Suite101 article: Seeking the wayward children...

Seeking the wayward children of Numenor

This week's Suite101 article is a little bit late, but addresses some questions that fans have long pondered.

How did Arnor and Gondor come to be, and what were the fundamental differences between the characters of the two realms? And what was the contribution of Numenor to their founding? A discussion of the origins of Arnor and Gondor explores the dynamics of Numenorean culture and how it laid the foundation for the two realms in exile.

www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/tolkien

I'm pretty well impressed with your conjectures. I also liked the previous article on 3rd Age entertainment. (Have you considered games and sports that there might have been?)

I'm fascinated with history, myself, and I find the developments you consider, extrapolated from the "lore," ring true with our own long record.

Your dissertations are scholarly and sometimes even profound and are a very great service to folk like me!

...not to mention entertaining to boot!

Thanks. Haven't given much thought to games yet. I once asked about games on our Middle-earth mailing list at Xenite.Org and a number of people suggested some citations. There is a list of games in THE HOBBIT, when Bilbo is going after the spiders.

I figure Rohan has got to have jousting and other tournament play. Gondor might as well. I've seen no references to arenas, but lists on the field, viewed from the walls and from the ground might not be too far out. Gondor became very enamoured with military prowess, and though Roman style bloodsport was not around, there might have been formal competitions.

It seems a little medieval, but I'm thinking of the passage in LotR describing the Riders of Rohan riding with Theoden in the onset of the battle of the Pelennor fields:

Great was the clash of their meeting. But the white fury of the North-men burned the hotter, and more skilled was their knighthood with long spears and bitter.

I tend to think that most societies that had this sort of military training would also have folks who loved to watch it!

Jousting is a medieval convention, however. There is no indication that Rohan and Gondor are based on medieval Europe. Tolkien probably envisioned some sort of competitive "martial" sports for the Rohirrim, and perhaps for the late Third Age Dunedain of Gondor, but I doubt he would have favored anything directly lifted from the middle ages.

I can imagine that racing, target sports (such as something like spearing rings, and horse-mounted archery), leaping, hurling, and similar "equestrian" sports -- developed to various sophistications by many cultures through the ages -- would suffice for Rohirric sports. Gondor's mounted troops probably would have shared similar interests, although I wouldn't go so far as to suppose there must have been something like Olympic games.

On the other hand, there is an indication from late in Tolkien's life that the Elves of Aman engaged in sports contests. His ideas for Galadriel's life there included her excelling in sports such as archery.

I can imagine that the Elves, depending on their region and culture, would enjoy archery and fencing competitions, running, swimming, canoeing, and climbing competitions. Acrobatics would probably also be popular, such as rope-walking and other balancing skills.

I think you're probably right about the jousting, though this would be necessary, I think, if only for training. Tournaments, as such, were little more than Medieval bloodsports, and this probably did not stain the cultures of Western Middle-earth.

Entertainment such as music, song, and dance, was mostly homegrown for rustic Middle-earth, much like everything else, especially as time wore on. Sporting competitions would certainly provide a lively variety of diversions and opportunities for wagers and regional bragging rights. I see this especially at annual gatherings of any sort and various special occassions.

Unfinished Tales refers to the Riders engaging in some sort of drills or practice, and since the lance was their primary weapon you're right, they would obviously have to practice those lancing tactics.

They would also have to practice moving in formation. I wonder if they wouldn't have developed parade skills. When did military parades become fashionable?

The Rohirrim's tactics included some Parthian maneuvers. The archers who winnowed down Ugluk and Grishnakh's companies would charge in, fire arrows, and retreat quickly much as the Parthians did to the Romans (with similar devastating effect -- a 40,000 man Roman army was defeated and its general slain; something like 10,000 Roman soldiers were captured and, after having their right hands cut off, where forced into sefdom somewhere in eastern Parthia).

Good for the Parthians! Though I seem to remember something about that being pretty much their last shot at the Romans...