"Bring Out the Instruments!", Heidi Steimel

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Thank you for adding that reference, Legate! I do appreciate thoughtful and knowledgeable readers! I did miss that orc passage and have noted it for future use.

It's a dangerous business, Esty, stating conclusions in a published work. You write them in a book, and if you don't keep your head, there is no knowing what you might miss.

As to the bells, I left them out deliberately. I could find no passage (prove me wrong! ) that states their usage as anything other than a signal.

More when I have time to do your post justice...

Well, you're welcome. And from now on at least you will be more careful, on the other hand, had you not mentioned that in there, I might not have been reminded of the Orcs' horns in the first place, so I guess in the end it was positive. After all, learning is a process, and that goes even for learning about the depths of Middle-Earth.

As for the bells, I have mentioned it mainly since you mention the bells in Minas Tirith (even though briefly) in there as well. But true, they were not really used otherwise than for signals.

[shadowfax]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

As for the bells, I have mentioned it mainly since you mention the bells in Minas Tirith (even though briefly) in there as well. But true, they were not really used otherwise than for signals.

Which ties back nicely to the renaissance Italy analogy as the reason that Italian towns had such high church towers during this period was

a) they doubled as watchtowers, helping watch out for enemies
b) rining the bells in a certain way could be used to signal to the next village that help was needed.

Also, at the time, church towers were often occupied by watchers whose job it was to keep their eyes strained for and signs of fire breaking out in the cramped streets of old cities. To assure citizens that the watcher was not asleep he had to play his trumpet at given intervals. The tunes they played were set and passed on from one generation of watchers to the next and so remained virtually unchanged for centuries. In Cracow such a watch still exists today although it is more for tradition as I assume other fire protection mechanisms now exist.

Later, as clock-making arts improved, church bells were mechanised and so could play the tunes without needing a watchman. This coincided with improvements in the ways cities were built so reducing he risk of fire. Today tower chimes (as for example that of Big Ben in Westminster) thus hail to a much older tradition which would once have seen the tunes being played manually.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Interesting historical facts, shadowfax! Maybe a chapter on the use of bells in Tolkien's works would be a further project - though I'm not sure that there's enough written besides the mere mention of their use.

[Faramir Jones]

I agree with what Esty said here to shadowfax

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Interesting historical facts, shadowfax! Maybe a chapter on the use of bells in Tolkien's works would be a further project - though I'm not sure that there's enough written besides the mere mention of their use.

I can think offhand of two cities or towns Tolkien said were famous for their bells. In The Silmarillion, Chapter 1 said that 'when Valinor was full-wrought and the mansions of the Valar were established, in the midst of the plain beyond the mountains they built their city, Valmar of many bells'. Was their maker Aulë, I wonder? Whoever made them, I'm sure that those bells must have been wonderful to hear, their sound staying in the memories of those Elves who returned to Middle-earth, and presumably getting into the historical record.

A second place is that of Dale, as described in The Hobbit. While Thorin spoke in Chapter 1 of its bells being used as a warning of Smaug's attack: 'By that time all the bells were ringing in Dale and the warriors were arming', that city is also later mentioned in Chapter 3 as being known for its bells, Elrond being 'grieved to remember the ruin of the town of Dale and its merry bells'.

[Guinevere]

I had already listened to Esty's lecture on this topic more than two years ago in Jena, and now enjoyed very much reading the essay in print (and extended to cover all of Middle Earth.)
I have nothing more to add, only that this was so much easier and more enjoyable to read than "A Speculative History of the Music of Arda" which I have read right before.