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<blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 9416671" data-attributes="member: 6787503">I'm not sure what &quot;cultural, societal, and technological levels&quot; you're talking about. Tolkien, as an author, describes very little about these things, so I'd appreciate more specificity about what you think is being represented. This is complicated by the fact that Tolkien's fantasy depicts different peoples at different &quot;levels&quot;. The Elves, especially those who came from Valinor, have a very high level of culture influenced by divine tutelage. The men of Gondor have knowledge of engineering and other mental abilities that far exceed those of common men. The activities of these more advanced peoples were mainly taking place in areas which are now underwater. Tolkien says very little about the cultural realities of the common folk of Middle-earth with which a valid apples-to-apples comparison could be made with the archaeological record. Then there's the problem that what's &quot;attested&quot; can't possibly be the sum total of everything that has ever existed. There has to be some room for imagination, especially in a fantasy where that's kind of the point.Edit: fixed typo</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hriston, post: 9416671, member: 6787503"] I'm not sure what "cultural, societal, and technological levels" you're talking about. Tolkien, as an author, describes very little about these things, so I'd appreciate more specificity about what you think is being represented. This is complicated by the fact that Tolkien's fantasy depicts different peoples at different "levels". The Elves, especially those who came from Valinor, have a very high level of culture influenced by divine tutelage. The men of Gondor have knowledge of engineering and other mental abilities that far exceed those of common men. The activities of these more advanced peoples were mainly taking place in areas which are now underwater. Tolkien says very little about the cultural realities of the common folk of Middle-earth with which a valid apples-to-apples comparison could be made with the archaeological record. Then there's the problem that what's "attested" can't possibly be the sum total of everything that has ever existed. There has to be some room for imagination, especially in a fantasy where that's kind of the point. Edit: fixed typo [/QUOTE]

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