Can anyone speak to the Physics of the Ainulindale? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Aiwendil · 03-24-2003, 07:10 PM

I must say that, as interesting as all this is (I'm an astrophysics major myself), it is not really very relevant to Tolkien's Ainulindale, or to Tolkien's universe. Arda is not a scientifically realistic world. There's simply no way around that. Attempts to apply high-concept physics to it don't really tell us anything interesting about Arda or about physics (except that they illustrate the fact that Arda is not physically realistic).

The music of the Ainur is in no meaningful way analogous to vibrations in the medium of the early universe. As Tolkien might have said, both involved sound and the resemblance ends there. Tolkien's universe does not operate in terms of quantum mechanics or even (on the grandest scale) entropy.

03-24-2003, 07:10 PM	#11
Aiwendil Late Istar Join Date: Mar 2001 Posts: 2,224	I must say that, as interesting as all this is (I'm an astrophysics major myself), it is not really very relevant to Tolkien's Ainulindale, or to Tolkien's universe. Arda is not a scientifically realistic world. There's simply no way around that. Attempts to apply high-concept physics to it don't really tell us anything interesting about Arda or about physics (except that they illustrate the fact that Arda is not physically realistic). The music of the Ainur is in no meaningful way analogous to vibrations in the medium of the early universe. As Tolkien might have said, both involved sound and the resemblance ends there. Tolkien's universe does not operate in terms of quantum mechanics or even (on the grandest scale) entropy.