Mordor corresponding exactly to the Caliphate of Ottoman Turkey also makes sense - the great scourge of eastern Europe almost prevailing at the Gates of Vienna were it not for the John III Sobieski of Poland and his winged Hussars cavalry whose charge broke the Ottoman ranks.
As Tolkien spent most of his life and time in Oxford he would have access to via the Bodleian library and the myriad of colleges most of the information needed including the maps of ice age Europe. It is likely that he would have known who to consult in the geographical departments for this. As we know he was most meticulous about detail and weaving a myth/legend not a fantasy and the former is based as close to reality as possible. He would have I am sure consulted professors like himself in many disciplines. I do not know if his appointment diaries are extant but they might give an indication of such scheduled meetings. Such diaries seem mundane and barren but can authenticate and often provide the missing piece of the jigsaw. I speak from personal experience in the history of sound recordings where extant diaries of an artist or conductor can lead to important discoveries and information.
“The Grey Havens stream out from the West coast of Ireland, and the blue mountains line up generally with the Scottish highlands.” - And the mountains of the English Lake District line up with the southern range below.
Great insight. Always look forward to reading what you write.
You have done some very good work here, and it ties together many ideas that have floated around for a long time. In reference to Lewis, I see the difference in the two men’s academic specialties. As someone who absorbed so much of the Dark Age mythos, Tolkien certainly focused on the particulars, the nitty-gritty world that you describe here. Lewis, the professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature, had more focus on the universals. Matthew Ward’s explanation of the Chronicles of Narnia - that each book has a theme based on a ruling planet (e.g., Prince Caspian is about war and conflict and is thus representative of Mars) - is a very good explanation of this. It is not a myth but rather a morality tale based on the true order of the world. Lewis certainly had a Platonic streak.
This blew my mind and proved tremendously helpful for my own research which is deeply connected with ths endevour.
I have spent these last years on a project of reconstructing the ancient norse skies, that is the knotting togheter f the myths and the stars, as all mythic accounts are stellar, and our heaven was stolen from us to be replaced with a profane sky of number.
As a part of this project, I have lined up the stars with theirs myths and the myths with activiites and festivals of the solar year. Due to precession, there has been qute a slip between these but they do all click into place when you set the date so that the first day of the winter solstice fall on the first day of Aries, ie Dec 21. Which gives an age of 8200 years for the entire star lore.
This falls exactly on the date you bring up here and the fall of Doggerland into the sea.
Very fascinating! I cross-referenced this in my mind with some ideas I came across a few years ago on a youtube channel called Octarine Tree. A handful of his older videos discuss evidence for early hominid diversity (pre-ice age) and he suggests that the hominid landscape would have looked something like LOTR. He sums up a bit here but I recommend his videos on Sahul and his hominid musings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nWxYJ27dxs
As far as I’m aware, there was no real relationship between JRR Tolkien and Robert E Howard (who killed himself before the Hobbit was published), so it is fascinating that both built such similar fantasy worlds within Neolithic Europe.
The hobbits of Hyboria would be a fascinating place for fan fiction.
Another possible explanation that is quite fanciful: That the immense power of Tolkien's writings had an influential effect on our pre-historical past, which morphed to fit his stories within it. Personally, I feel that your two explanations and this one all work well in tandem.
Unreal
Real
Kek
Doggerland was discovered in 1931 and caused a lot of excitement so I’m sure Tolkien would have been aware of it when he was writing LOTR.
Mordor corresponding exactly to the Caliphate of Ottoman Turkey also makes sense - the great scourge of eastern Europe almost prevailing at the Gates of Vienna were it not for the John III Sobieski of Poland and his winged Hussars cavalry whose charge broke the Ottoman ranks.
As Tolkien spent most of his life and time in Oxford he would have access to via the Bodleian library and the myriad of colleges most of the information needed including the maps of ice age Europe. It is likely that he would have known who to consult in the geographical departments for this. As we know he was most meticulous about detail and weaving a myth/legend not a fantasy and the former is based as close to reality as possible. He would have I am sure consulted professors like himself in many disciplines. I do not know if his appointment diaries are extant but they might give an indication of such scheduled meetings. Such diaries seem mundane and barren but can authenticate and often provide the missing piece of the jigsaw. I speak from personal experience in the history of sound recordings where extant diaries of an artist or conductor can lead to important discoveries and information.
This is amazing.
“The Grey Havens stream out from the West coast of Ireland, and the blue mountains line up generally with the Scottish highlands.” - And the mountains of the English Lake District line up with the southern range below.
Great insight. Always look forward to reading what you write.
You have done some very good work here, and it ties together many ideas that have floated around for a long time. In reference to Lewis, I see the difference in the two men’s academic specialties. As someone who absorbed so much of the Dark Age mythos, Tolkien certainly focused on the particulars, the nitty-gritty world that you describe here. Lewis, the professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature, had more focus on the universals. Matthew Ward’s explanation of the Chronicles of Narnia - that each book has a theme based on a ruling planet (e.g., Prince Caspian is about war and conflict and is thus representative of Mars) - is a very good explanation of this. It is not a myth but rather a morality tale based on the true order of the world. Lewis certainly had a Platonic streak.
Planet Narnia is a fantastic book
This blew my mind and proved tremendously helpful for my own research which is deeply connected with ths endevour.
I have spent these last years on a project of reconstructing the ancient norse skies, that is the knotting togheter f the myths and the stars, as all mythic accounts are stellar, and our heaven was stolen from us to be replaced with a profane sky of number.
As a part of this project, I have lined up the stars with theirs myths and the myths with activiites and festivals of the solar year. Due to precession, there has been qute a slip between these but they do all click into place when you set the date so that the first day of the winter solstice fall on the first day of Aries, ie Dec 21. Which gives an age of 8200 years for the entire star lore.
This falls exactly on the date you bring up here and the fall of Doggerland into the sea.
Very fascinating! I cross-referenced this in my mind with some ideas I came across a few years ago on a youtube channel called Octarine Tree. A handful of his older videos discuss evidence for early hominid diversity (pre-ice age) and he suggests that the hominid landscape would have looked something like LOTR. He sums up a bit here but I recommend his videos on Sahul and his hominid musings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nWxYJ27dxs
That’s Hyboria!
As far as I’m aware, there was no real relationship between JRR Tolkien and Robert E Howard (who killed himself before the Hobbit was published), so it is fascinating that both built such similar fantasy worlds within Neolithic Europe.
The hobbits of Hyboria would be a fascinating place for fan fiction.
I have read that he had access to old documents in college library catacombs that others could not translate, concerning old Anglo mythology.
Myth or reality?
Sounds like he might have based on your article.
This is nothing short of brilliant. Well done, Saxon Cross!
Read "The Oera Linda Book . . . ."
Outstanding work, Drew
So this is probably real history that Tolkien channeled from the ether?
Fascinating. Thank you.
Another possible explanation that is quite fanciful: That the immense power of Tolkien's writings had an influential effect on our pre-historical past, which morphed to fit his stories within it. Personally, I feel that your two explanations and this one all work well in tandem.