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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Books / Nerd Unnecessary Essay of the Day

Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 1:41 PM

4db2/1232660493-mordor-1.jpg Here: "Tolkien: The Lord of The Mines - Or A Comparative Study Between Mining During the Third Age of Middle-Earth by Dwarves and Mining During Our Age by Men (or Big-People)"

Are the secrets of a green mining industry locked somewhere in The Lord of the Rings? Here's the abstract:

J.R.R. Tolkien described an entire Age of history in his main opus, The Lord of the Rings. In doing so, he told miners a lot about their past, much before any written record was kept or handed down. At a time when many people are wondering about the future of the mining industry, the possible depletion of natural resources and the modern concept of “sustainable development”, it is interesting to analyse the evolution of the mining industry, not just within the last half of the century, but over the last two Ages. Maybe there will be some surprises, but maybe also some reassurances that although many changes and new ways of thinking have occurred over the Ages, mining activities have continued and survived even through the changes of the miners race from the race of Dwarves to the race of Men.

Um.

Comments (7) RSS

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At least mountaintop removal never brought out a Balrog...

Posted by Amnt on January 22, 2009 at 1:49 PM

Looks like someone's angling for an Ig Nobel.

Posted by Sben on January 22, 2009 at 1:53 PM

The scarcity of mithril at the end of the third age reminds us all of the importance of conservation.

Posted by keshmeshi on January 22, 2009 at 2:41 PM

I wonder who will trademark mithril first and declare it their Intellectual Property?

My guess is Bob Dole.

Posted by Will in Seattle on January 22, 2009 at 2:48 PM

Come on Tolkien was pretty obviously a conservationist in much of his writing. While this paper is dumb, it does not mean that LOTR didn't contain environmental messages (such as the despoiling of the Shire by Saruman).

Posted by vooodooo84 on January 22, 2009 at 3:17 PM

The Lord of the Rings probably has better information on seige warfare than mining.

Posted by Greg on January 22, 2009 at 3:19 PM