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<blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 9416426" data-attributes="member: 6787503">Well, the dating he gives in his letter, as I've pointed out, means the Third Age is imagined to transpire during the Neolithic. I think that counts for something! The Third Age also has some features I'd associate with the Neolithic, namely a sparse &quot;points of light&quot; pattern of isolated settlements and the existence of megalithic buildings and monuments such as the mounds of the Barrow-Downs, Isengard and Orthanc, the Bridge of Osgiliath, the Argonath, and the walls of Minas Tirith. In fact, the name Gondor means &quot;stone-land&quot; because of its many stone structures.The Professor was a medievalist, so it isn't surprising there's a lot of medieval influence in his work. That's not in dispute! I think he might object to your characterizing his work as Celtic (a language of which, if I remember correctly, he said he disliked the sound). And it's also not surprising that hobbits have an Edwardian character, since those were the people he knew in his childhood. But I would say an author can have any number of influences, so none of this precludes his story being set in a Neolithic time-period.Not quite. From the same letter I quoted in the OP (#211, p. 281):&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; The Númenóreans of Gondor were proud, peculiar, and archaic, and I think are best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms.Of course this doesn't mean they were Egyptians, but we might think of them as precursors to the Egyptians.Yes, I know he wanted to give languages room to develop, but that's a factor that drove his world building. That and a desire to tell a good story, and as he said in his letter, the events of his story, he felt, required it to be set sufficiently far into the past for the suspension of disbelief, what he calls &quot;literary credibility&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hriston, post: 9416426, member: 6787503"] Well, the dating he gives in his letter, as I've pointed out, means the Third Age is imagined to transpire during the Neolithic. I think that counts for something! The Third Age also has some features I'd associate with the Neolithic, namely a sparse "points of light" pattern of isolated settlements and the existence of megalithic buildings and monuments such as the mounds of the Barrow-Downs, Isengard and Orthanc, the Bridge of Osgiliath, the Argonath, and the walls of Minas Tirith. In fact, the name Gondor means "stone-land" because of its many stone structures. The Professor was a medievalist, so it isn't surprising there's a lot of medieval influence in his work. That's not in dispute! I think he might object to your characterizing his work as Celtic (a language of which, if I remember correctly, he said he disliked the sound). And it's also not surprising that hobbits have an Edwardian character, since those were the people he knew in his childhood. But I would say an author can have any number of influences, so none of this precludes his story being set in a Neolithic time-period. Not quite. From the same letter I quoted in the OP (#211, p. 281): [INDENT] The Númenóreans of Gondor were proud, peculiar, and archaic, and I think are best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms.[/INDENT] Of course this doesn't mean they [I]were[/I] Egyptians, but we might think of them as precursors to the Egyptians. Yes, I know he wanted to give languages room to develop, but that's a factor that drove his world building. That and a desire to tell a good story, and as he said in his letter, the events of his story, he felt, required it to be set sufficiently far into the past for the suspension of disbelief, what he calls "literary credibility". [/QUOTE]

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