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DAILY MAIL (London)
July 6, 2005
Tolkien's Orcish delight
QUESTION If Tolkien based The Shire, where the Hobbits lived in The
Lord Of The Rings, on Shropshire, where was Mordor?
THERE is some debate as to where Tolkien based the Shire. In one of
his letters, he indicated that its approximate location is rural
Warwickshire.
Shropshire, Lancashire's Lune valley and rural Worcestershire have
also been mooted as possible locations.
Most of the geographical and personal names used by Tolkien were
adapted from European mythology. Middle Earth, where most of the
action in Lord Of The Rings, the Hobbit and The Silmarillion takes
place, is a literal translation of the Old Norse mythological term
Midgard, referring to this world, the realm of humans. Likewise a
proposed etymology for Mordor is the Old English morthor, which means
'mortal sin' or 'murder'.
To the casual reader, Middle Earth appears to be an entirely
imaginary other-world. In fact, Tolkien devised it as a fictional
period in our Earth's own past 7,000 to 10,000 years ago. The action
of the books is largely confined to the north-west of the continent,
corresponding to modern-day Europe, and little is known about the
east and south of Middle Earth.
If you were to superimpose a scale map of Tolkien's Middle Earth over
a map of Europe, aligning some of the most obvious climatological,
botanical and zoological similarities, you get a good approximation
of how Tolkien saw his domain.
Mordor, home to the Dark Lord Sauron, by position and shape (swopping
the mountainous borders for the sea on three sides) is Turkey.
Harad is the Arab lands and the Easterlings come from central Asia.
Not only does Mordor have the shape of Turkey/ Asia Minor, but
Turkish also has similarities to Orcish/the Black Speech, and more
fancifully Tolkien's slave peoples who live around the Sea of Nurnen
could be linked to the Armenians and their original homeland round
Lake Van.
The Hobbits' Shire would be in temperate England, Gondor in
Mediterranean Italy and Mordor out there: Is the Orcish language
really Turkish?
Greece, South Gondor in the deserts of Northern Africa, Rhovanion in
the forests of Eastern Europe and the steppes of Western and Southern
Russia, and the Ice Bay of Forochel in the fjords of Norway.
More specifically, Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor, is comparable
to Venice, and Pelargir, Gondor's second city, with Byzantium
(Constantinople).
Chris Watkinson, Nottingham.
QUESTION What is the origin of the word nylon?
THE first production of Nylon (1935 by Wallace Carothers of DuPont,
Delaware) marked a landmark in the production of synthetic polymers.
But the name has no chemical or historical significance. It was
selected not by the chemists involved in its synthesis but by the
managers and executives at DuPont.
There were 350 original contenders including Amidarn, Amido Silk,
Linex, Lastrapon, Moursheen, Poya, Rayamide, Syntex, Tensheer and
Wiralene. Among the more imaginative suggestions were Duparooh
(DuPont pulls a rabbit out of the hat), Dupron (DuPont pulls a rabbit
out of nitrogen), Delaware (the location of Du-Pont's headquarters),
Duponese and Wacara (short for Wallace Carothers).
Though the final choice of the name 'Nylon' has no intrinsic meaning,
that hasn't stopped others from creating their own. When it was first
announced at the World Fair in New York in 1939, many thought it was
named after the fair's famous Trylon tower. Others thought it was a
contraction of New York (NY) and London (LON).
The most bizarre suggestion came from a Japanese newspaper.
With the growing tension before World War II, the paper contended
that DuPont had developed the fibre in order to destroy the Japanese
silk industry, and that the name was an acronym for an anti-Japanese
(Nipponese) slur, something like 'now you, lazy old Nippon'.
Andrew P. Parker, Warrington, Cheshire.
QUESTION I've heard of the Dakar Rally, but is it true there is a
similar event for old bangers?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, we discovered by chance that our old
1991 Citroen GTI 16 valve (a real wolf in sheep's clothing,
especially after we had it 'chipped') had taken part in the event in
2003, driven by a team calling themselves The Clueless Racers.
My husband was shocked to see a photo of his former pride and joy
parked on an African beach covered in stickers, minus wing mirrors
and with the sump guard plate replaced by a Road Ahead Closed sign to
protect the engine.
But we were proud to hear it had completed the journey and was now
ending its days in the sunshine as a high-speed pursuit vehicle for
the Gambian police.
Sylvia Burton, Leonard Stanley, Glos.
QUESTION What was the cushiest posting one could be given during
National Service days? What was the worst?
FURTHER to earlier answers, I could not believe my luck when I was
posted to Bermuda. The local population were Anglophiles and showed
great kindness to a young soldier far from home.
At Christmas, we were invited into local homes. The Bermudian
Government even gave a supplement to our Army pay.
The highlight was an annual invasion of female American students,
eager to meet young British soldiers.
P.G. Pearce-Smith, New Forest, Hants.
