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RangerStryder
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Post Telling Time in Middle-earth
on: September 24, 2009 07:48
LOTR Book1 chap.3 - Three is Company
The morning came, pale and clammy. Frodo woke up first.....he stretched. 'Wake up, hobbits!' he cried. 'It's a beautiful morning.'
....Sam! Get breakfast ready for half-past nine!

When their breakfast was over, and their packs all trussed up again, it was after ten o'clock, and the day was beginning to turn fine and hot.



LOTR Book1 chap.6 - The Old Forest
'What is it?' cried Merry. 'It is time to get up. It is half past four and very foggy. Come on!



Now, the question is; how can Frodo and Merry tell time?



[Edited on 25/9/2009 by RangerStryder]
Ilandir
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Post RE: Telling Time in Middle-earth
on: September 25, 2009 03:23

Now, the question is; how can Frodo and Merry tell time?

Ermm .... watches?
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RangerStryder
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Post RE: Telling Time in Middle-earth
on: September 25, 2009 05:14
There are no watches or any kind of 'high-tech' machinery in the Shire or Middle-earth.

LotR-Prologue I - Concerning Hobbits
They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skillful with tools.
Iavas87
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Post RE: Telling Time in Middle-earth
on: September 25, 2009 05:55
You'd be surprised how easily you learn to tell time (at least to the nearest half-hour) using the sun and other natural phenomenon when you give up watches and clocks of all kinds while camping.
Ilandir
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Post RE: Telling Time in Middle-earth
on: September 25, 2009 07:10
There are no watches or any kind of 'high-tech' machinery in the Shire or Middle-earth.


... it was a joke ... but anyway ...

Well if you take 'The Hobbit' into account, there were clocks. If you look at the picture of Bag End by Tolkien himself, there is actually a clock drawn in the hobbit-hole on its right wall.

Also, when Bilbo starts off his journey, he sees the note by Thorin that he had to meet the dwarfs at the Green Dragon at 11am sharp (or something like that).

But that obviously is 'The Hobbit' - written well before LoTR, for children - but I guess it depends whether you consider both novels to be on the same level of fantasy.

[Edited on 25/9/2009 by Ilandir]

[Edited on 25/9/2009 by Ilandir]
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Erucenindë
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Post RE: Telling Time in Middle-earth
on: September 25, 2009 07:17
easily, the sun, position of the shadows. If you lived without clocks, you would learn how to tell the time too. They may have even had sundials, though the Hobbit says they had clocks, though I doubt that meant watches. Even if they did have a clock, they probably still were able to tell time by the sun, etc. Anyone else in LOTR, regardless of where they came from, would have been able to do the same, even at night, by looking at the position of the stars and moon.

I know this to be true, for one winter i was outside alot in the mornings, and i learned how to tell what time it was by the sun, right down to the half-hour.
Aegor
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Post RE: Telling Time in Middle-earth
on: October 05, 2009 09:56
Well your pineal gland is a sort of a natural clock, and one might guess that a person (or an entire race) with no clock technology would be able to evolve it to a much more precise instrument, than yours or mine might be.

Though you should try it on your own, try guessing what the time is before you click your cell phone to see the exact number. You'll be surprised how close you usually will be
LadyBeruthiel
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Post RE: Telling Time in Middle-earth
on: October 05, 2009 05:03
Your spring-driven watch, which must be wound once a day, is about as complicated as a water-mill, which has gears that turn the stones that grind the wheat, so I wouldn't be surprised if hobbits had clocks and watches. As I understand it, their technology is about level with that of rural England in the 19th century.
Elthir
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Post RE: Telling Time in Middle-earth
on: November 06, 2009 06:43
There's also a mention in A Long-Expected Party: 'Bilbo took out the envelope, but just as he was about to set it by the clock,...' for example.

(I don't think it's noted in the thread yet, anyway).
cirdaneth
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on: September 28, 2015 05:22
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