Re: Anachronisms in LOTR

On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 17:30:40 GMT, 
A Tsar Is Born <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> "The American" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Luckily Tolkien had the world traveling, literally, Numenoreans.
>> There's no reason they couldn't have introduced tobacco,tomatoes,potatoes
>> and a host of other foods and inventions.
>> Heck, they could have introduced them to the "New World"!
> 
> No. They were forbidden to sail to the West.

That's the True West(tm), not westward.  If memory serves, the Akalabeth
states the Numenoreans did sail westward after the Downfall, but only found
more mortal lands, subject to death.  My story-internal explanation for
potatoes and tobacco is that the Numenoreans brought them over but the
species later died out, only to be re-reintroduced millennia later.

-- 
Aaron Clausen

tao_of_cow/\alberni.net (replace /\ with @) or [EMAIL PROTECTED]