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Author Topic: The Real Middle Earth  (Read 8248 times)

Aster Breo

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The Real Middle Earth
« Reply #15 on: August 23, 2013, 12:50:52 am »
Quote from: Sage;119730
The Industrial Age sure as hell didn't drive the wooly mammoths extinct.

Cite your source, please.  ;-)
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Asch

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Re: The Real Middle Earth
« Reply #16 on: August 23, 2013, 03:23:47 am »
Quote from: Aster Breo;119724
Not necessarily.  IIRC, there is archeological evidence of environmentally harmful practices, such as clear cutting, strip mining,and various kinds of pollution, in many parts of the world. The primary difference was that there weren't nearly as many or as large instances of those kinds of practices as there are now, simply because there weren't as many people then.  Also, they didn't have access to as many nasty chemicals and efficiently destructive machinery as we do.

I'm not saying there weren't sustainable practices too. Just that we shouldn't assume that the ancients were any better at environmental stewardship than we are.

 
I remember watching a PBS docu, I think it was a Nova that stated most of the UK was deforested in the neolithic. I may be overstating that since it's way late and it was months ago.

It's clear from a lot of digs around the world and midden leavings that while our forebears had a closer de facto relationship with nature they weren't necessarily much kinder about its treatment than we've been.

We just have technology and globalized consumer economies to 'help' our impact.

This kinda reminds me of the fallacy of 'our ancestors the idiots'. They weren't any less intelligent than us they just didn't have the same knowledge base and technology.

Generally speaking.

Aiwelin

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Re: The Real Middle Earth
« Reply #17 on: August 23, 2013, 03:56:07 pm »
Quote from: Asch;119772
I remember watching a PBS docu, I think it was a Nova that stated most of the UK was deforested in the neolithic. I may be overstating that since it's way late and it was months ago.

 
I'm now reading Ronald Hutton's The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles, and he mentioned this as well.  He also talks about destructive farming and clearing practices used in the neolithic, and how they are responsible for many of the bogs and moors of England.  Very interesting, and really punches a hole in the idea that the ancients were so much better than us at living in harmony with nature.
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Re: The Real Middle Earth
« Reply #18 on: December 11, 2013, 03:45:03 pm »
Quote from: RandallS;119060


Title: The Real Middle Earth
Author(s): Brian Bates
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Publication Date: October 2004
ISBN: 1403966834
ISBN-13: 978-1403966834
Current Price and More Info from Amazon

[size=+1]Description:[/size]
J.R.R. Tolkien claimed that he based the land of Middle Earth on a real place. The Real Middle Earth brings alive, for the first time, the very real civilization in which those who lived had a vision of life animated by beings beyond the material world. Magic was real to them and they believed their universe was held together by an interlaced web of golden threads visible only to wizards. At its center was Middle Earth, a place peopled by humans, but imbued with spiritual power. It was a real realm that stretched from Old England to Scandinavia and across to western Europe, encompassing Celts, Anglo Saxons and Vikings. Looking first at the rich and varied tribes who made up the populace of this mystical land, Bates looks at how the people lived their daily lives in a world of magic and mystery. Using archaeological, historical, and psychological research, Brian Bates breathes life into this civilization of two thousand years ago in a book that every Tolkien fan will want.

[size=+1]Special Notes:[/size]


[size=-1]Legal Notes: Some description text and item pictures in this post may come from Amazon.com and are used by permission. The Cauldron is an Amazon Affiliate and purchases made through the Amazon links in this message help support The Cauldron.[/size]

[size=+1]Discussion and reviews of this book are welcome in this thread. If you've read the book, please tell us what you think of it and why.[/size]

 
I am half way through this book and have been struggling. Even the links he makes between Britain and Tolkien's Middle Earth aren't great.  I think it's time to move onto another book...!

veggiewolf

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The Real Middle Earth
« Reply #19 on: December 16, 2013, 09:18:37 pm »
Quote from: Sage;119063
Whoops, just kidding. This is what I get for reading faster than I process. I'm actually reading Travels Through Middle Earth by Alaric Albertsson. Disregard my previous post. :)

And, my wishlist is corrected.  :)
Fluid Morality - my spiritual blog
Eating Monsters - my mental health blog

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makaros

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Re: The Real Middle Earth
« Reply #20 on: May 06, 2015, 04:23:33 pm »
Quote from: Aiwelin;119171
There is a paragraph where he argues that dragons are an ancestral memory of dinosaurs :hdsk:

Hahahaha I got this on my Kindle last Friday and I've been reading through it.  The whole thing is a bit off-putting, as though this guy was really looking to cash in on the LOTR craze around the time it came out.  And when I got to this line I was just like :yikes:

I kept trying to read it even after that but I gave up and returned it for a refund.  I think I'll just get Gundarsson's Elves, Wights, and Trolls instead as I should have from the start.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2015, 04:23:59 pm by makaroð »

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