The Lord of the Rings as [Greenlandian] Fantasy in The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien [edited title]

[Reynard]

That's a matter of opinion. My opinion is he was more concerned with story elements like plot and character than describing people's standard of living.

It is not a "matter of opinion" about material culture present in the text. He goes to great lengths to describe the material culture of every place they visit, even Mordor.

 

[Hriston]

Welsh and Irish myth and legend ... was not Tolkien's jam.

See @Reynard, JRR Tolkien would not agree about the Celtic vibe.

 

[Parmandur]

See @Reynard, JRR Tolkien would not agree about the Celtic vibe.

Thing is, I don't think Middle Earth has much of a Geemanic vibe either, though it does reflect some of the mostly forgotten Euhemsrization literature that was the standard narrative of Medieval Germany and Scandanavia, which interpreted the Aesir as Trojan wizards who tricked the Germans into worshipping them as gods.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Tom Bombadil encounter is probably closest to the weirdness of any real mythology.

But it might be more productive to look at Tolkien’s Green Knight to learn more about his attitude to weird myths.

 

[briggart]

This shows a lack of familiarity with archaeology. There was indeed working of gold, silver, copper, meteoric iron, and perhaps other native metals in the Stone Age. What marks the end of the Stone Age is the smelting of copper ore, but metals had been worked and beaten into beautiful and useful shapes for millenia before that.

You are right, some cold working of metals and the smelting of metals softer than copper did happen in the Stone Age. The transition point is when copper smelting starts to become common, or at least common enough to show up in the archeological record. In trying to keep things short, I wrote something wrong. But do you think that the level and kind of metalworking presented in Tolkiens work is compatible with what we know of Neolithic metal usage?

EDIT: apologies, I said below I'm bowing out of this line of discussion, so please disregard this question.

Nor am I. It's you and other posters who have wanted to take my use of the word neolithic to mean something about people's living conditions. I was merely using it for convenience as the name of a time-period which I thought was pretty clear.

I think me and others have explained while -EDIT: why- we believe that the term Neolithic implies something about people typical living conditions (e.g., as in what kind of tools could be available). Regardless, I do not "want" to take your usage of Neolithic to mean something specific that you did not intend. Maybe you haven't yet seen my previous reply in which I explained why I was confused by what you meant, so rather that repeating it here I'll just quote the last bit:

But if your point is simply that Tolkien imagined LotR having taken place around 6000BCE despite the fact that the cultures depicted in the book were significantly more advanced than actual Earth societies of the time, we are in total agreement.

Anyway, you believe your point was clear. I believe it was not, and I believe I explained clearly why. I apparently did not do a good job at that, but at this point it seems we are going in circle, so I think I should bow out of this particular line of discussion.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

What marks the end of the Stone Age is the smelting

Smelting is mentioned a great many times in LotR.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

My opinion is he was more concerned with story elements like plot and character than describing people's standard of living.

We learn a huge amount about hobbit standard of living. And the British class system at the beginning of the 20th century. Most people know Sam represents the working class, but it’s not so well known that Pippin represents old money (titled aristocracy) and Merry represents new money. Which is why snobbish Lobelia seeks to insult Frodo by calling him a Brandybuck (=ill mannered upstart).

Frodo unites the classes.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

He wouldn't have agreed with what he himself wrote?

Have you ever reviewed your own internet posting history? Because I certainly have said things I don’t agree with!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

...iron tools?

Potatoes. Not known in Europe until the 16th century.

 

[Nikosandros]

Do...you believe that Tolkien actually believed his frame story was real history...?

Yes, that's the point here, IMHO. Tolkien built a mythological past that was clearly before and outside of history and, as far as I know, he had no interest in mapping it to historical records and archaeological evidence.