Twentieth Century Tolkien

[Morthoron]

18th, 19th and 20th century anachronisms are rife in the Shire. I'm not sure how anyone can consider the Hobbits "medieval," save perhaps for their weaponry. I am far too lazy currently to research, but the impression I get of the Hobbits is that of pre-WWI rural English farmers, more apt to doff the cap or tug the forelock to a local squire (like the Tooks or Brandbucks) than to know the first thing about distant kings, or to care about outlandish doings further than a few miles from where they were born.

WWI creeps in with Samwise being the loyal batsman to Frodo, or the Dead Marshes, of course; but really all the anachronisms I can recall: tea-time, pocket-handkerchiefs, "drawing-room sofas", golf, weskits (and waistcoat buttons), clarinets, clocks, mention of an "express train", the Satanic Mills of Sharkey, pipes and tobacco, the public post (home service and not the more military and administrative system of the Romans, or of business with the merchants and bankers of the Renaissance), etc., can all be traced to 18th or 19th century England. Maybe the 17th century with mentions of telescopes in the hands of regular folk.

Tolkien was a 20th century writer with a 19th century set of morals and proprieties -- he even despised the internal combustion engine.