14389e21   
   XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: jon.lennart.beck.its.my.name@mail.its.in.danmark   
      
   "Mike Scott Rohan"  skrev i   
   meddelelsen   
   news:27248a09-b9fb-4879-b4a1-560dacf5b73e@c22g2000yqa.googlegroups.com...   
      
   > It seems they reverted to bronze because they no longer had the   
   > skill of working steel, or perhaps no access to ore or raw metal   
   > through trade, either with other men or dwarves.   
      
      It is improbable that they reverted to bronze for lack of trade.  In the   
   primary world early iron implements were weaker than bronze, but the ore   
   much easier to come by.  Copper and (usually) tin had to be traded from   
   different sources of ore and across great distances.  Iron ore may be found   
   in bogs and soil, although it may take much effort to extract a useful   
   quantity of metal from such ore.  This is probably why bronze gave way to   
   iron.  Then iron smithcraft improved, and steel was devised, and stronger   
   weapons still became available.   
      In Tolkien's subcreation, petty kingdoms of Men may have existed between   
   the Blue Mountains and the Misty before Númenoreans in exile founded Arnor.   
   The history lesson that the hobbits receive from Tom is described very   
   sparingly by Tolkien, and the unified Arnor is not mentioned at all.  And of   
   course to someone as old as Tom Bombadil Arnor and its successor kingdoms of   
   Arthedain, Cardolan and Rhudaur would be just a small part of a long   
   history.  Thus it may be that if we had had a more detailed account of Tom's   
   tale we would have heard of little Bronze Age kingdoms, followed by masters   
   of iron, then for a while Arnor, then the division and strife of that realm,   
   and at last the desertion altogether of the Barrow-downs by Men.   
      Certainly Arnor mastered iron, and I find it highly unlikely that its   
   successor kingdoms reverted to bronze, at least for loss of smithcraft.  If   
   Bombadil's tale as reported by Tolkien does indeed refer to a Bronze Age, it   
   is more likely that there was a Bronze Age of local Mannish societies which   
   had developed that craft themselves, only later to learn of iron from   
   neighbours, immigrants or invaders.  Dwarves passing through their lands   
   might have sold them as much iron as they could afford, while keeping the   
   craft to themselves, and the bulk of their metal tools and weapons would   
   have to be of their own making - bronze.   
      And for that matter Tolkien may have referred not to bronze at all with   
   the phrase "red metal" but to bloodied weapons or the dawn Sun shining upon   
   bright blades.  Or to all three.   
      
   Marghvran.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)