July 6, 2005
Tolkien's Orcish delight
QUESTION If Tolkien based The Shire, where the Hobbits lived in The
Lord Of The Rings, on Shropshire, where was Mordor?
THERE is some debate as to where Tolkien based the Shire. In one of
his letters, he indicated that its approximate location is rural
Warwickshire.
Shropshire, Lancashire's Lune valley and rural Worcestershire have
also been mooted as possible locations.
Most of the geographical and personal names used by Tolkien were
adapted from European mythology. Middle Earth, where most of the
action in Lord Of The Rings, the Hobbit and The Silmarillion takes
place, is a literal translation of the Old Norse mythological term
Midgard, referring to this world, the realm of humans. Likewise a
proposed etymology for Mordor is the Old English morthor, which means
'mortal sin' or 'murder'.
To the casual reader, Middle Earth appears to be an entirely
imaginary other-world. In fact, Tolkien devised it as a fictional
period in our Earth's own past 7,000 to 10,000 years ago. The action
of the books is largely confined to the north-west of the continent,
corresponding to modern-day Europe, and little is known about the
east and south of Middle Earth.
If you were to superimpose a scale map of Tolkien's Middle Earth over
a map of Europe, aligning some of the most obvious climatological,
botanical and zoological similarities, you get a good approximation
of how Tolkien saw his domain.
Mordor, home to the Dark Lord Sauron, by position and shape (swopping
the mountainous borders for the sea on three sides) is Turkey.
Harad is the Arab lands and the Easterlings come from central Asia.
Not only does Mordor have the shape of Turkey/ Asia Minor, but
Turkish also has similarities to Orcish/the Black Speech, and more
fancifully Tolkien's slave peoples who live around the Sea of Nurnen
could be linked to the Armenians and their original homeland round
Lake Van.
The Hobbits' Shire would be in temperate England, Gondor in
Mediterranean Italy and Mordor out there: Is the Orcish language
really Turkish?
Greece, South Gondor in the deserts of Northern Africa, Rhovanion in
the forests of Eastern Europe and the steppes of Western and Southern
Russia, and the Ice Bay of Forochel in the fjords of Norway.
More specifically, Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor, is comparable
to Venice, and Pelargir, Gondor's second city, with Byzantium
(Constantinople).
Chris Watkinson, Nottingham.
QUESTION What is the origin of the word nylon?
THE first production of Nylon (1935 by Wallace Carothers of DuPont,
Delaware) marked a landmark in the production of synthetic polymers.
But the name has no chemical or historical significance. It was
selected not by the chemists involved in its synthesis but by the
managers and executives at DuPont.
There were 350 original contenders including Amidarn, Amido Silk,
Linex, Lastrapon, Moursheen, Poya, Rayamide, Syntex, Tensheer and
Wiralene. Among the more imaginative suggestions were Duparooh
(DuPont pulls a rabbit out of the hat), Dupron (DuPont pulls a rabbit
out of nitrogen), Delaware (the location of Du-Pont's headquarters),
Duponese and Wacara (short for Wallace Carothers).
Though the final choice of the name 'Nylon' has no intrinsic meaning,
that hasn't stopped others from creating their own. When it was first
announced at the World Fair in New York in 1939, many thought it was
named after the fair's famous Trylon tower. Others thought it was a
contraction of New York (NY) and London (LON).
The most bizarre suggestion came from a Japanese newspaper.
With the growing tension before World War II, the paper contended
that DuPont had developed the fibre in order to destroy the Japanese
silk industry, and that the name was an acronym for an anti-Japanese
(Nipponese) slur, something like 'now you, lazy old Nippon'.
Andrew P. Parker, Warrington, Cheshire.
QUESTION I've heard of the Dakar Rally, but is it true there is a
similar event for old bangers?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, we discovered by chance that our old
1991 Citroen GTI 16 valve (a real wolf in sheep's clothing,
especially after we had it 'chipped') had taken part in the event in
2003, driven by a team calling themselves The Clueless Racers.
My husband was shocked to see a photo of his former pride and joy
parked on an African beach covered in stickers, minus wing mirrors
and with the sump guard plate replaced by a Road Ahead Closed sign to
protect the engine.
But we were proud to hear it had completed the journey and was now
ending its days in the sunshine as a high-speed pursuit vehicle for
the Gambian police.
Sylvia Burton, Leonard Stanley, Glos.
QUESTION What was the cushiest posting one could be given during
National Service days? What was the worst?
FURTHER to earlier answers, I could not believe my luck when I was
posted to Bermuda. The local population were Anglophiles and showed
great kindness to a young soldier far from home.
At Christmas, we were invited into local homes. The Bermudian
Government even gave a supplement to our Army pay.
The highlight was an annual invasion of female American students,
eager to meet young British soldiers.
P.G. Pearce-Smith, New Forest, Hants.