Tolkienology
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Tolkienology is a term used by Tolkien fans to describe the study of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien treating Middle-earth as a real world and using academic techniques to determine if 'chronicler' Tolkien has left enough clues to come to some fitting conclusions.
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[edit] Common subjects
- Tolkienian linguistics: Study of the most complete languages Tolkien designed for Middle-earth, (usually Quenya and Sindarin), study of the writing systems, the most known being the Tengwar, and possible reconstruction for everyday use (a really huge "Tolkienologic" branch on its own right).
- What Tom Bombadil is, whether balrogs have wings, why the Eagles didn't help Frodo on his Quest etc.
- Genealogies of Hobbit families and kings
- The accuracy of Tolkien's calendars and how can they be used today
Some less common themes include:
- Reconstruction of history (of Elven kingdoms, Arnor and Gondor, Rohan or the more unknown lands)
- Morality issues such as whether an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent Ilúvatar (God) would destroy Númenor, if the 'bad' Dunlendings had any right rivalling the 'good' Rohirrim and if Gondor committed genocides.
- Possible census of population about each race.
- Astronomic descriptions in the books (moon phases, positions of stars), and what can we infer about Middle-earth geography from them.
- Strategies of wars and battles, if they were right and what alternatives might have been
- Possible folkloric impressions Hobbits had about places of the Shire and other whereabouts, determined by translating placenames.
[edit] Methodology
Subjects are treated from several viewpoints: politics, demographics, society, economy, linguistics, geography, cosmology, folklore, etc. As in every other fandom, studies are made with internal logic. Explanations based on literary or narrative reasons are not satisfactory.
This way of thinking is more common when someone is trying to justify some character's motivation in the tales, or find explanation for some less obvious aspects, like 'How old is Legolas?' or 'What is the origin of the Lossoth?'.
Studies have revealed sometimes the great amount of care Tolkien did show to every imaginable detail, even things that are not visible at first, like hair and eye colours. Some have also found some inconsistencies, goofs, and bloopers in the writings, though most of them can be explained internally.
One such very 'deep' mistake is in the Hobbit: In Tolkien's description, the moon rose too late the day the dragon Smaug died, in relation to the season of the year, which is inferred only by careful study of all the astronomic details throughout the whole book.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Page
- Other Middle-earth science Information on genetics (eye and hair colours), census, timelines, etc
- Ardalambion A huge site with lots of information about Tolkien's languages. (Very technical!)
