Timeline for Why wasn't gunpowder more common in Middle Earth?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
16 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 12, 2017 at 15:42 | history | edited | user31178 |
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| May 20, 2015 at 8:24 | comment | added | RicoRicochet | Well, technically you can not say middle earth is a low magic setting. The entire premise of the books / films revolve around some highly magical objects. The greatest and most well known being the ONE RING :D | |
| May 20, 2015 at 7:25 | answer | added | Eagle1 | timeline score: -1 | |
| May 19, 2015 at 4:39 | comment | added | Wad Cheber | In a significant way, advancement was anathema to virtue in Tolkien's world. Progress was to be regretted, not embraced. Gunpowder is no exception. | |
| Apr 2, 2015 at 16:41 | answer | added | user43863 | timeline score: 0 | |
| Mar 20, 2015 at 18:57 | comment | added | Escoce | @Dronz in both cases the fireworks and the explosive pot were lit by spark or fire. It was gun powder. They showed the gunpowder in the movies, though I realize it's not cannon, it still indicates gunpowder. | |
| Mar 20, 2015 at 18:27 | answer | added | Dronz | timeline score: 5 | |
| Mar 20, 2015 at 17:43 | comment | added | Dronz | Where is it obvious that gunpowder per se was invented? The Shire may have had fireworks shows, but Gandalf's were the best, and doesn't necessarily mean there was chemical gunpowder. Saruman's army uses an explosive at the Hornburg, but that's Saruman's device, not common technology. Are there other cases? | |
| Aug 27, 2014 at 17:13 | comment | added | dmm | Adding to Raven13's comment: Tolkien had been in WWI. He didn't want any gunpowder in his stories, because he'd witnessed first-hand what gunpowder did. I don't think Tolkien gave any in-universe explanation for the lack of guns and cannons. It's worth noting that guns are great equalizers -- any idiot with a gun can kill. So perhaps those with sufficient skill to invent guns/cannons decided it was a lousy idea, because it would cancel out their skill advantage over their inferiors. | |
| Feb 12, 2014 at 0:03 | answer | added | Steven Wood | timeline score: 9 | |
| Jan 24, 2014 at 22:21 | comment | added | Raven13 | I think, in the context of Tolkien's obvious Luddism, that the use of gunpowder by the orcs/enemy was an indication of their lack of morality. | |
| Jan 24, 2014 at 10:11 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackSciFi/status/426658535158870016 | ||
| S Jan 24, 2014 at 8:57 | history | suggested | Stark07 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jan 24, 2014 at 8:54 | answer | added | user8719 | timeline score: 28 | |
| Jan 24, 2014 at 7:59 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Jan 24, 2014 at 8:57 | |||||
| Jan 24, 2014 at 7:13 | history | asked | vsz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |