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03-08-2016, 03:33 PM | #1 |
Pile O'Bones
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Mt Gundabad
Posts: 23
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Where do elves get metal?
This is probably a silly question with an obvious answer but:
I've never seen any mention of an eleven mine, and I certainly can't see Thranduill trading with dwarves for steel for arrow heads. Although there is plenty of reference to them having many diferent metals. So where do elves get there metal? My brother suggested that they sell maggotey bread to Orcs for steel?
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03-08-2016, 07:41 PM | #2 | |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Aug 2012
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Gondolin is specifically stated as having mines. Consider this statement about Maeglin:
Quote:
Considering how much the Noldor loved working with metal, I'd say it would be practically essential that they had mines of their own. I can't see Eregion not having its own mines, for instance. That being said, I'm sure some Elves did acquire it through trade with Dwarves; not Thranduil perhaps, but those with friendly relations presumably could have.
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"Since the evening of that day we have journeyed from the shadow of Tol Brandir." "On foot?" cried Éomer. |
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03-09-2016, 07:16 AM | #3 |
Pile O'Bones
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Mt Gundabad
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Very interesting, so I would assume that if elves mined at Gondolin then they must still mine in middle earth. However there is no mention of it anywhere in LOTR that I can find.
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03-09-2016, 08:15 AM | #4 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Aug 2012
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Nope. I've done a search of the whole thing (The Lord of the Rings, I mean) and couldn't find a reference to Mines outside of those used by Dwarves and Orcs.
It just seems likely to me that they probably did have their own mines. Professor Tolkien just doesn't seem to often describe such industrial business when it comes to Elves, even though there were surely Elf-miners and Elf-farmers and Elves who did all sorts of fairly menial manual labour to keep Elven society running; perhaps they just did it so well (as you might imagine they would) that it just wasn't worth mentioning!
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"Since the evening of that day we have journeyed from the shadow of Tol Brandir." "On foot?" cried Éomer. |
03-09-2016, 11:41 AM | #5 |
shadow of a doubt
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Wasn't it also implied or stated that Maeglin's and his father Eöl's keen interest in mining and smithcraft was rather looked down on by the other nobles? That it was below their station to go under ground and dig for ore and that they became bent by their labour? It does seem a rather un-Elvish thing to do.
I would assume that the Elves of Middle Earth would trade with Dwarves or Men for ore, metals and metalwork rather than doing it themselves if they had the opportunity. Like fex Thingol would have the Dwarves of Ered Luin supply his metal and smithying needs. I assume that Thranduil would trade for his fill as well, maybe with the Men of Dale acting as middle men between him and the Dwarves. Almost certainly the Noldor of Eregion would have gotten most of their metals and ore from Moria, even though the Noldor would have been the most keen miners of the Elvish peoples. The Elves of Lindon in the Third Age also had Dwarven neighbours. The native Wood-Elves would barely use metals, if at all, methinks.
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03-09-2016, 11:55 AM | #6 | |
Gruesome Spectre
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Quote:
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03-09-2016, 02:03 PM | #7 | |
Pile O'Bones
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Quote:
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03-09-2016, 03:47 PM | #8 | |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
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Quote:
Also, I don't think other Elf nobles would have looked down on smithcraft; at least the Noldor would not have done, as Fėanor was the greatest craftsman of their people and also King for a time and held in high esteem. Furthermore, many Elves didn't just go underground but lived underground as a matter of course, if usually for defensive purposes, and that included Noldor like Finrod in Nargothrond as well as "Dark" Elves like Thingol and Thranduil. The Silmarillion does state, however, that Eöl often took Maeglin to the mansions of the Dwarves in Ered Luin where he learned "the craft of finding the ores of metals in the mountains," so perhaps such skills were not necessarily common among Elves; but they had to have been common enough that the craftsmen of Turgon could delve their own mines in the Encircling Mountains, unless those mines were not delved until after Maeglin came to Gondolin. It just seems very unlikely to me that Elves never acquired metal for themselves on their own. Not all Elves were noblemen of high station and many must surely have done fairly "ordinary" work, albeit probably in a superior, Elvish way.
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"Since the evening of that day we have journeyed from the shadow of Tol Brandir." "On foot?" cried Éomer. Last edited by Zigūr; 03-09-2016 at 03:51 PM. |
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