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Christopher Tolkien describes Thu’s island fortress (named Minas Tirith in The Silmarillion) as a castle in several
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annotative passages in The Lays of Beleriand and The Shaping of Middle-earth. It is clear that both Christopher and his
father understood the various fortresses of Middle-earth to be “castles”, but perhaps out of a desire to seem less
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“medieval” (and more “elvish”) Tolkien avoided using the word very much. That is not to say that Tolkien was trying to avoid
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the medieval imagery with which many readers are familiar — rather, he was trying to make the castles seem more
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general in nature, less like artifacts of Medieval European civilization and more like artifacts of an ancient, forgotten
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civilization.
Follow Michael's Facebook page at Millennia BCE) there are many archaeological examples of fortified villages and towns, as well as purely military
@writer.Michael.Martinez fortresses. Their designs varied but their functions were similar to those of medieval castles.
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In time of invasion the local people would evacuate to the nearest fortification regardless of whether that was a walled
Read articles Michael has written for other town (or city) or a fortress on a hill. Architectural styles for castles and fortified towns diverged all across Europe and other
Websites Elsewhere on the Web parts of the world. They used wood, stone, dirt, trenches, square walls, curved walls, square towers, round towers, etc.
Tolkien’s Elvish and Numenorean architectures followed many of these designs, although he certainly incorporated
elements of fantastic design as well (such as the immense black walls of Orthanc and Minas Tirith that seemed like they
TOP MIDDLE-EARTH ARTICLES had been carved by giants out of mountains).
Why Did the Elves Leave Middle- Sauron’s fortress of Barad-dur may be thought of as the largest and most complex of the fortresses in Middle-earth
earth? (Angband and Utumno were underground fortresses using mountains for defensive works). Barad-dur is only briefly
described and it sounds very much like a massive walled city. It would be difficult to argue that Tolkien meant for the reader
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But the fact that he used the word “barad” to refer to much smaller fortresses, and the word “minas” to refer to both fortified
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the two types of communities seems to have been lost. Orthanc was clearly intended to be a military fortress from its
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foundation, but it was capable of supporting a large civilian population within its walls and was in fact used as a civilian
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community on more than one occasion.
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There are other words, such as (g)obel, which could also be translated as “castle” even though they are clearly associated
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with smaller communities (villages in the case of (g)obel). The various words ((g)obel, barad, and minas) appear to reflect
Did Sauron Die When the One disparate linguistic traditions, even though they are all “Sindarin” words. Though barad is often translated as “tower” it
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the great fortress guarding the passage between Hithlum and Anfauglith, was certainly not a mere building reaching up
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into the sky.
While there is plenty of room for speculation and extrapolation regarding the evolution of Elvish words across the ages and
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the many cultures that adapted them, I think it’s clear that the reader is justified in identifying many of the castle-like
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fortresses with “castles” and in accepting that many of the fortified towns and villages are modeled on real historical
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Cole
June 29, 2012 at 7:21 pm
I think we can blame ‘Panama Pete’ Jackson and John Howe for people evoking medieval imagery
when they think of Middle-earth. Tolkein himself made comparisons between Gondorian civilization and
ancient Egypt.
Patrick, UK
June 30, 2012 at 12:48 am
I know two castles identified as such in LOTR: Dol Amroth and Durthang. Are there any others?
Dol Amroth obviously fits the picture of a mediaeval fiefdom, with its swan-knights and cheery men-at-
arms. Durthang is more mysterious. The name means “dark oppression”, but this is puzzling if it dates
from the Gondorian occupation. It seems to be sited with a view to defence; maybe it was Sauron’s
Mordor pied-a-terre during the original construction of the Barad-dur (which took six hundred years).
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