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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 2111728" data-attributes="member: 1757">Since you're a self-professed Tolkien geek, allow me to suggest some possible counter-points to that assertion, Joshua. Tolkien was writing as a mythologist-folklorist, not a historical novelist: Leave that to the Harry Turtledoves and James Clavells of this world. Tolkien was writing to recreate a mood paralleling that of the Nordic/Germanic sagas (which, in the case of the pre-eminent works, actually span a period well into 15th-century Europe, if you're looking at, say, the Eddas), but there are elements of chivalric-period chansons, Chaucer, and good ol' fashioned 16th-19th century English folktales heavily sprinkling the mix. As far as "emulat[ing]" an actual historic age: Where do you get that idea from an epic that includes English gentleman farmer-types (the Shire-folk), mercantile late-medieval types (the men of Eriador and Lake-Town), French-style chivalric orders (the Knights of Dol Amroth: Pay attention, they aren't Celtic-Saxon cnichts, but an actual chivalric order, as bits and pieces of the Appendix to RotK indicate), and gunpowder- and siege-engine-using goblins/orcs? It seems to me that Tolkien is trying to construct a truly timeless saga (heck, one of its major themes is the insidious and dehumanizing nature of modern industry!) using some of the tools of the Nordic sagas. Within that, however, there's plenty of support for the idea that the warriors in Tolkien's works could have been wearing plate armor; perhaps not Gothic and Renaissance articulated suits, but certainly the plate-and-mail combos featured in the movies, f'rex.Damn' straight.</blockquote>

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