and Dwarves, though it’s still possible for a mariner to go there by accident–but probably not to return.
I like reading fantasy. Truely I do. One thing I definately realize is that while it may be cool for the guy that never knew luxary and has all kinds of magical powers or becomes king or whatnot, for the average guy it sucks.
Would I want to be that person? Frodo? Heck no! Gandalf, maybe… No definate yes though.
I love technology too much, so while I like fantasy worlds and magic and all that, I definately don’t ever wish to live there, and most of the time, I definately don’t wish I were the main character.
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