[Kuruharan]

Tolkien admitted that Gondor is at a similar lattitude to Venice I believe it was. Perhaps what is implied here is a form of city state similar to what pertained in the region we now call Italy. Not an empire model per se, but spheres of influence centred in a city. City states are historically known for instituting informal, diplomatically-inspired, alliances for trade rather than martial conquest.

I thought he said that Venice was a vision of Old Gondor. I thought he meant that Venice looked like Gondor. Interesting that he would say so considering that a lot of Venice's treasures were plundered from another place we've been talking about recently.

Tolkien gave the Eorlingas the Anglo-Saxon language and culture, but he said that it was not really what they spoke (nor, perhaps, necessarily accurate in terms of their culture). We know that Anglo-Saxons were not nearly the horse-culture that the Eorlingas were. However, we do know that on the Russian Steppes there dwelt for many centuries Indo-European migrating tribes who periodically swept into more populated and developed cultural regions, such as the Middle East and India, and became lords in those lands for a while.

It is interesting, but I've never thought of the Eorlingas as being as feudal as Gondor. Their marshals seem to almost operate on some sort of appointment basis that the king can change. Of course, this is probably an exaggerated impression brought on because of Eomer's situation in The Two Towers.

There is one interesting difference between the Rohirrim and most of the steppe peoples that would periodically sweep into Europe. The Rohirrim way of war seemed to revolve heavily around the armored charge, much like the typical Western European knight. Most of the steppe peoples revolved heavily around horse archery. While the Eorlingas are mentioned as having horse archers, it does not seem to have been a primary method of battle for them.