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Re: Apocalypse Then

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  Posted by Michael Martinez on December 16, 1999 at 02:31:19
In Reply to: Re: Apocalypse Then posted by David Freitag on December 15, 1999 at 13:59:16:



: Yes. Tolkien also seems to overstate the permanenece of : ecological devastation. Treebeard spoke of one continuous : forest from the Old Forest to Fangorn. It was destroyed in the : mid Second Age by Numenorean ship building activities at Lond : Daer (or whatever it was called), followed by the Sauronian : invasion. : : Even if we accept such activiities would lead to devastation on : a continental scale, that still gives over 4000 years for the : process of ecological succession to move back towards the : climax community. Same for the Brown Lands, Dagorlad, unless : Sauronian malice plays a role in maintaining the degraded state : of the environment, and, if so, would such mslice persist : during times when Sauron was offstage regenerating himself, and : without possession of his most potent tool, the Ring?

Forests do not always grow back, and their loss can result in drastic ecological changes. Polish nobles created a true desert in their own land during the Middle Ages. I believe that desert is now threatened by reclamation processes (or was in the 1980s) if it still exists.

The Sahara desert was once a plush and fertile land. Climactic changes brought about its conversion to a sea of sand. Even here in the southwestern United States the land has been altered radically by a dry period which has lasted approximately 1,000 years and ancient forests which once flourished here no longer exist.

Of course, Tolkien isn't clear on whether Eriador's population declined steadily in all areas. The hobbits, at least, seem to have expanded their population. And that is more in line with real history. Peoples vanish and are replaced by other peoples.

But maybe Tolkien had the extinction of species in mind, more than a historical model of vanishing peoples. Look at what happened to the American bison, or the Aurochs. And the Dodo bird. They were hunted to extinction or near extinction. Maybe Tolkien felt the Men of Eriador were hunted to near extinction.


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