Astronomy in “The Hobbit”
Written with Permission
By Jay Ryan
www.TOSMagazine.com
J.R.R Tolkien’s fantasy world of Middle Earth is populated by many unusual races, for which the author created elaborate panoply of languages, poetry, cultures, and back-stories. Since Middle Earth is a medieval, pre-industrial society, Tolkien did not neglect to depict pre-industrial techniques for measuring the passage of time. In our modern society, we rely on artificial clocks and calendars to keep track of time for us, but our friends from Middle Earth had to rely on those natural timekeepers used throughout our own pre-industrial history . . . the Sun and Moon. (more…)