On Oct 9, 3:36 pm, Kurt Busiek <
k...@busiek.com> wrote:
> On 2012-10-09 19:20:00 +0000,
david.shallcr...@ymail.com said:
>
> > On Oct 9, 1:56 pm,
mstem...@walkabout.empros.com (Michael Stemper)
> > wrote:
> >> In article <81be76f6-cf27-45ac-a0d6-ca5648cb7...@i14g2000yqe.googlegroups
> > .com>,
david.shallcr...@ymail.com writes:
>
> >>> The only living city of men that appears on-scene
> >>> in the book LotR is Minas Tirith.
>
> >> What about Edoras? It wasn't big, but it was the only city of any type
> >> for many leagues.
>
> > You're right. We don't get anywhere near as much of
> > a feeling of civic life in Edoras as in Minas Tirith,
> > but it was a city. I guess I was being influenced
> > by Wormtongue, there.
>
> Edoras is a hill fort, pretty much. Not a city so much as a big
> house/estate with support buildings.
A bit more than that. From the chapter
?The King of the Golden Hall":
"The dark gates were swung open. The travellers
entered, walking in file behind their guide. They
found a broad path, paved with hewn stones, now
winding upward, now climbing in short flights of
well-laid steps. Many houses built of wood and
many dark doors they passed. Beside the way in
a stone channel a stream of clear water flowed,
sparkling and chattering. At length they came to
the crown of the hill."
Later in this chapter Edoras is called a town
several times. So, not a city, but more than
a hill fort. Winding the thread back a bit,
Edoras is not a city in a desert -- it's a
bit small to be a city, and on the border
between the foothills of the White Mountains,
populated with hamlets and more isolated
homesteads, and the open grasslands of the
plain, so not in a desert in either sense.
(I'm agreeing with Kurt here.)
Economically it can get by as a seat of
government, i.e., on taxes and user fees,
and as a market town for the nearby farmers
and stock-herders. No need to develop
an electric power infrastructure, neither
AC nor DC. (Getting back to Edison and Tesla.)