Middle-earth seen by the barbarians: The complete collection including a previously unpublished essay (27 page)

1. PBD
   , annotation in the lower left corner (contrast enhanced by the author)
   

Another note, just to the right of that previously cited, refers to the rendering of
mûmakil
on
PBM
:

‘
Elephants appear in the great battle outside Minas Tirith (as they did in Italy under Pyrrhus) but they could be in the blank spaces of Harad
[,]
also camels.
’ (So Pyrrhus, and not Hannibal, has inspired the Battle on the Pelennor Fields.)

Both a
mûmak
and a camel appear on
PBM
. Note that camels are not mentioned at any place in
LR
. This allusion underlines, though, that Harad is an equivalent of North Africa, though its state may be closer to that of the Bronze Age and does not necessarily imply the
ergs
or
hamadas
of the Sahara. Though a desert named
Lostladen
, evidently a Quenya cognate to the empty blotch in the north-east of the
S
map that is called in Sindarin
Lothlann
, is explicitly shown on the ‘Second
LR
Map’ that has been published in
WR
.
The fact that it is not mentioned on the official published map does perhaps not necessarily mean that it should be discarded.

1. The mûmak on 
   PBM
   

Notes on ships to be sketched on the Bay of Belfalas read: ‘
Vessels of varying size from 3-masted to single-
[masted] and ‘
Corsairs had red sails with black star or eye
’.

One such ship appears on
PBM
,
but it is very clearly a dhau, not a dromund. Therefore, it should probably be assumed that this is one of the many smaller vessels of the Corsairs (see
Fig. 56
).

The other vessels depicted on
PBM
are clearly galleons. This is probably inspired by a description of Elendil’s ships that, in a note by Baynes in the upper left of
PBD
that was probably derived from oral communication, are explicitly called ‘
weatherbeaten galleons ... all black, 5-masted ... as large a pre-steam vessel as can be drawn, ie Columbus type’
Evidently, Tolkien was little aware of how
small
Columbus’ ships were. Michael Martinez supposes that Elendil took 4500-5000 people across the Belegaer (
http://middle-earth.xenite.org/2011/11/30/seeking-the-wayward-children-of-numenor/
), but this may be way too much. Columbus’ flagship, the
Santa Maria
, had a regular crew of 90, the other two vessels were even smaller. Thus, nine fully crammed vessels of that size could not take more than 2000 people aboard.

1. The dhau of the Corsairs on
   PBD
   and
   PBM
   (contrast enhanced by the author)
   

But the
Akallabêth
implies that the Númenóreans had other vessels, too, for the galleons were not regularly oared - Ar-Pharazôn, however, attestedly employed lots of slaves from the Anfalas, Umbar and the Harad as oarsmen on
Alcarondas
and his other warships. These vessels may have looked more like Phoenician ships that, other than dromunds from Umbar, were able to leave the coastal areas and traverse the high seas unscathed. So, perhaps, Pauline Baynes’ remark on galleons was simply off the mark.

The wine-growing barbarian region of Dorwinion is first located on
PBD
, see
V.4
, and adopted on
PBM
. The beasts below illustrate ‘the white wild kine of Araw’ Another annotation on
PBD
says that ‘
Planes of Rhovanion between Mirkwood, Rhun & Mordor had many wild kine & wild horses.
’ These refer to the White Wild Kine of Araw and the horses that supplied the cavalry of the Northmen.

1. Dorwinion on
   PBM
   

More selected essays from

Lalaith’s Middle-earth Science Pages

Words of Westernesse

The development of grammar and vocabulary of the Mannish languages of Middle-earth and some tentative etymologies of Adûnaic and Westron

The Moon in ‘The Hobbit’

How Tolkien used the moon as a narrative agent and how you can do that in your novel, too

Dynasties of Middle-earth

Which Steward of Gondor was twice married? Was Girion of Dale a king? This annotated volume comprises comprehensive genealogical tables of all the noble Mannish houses from the First to the Fourth Age of the sun and discusses conflicts in their tradition.

All books include many illustrations, maps and diagrams.

Available in English as ebooks or printed.

Available from:   More essays on
Lalaith’s Middle-earth Science Pages
: www.codex-regius.eu   lalaithMESP.blogspot.de

P
LUTO &
C
HARON

The New Horizons spacecraft at the farthest worldly shores

Results of the flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft at Pluto and its satellites

On 14 July 2015, Pluto changed before our very eyes from a dot of light into a world. The image of the (dwarf) planet with its bright white heart went all over the world, touching the hearts of people like few other images from outer space.

Meanwhile we have found out what Pluto's heart is made of, though not yet how it came to be. And the New Horizons spacecraft has discovered many other remarkable landscapes on this remote celestial body that, surprisingly, looks as earth-like as few other bodies in the solar system.