# Is it worth considering how...



## Ancalagon (Dec 26, 2003)

..your life would be somewhat different if you had been born in Middle-Earth just after the Battle of the Five Armies. Personally, I would like to have been raised in Dale, then set off to find work as an apprentice among the Dwarven toymakers or even join the army in Gondor. Obviously I would not hold any great position of power, just a simple soldier, possibly even a craftsman of sorts. If that didn't work out, I might seek work as a farm hand or millers assistant down near Bree. Imagine my delight when I secured enough of a wage to buy my own horse. Funny how the mind wanders when you're bored. 
Where would you see yourself growing up and what would you like to see yourself doing in Middle-Earth???


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## HLGStrider (Dec 26, 2003)

I would've been born in Bree, I believe. I'm too short to be of any other race of men, I think.

I'd be roaming around town. I'd have a crush on the Rangers but be too afraid to do anything but stare. I'd listen to their tales and try and make up my own. I'd scramble around. Perhaps, there would be a tall boy I could marry. . .I like tall guys. . .Then I'd have lots of kids!


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## Confusticated (Dec 26, 2003)

I'd like to have lived in Gondor along the coast... perhaps Dol Amroth... Belfalas... around that area. I'd like to see myself traveling a lot though, and visiting places like Ithilien, and reading books of lore. Maybe I'd be unusual in that I probably wouldn't get married. I guess I'd probably be a gardener or maybe some type of architect or designer/inventer if I were allowed .


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## Celebthôl (Dec 27, 2003)

I guess i'd like to live in Eriador, being a Ranger, not the King like Aragorn was, just a random Ranger, possibly travling around the north near Fornost or something. The whole camping in the wild part of it is rather tempting to me!


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## Barliman Butterbur (Dec 27, 2003)

Ancalagon said:


> Where would you see yourself growing up and what would you like to see yourself doing in Middle-Earth???



Well, being a man, I'd like to have been raised up in Bree, making my living as an assistant to Butterbur. And I would have liked to make as many visits to the Shire as possible before the King issued the edict that made it off-limits to men. To me, the Shire is the crown jewel of Middle-earth, Rivendell nothwithstanding. 

(In fact, one of my few gripes about Tolkien's story is that so little time is spent in the Shire, the one place that most of us would like to be.)

Lotho


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## Rhiannon (Dec 28, 2003)

I'm not...rustic?...rural enough to be a hobbit, so while I love the Shire I can't see myself living there. I love Rohan but I'm not good with horses, so that's out. I think I would like to live in Minas Tirith, and study books and lore, and travel around a lot. Like Nom, I don't really see myself marrying, but if I were going to find a suitable guy he would probably have a strong Numenorean strain in him (because they have a strong tendency towards the qualities I like, and because I'm totally predictable).


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## Inderjit S (Dec 28, 2003)

I'd be a nobleman/loremaster/party-animal (hehe) of Minas Tirith who would win the heart of Morwen, rather then her marrying Thengel. (She marries him in 2943, two years after the Battle of Five Armies.)

I'd also like to travel around Middle-Earth too.


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## Rhiannon (Dec 28, 2003)

(Aw, Inderjit is sweet on Morwen...that's so _cute_...)

On reflection, I think I don't want to live _in_ Minas Tirith, but on the Pelennor within easy reach of the city. That's right...I'm a suburbanite.


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## Inderjit S (Dec 28, 2003)

> (Aw, Inderjit is sweet on Morwen...that's so cute...)



hehehhe. Well Inder cannot help being cute, because Inder cannot help being Inder.

Well, either her or Aredhel, I would enjoy taming that "I don't need no damn man" attitude of hers.


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## Confusticated (Dec 28, 2003)

Inderjit S said:


> hehehhe. Well Inder cannot help being cute, because Inder cannot help being Inder.
> 
> Well, either her or Aredhel, I would enjoy taming that "I don't need no damn man" attitude of hers.


Aredhel the elf right? I don't remember any Aredhel woman... you can whack me over the head if there is one!

Anyhow, you're into her type now, huh?

hehe... it's about time you get some tastes! ... All smitten with that little goldilocks 'help me!'girlie of Nargothrond was enough to make my stomach turn! 

Go for a true strong and proud Noldo like Aredhel! However, she wasn't in our time period here. Umm unless there was a human lady named Aredhel (seems an odd name for a mortal anyhow). But why tame her? I think she'd be more fun off hunting and riding with you than she'd be at home making a tapestry and nursing a baby!


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## Éomond (Dec 28, 2003)

Hmm, I love the sea, somewhere like Dol Amroth or Umbar, but I don't like sailing far out on the ocean, so I guess it wouldn't be a good fit. 

I think I would liked to live in Ithilien (if all the inhabitiants hadn't fled from it yet) as a Ranger, just simply cause I like the forest, or somewhere in Rohan, either as a Rider or stable-lad, in the Eastfold or Westfold, because just being able to ride a horse on the open plains is great, and horses are great.


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## Inderjit S (Dec 29, 2003)

I've always been interested in that type of girl, it's just that I thought Finduilas looked like Keira Knightley...and well let's not get into that.

Also I need a crush to amuse myself.


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## jejeje (Jan 8, 2004)

Im a city girl, it'd have to be Minas Tirith for me. Maybe a little bit of travelling, y'know.
By the way, I really hate Kiera Knightly but im not sure why. She is quite irritating actually.
Anyway


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## Rhiannon (Jan 8, 2004)

jejeje said:


> By the way, I really hate Kiera Knightly but im not sure why. She is quite irritating actually.
> Anyway



It's her lips. She moves them like she had braces for a long time.


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## HLGStrider (Jan 8, 2004)

If she has anything relatively like straight teeth, it is probably safe to assume that she did. . .


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## Turin (Jan 14, 2004)

I'd like to study under the dwarves of Erebor and become a swordsmith or a blacksmith, I've always wanted to do something like that. I might even kill a few orcs in the war of the ring.


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## Sarde (Jan 14, 2004)

I would definitely be a hobbit. My ideal is to live in a rural place, have a small house and my own horse (pony in this case) standing in a field right next to my house. I'd be the Bilbo-type hobbit (only female) because I do not wish to marry or have children. Or maybe, since I love horses so much, maybe I should really live in Rohan. But my attitude to life is rather hobbit-like.


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## CirdanLinweilin (Mar 13, 2017)

I'd be a Middle-earth Ranger-vigilante type.

You know, slay all the dregs, murderers, rapists, kill all the orcs, and the less reputable members of society. I'd be the shrouded face of reckoning evil fears at night, but during the day I'm the quiet, soft, spoken, brunette 20 year old boy cleaning his horse, repairing any broken armor or weapons of mine, but ALWAYS watching. I'd go hunting, I'd travel a lot, doing my business, I might become a Bounty Hunter of sorts for the King too, or anyone willing to pay.

Even if I marry and settle down, I'd still go vigilante-ing a lot, (gotta keep the family and world safe!)

Think of me as The Left Hand of King Elessar, I do all the serious, depressing work for him. 

Also, my name would be Riven. I'd live in Bree, by the way. I'd moonlight as a Stablehand.

CL


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## Matthew Bailey (Mar 17, 2017)

*WOW!??!
*
Are people really not thinking about what life in a Feudal Society means?

It means that most of us would be "Serfs," tied to the lands of our Lord no different than slaves, save that we have some small number of Rights.

Tolkien did have a rather "Enlightened" Feudal Monarchy in mind for Middle-earth where Noblesse Oblige (I cannot recall the Saxon version of it, which is what he would have used - which was *VASTLY STRONGER* than the French/Norman version - Noblesse Oblige, itself) was seen as the paramount duty of a King or Lord.

And Power in the Dúnedain Kingdoms of Middle-earth was much less devolved than in a typical Feudal System (whereby most temporal power rested with the Feudal Lords - the Barons, essentially), and the King held the right to raise the Army himself.

In a traditional Feudal System, the Feudal Lords raised Troops who would swear Loyalty to him, and then that Lord Swore Loyalty to the King.

In Middle-earth we seem to see that most Troops swore Loyalty directly to the crown.... But that is in debate.

But if you were a Serf, your life consisted ONLY of sustenance farming, and farming the land of your Lord for his share of the King's Taxes. You MIGHT get lucky to be made a Landlord, which could be either a Serf or a Yeoman (freedman - the "Middle Class" in a Feudal Society).

Remember that Middle-earth is _TREMENDOUSLY _bowdlerized*. This is partially due to his romanticization of Middle-earth (in thinking it was a real place - Yes, see the Catholic Definition of "Sub-Creation" - Aulë's creation of the Dwarves was an act of Sub-Creation. Eru gave life to the Dwarves as a result of Aulë's love of them. Tolkien has similar thinking regarding Middle-earth), and partially due to the fact that Middle-earth itself is an idealized place.

But actually living there would be a grim reality.

This is why GRR Martin wrote _A Song of Fire and Ice_. And although Martin goes too far in the exact opposite direction (creating a world that is vastly more harsh than reality), it does raise the point that the reality would not meet expectations for most "Fans" of Tolkien's works.

Life in one of the Dwarven or Elven Kingdoms would be almost idyllic. And life in The Shire would be more comfortable than most other locations (_Thus why it was so protected by the Dúnedain_).

But life in one of the Human Realms would be replete with all of the real-world suffering of a Dark Ages/Medieval Kingdom or World.

And unless you were a Yeoman (wealthy - remember "Middle Class" in the Middle Ages meant "Wealthy," but not Nobility), or a Noble, things were not exactly all sun and roses.


MB

* bowd·ler·ize
[ˈbōdləˌrīz, ˈboudləˌrīz]
VERB

• remove material that is considered improper or offensive from (a text or account), especially with
the result that it becomes weaker or less effective:

Synonyms: expurgate · censor · blue-pencil · cut · edit · purge ·


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## CirdanLinweilin (Mar 17, 2017)

Matthew Bailey said:


> *WOW!??!
> *
> Are people really not thinking about what life in a Feudal Society means?
> 
> ...



Considering I'd be a dude hunting baddies all night every night, I don't expect everything to be sunshine and roses. By the by, let people have their fun and imagine their lives in Middle-earth the way they want to. Yes, it's medieval. Yes, it's harsh. Yes, it's not sunshine and roses, but let us on Earth in reality fantasize what our lives might be like in ME. This is a way of escape from the troubles, travails, and sorrows of this Earth. If we have a guy, telling us it's not different than our world, possibly worse, it ruins and defeats the whole entire point of the question, imaginings, and escape. 

Nobody likes a buzzkill. 

Now, I return you all to your regularly scheduled adventure. 

CL

'Imagination allows us to escape the predictable. It enables us to reply to the common wisdom that we cannot soar by saying, 'Just watch!'
Bill Bradley


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