Skip to main content

the lord of the rings - What did ships in Middle-earth look like?


I was wondering what the different ships of the different peoples look like, specifically Elves, Gondorians/NĂºmenoreans, and Corsairs.


The elvish ships are often described to have swan-shaped prow:




...sailing proudly down the stream toward them, they saw a swan of great size. The water rippled on either side of the white breast beneath its curving neck. Its beak shone like burnished gold, and its eyes glinted like jet set in yellow stones; its huge white wings were half lifted. A music came down the river as it drew nearer; and suddenly they perceived that it was a ship, wrought and carved with elven-skill in the likeness of a bird. Two elves clad in white steered it with black paddles.



But this human ship (from Tolkien's lake-town picture) also has the swan-prow:


enter image description here


And here is another elven ship (from one of Tolkien's pictures):


enter image description here


Both are reminiscent of Viking ships, with elegant curves and decorated prows. The man-boat looks like a Viking long-boat, which fits the idea of northern men being Viking-like.


The problem is the NĂºmenorean ships. It can be assumed that they learnt the art of ship-building from the Elves, but How much did the deviate? Did the Gondorian ships end up looking mediaeval? Alcarondas, Ar-PharazĂ´n's flagship is described as having 'many masts', and is also called 'Castle of the Sea' (Akallabeth), suggesting that NĂºmenorean ships were heavily fortified.


The Gondorian ships and the ships of the Corsairs will have a similar design -- both originated from the NĂºmenorean model. Sadly, I couldn't even find a good description of either -- the best being:




And looking thither they cried in dismay; for black against the glittering stream they beheld a fleet borne upon the wind: dromunds, and ships of great draught with many oars, and with black sails bellying in the breeze.



(RotK, 'The Battle of the Pelennor Fields)


I looked up 'dromund' and found that dromons are a type of galley, but Middle English dromund can be any very big mediaeval ship. Of course, 'ships of great draught' certainly doesn't describe Viking ships, so there remains the question: had late NĂºmenorean ships evolved to be such? (possible, especially since 'Castle of the Seas' doesn't fit to Viking ships) Or were there Haradrim influences?


Can anyone find more text or pictures in which ships of Numenor, Gondor, or the Corsairs are mentioned?


EDIT: A galley might fit the description of Ar-PharazĂ´n's ship: Big, many oars, many masts, and fortified



Answer



Well, first of all I think that ship design was also changing in time among different cultures in Middle Earth. For example it seems that even elves developed a bit their designs, the White Ship build by Cirdan for transporting Ring-bearers appears to be more advanced than viking-like:



Then CĂ­rdan led them to the Havens, and there was a white ship lying, and upon the quay beside a great grey horse stood a figure robed all in white awaiting them. As he turned and came towards them Frodo saw that Gandalf now wore openly upon his hand the Third Ring, Narya the Great, and the stone upon it was red as fire. Then those who were to go were glad, for they knew that Gandalf also would take ship with them.



Then Frodo kissed Merry and Pippin, and last of all Sam, and went aboard; and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew, and slowly the ship slipped away down the long grey firth; and the light of the glass of Galadriel that Frodo bore glimmered and was lost. And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. -RotK, Book VI, Ch 9, The Grey Havens



It seems there are multiple sails (and masts apparently). I myself have always pictured those numenorean ship and later elven ones (post-Vingilot design which also appears to have more than one sail) as various types of so called "tall ships" (with Numenorean ones it brings in mind colonial empires and their treasure fleets, cause as we are told in writings, great riches were brought from continent and inhabitants of Numenor "build ever greater ships", also later fleets of Gondor also had large ships of great drought that filled the elven havens for war with Angmar). Also it appears that even before First Age, Teleri elves were skilled in making ships, as the unknown number of them (called "fairiest" sailing vessels) transported thousands of noldorin warriors with their families and great store of goods, even horses, later the feanorian faction who took the ships was able to gift Fingolfin's host, who lost much horses in crossing of Helcaraxe, with many horses enough to form horsed troops of Hithlum when bred accordingly, most likely elven craftsmen took their tools, other possessions were taken even treasures from Aman, Finrod had many jewels, but those things wouldn't take much place aboard :), possibly elves took hunting hounds too, if example of Celegorm who went with his horse-huge Huan (as Luthien was able to ride him) is anything to go by.


Also brief description of Alcarondas, Castle of the Sea many masted, brings in mind galleons or something alike (in History of Middle Earth texts in History of the Akallabeth there is mentioned that Ar-Pharazon envisioned a Great Armament fleet that would surpass the one he brought to subdue Sauron like a ,,great galleon of Numenor surpasses a fisherman's boat" (The Peoples of Middle-Earth, HoME Vol 12, Part 1, Ch 5, The History of the AkallabĂªth) though it's difficult to say whether this text can be taken as canon. Corsairs of Umbar had those ,,fifty great ships" and ,,smaller vessels beyond count" and I thought that the dromunds were those smaller, and 50 great ones could be those ships of great drought but still no clue how they would look like. It's possible that each nation and culture would have it's own specific type of ship Haradrim would have their own (there are other havens in Harad and not all belong to Umbar), Gondorians would be one of the most advanced in regard to their numenorean heritage, elves have Cirdan stated to be the most skilled and inventive shipbuilder, so elven ships might come in many varieties depending on their purpose (it is speculative but he could have put some elven magic in them, as Tolkien stated in one of the letters ships going to Undying Lands were "specially made and hallowed" for such a journey).


The example of the Lohtlorien boat is rather a simple river barge, Galadhrim had their own harbor and possibly sent scouts in boats to spy out the land or to transport troops for military operations (seen mostly in their campaign against Dol Guldur), Wood Elves of northern Mirkwood also used many boats and rafts for both civilian and military uses (and there were specialized raftsmen...err raft elves) like shipping goods up and down the river, they had their harbors and small river ports with villages of elves living by Forest River, Esgaroth and Dale had whole fleets of large boats, small ships and great barges to travel up and down the Celduin/river Running and Long Lake (so vast that standing on one shore you can barely see the other one as a thin line in narrower spot) and depending on size and exact course of waterways ships could be varying in look from simple viking longboats with single mast (drakkars or knarrs) to more elaborated galleys with multiple masts and sails, two decked, maybe standard design for river traffic could be a cog (or maybe a bit like herring buss only going on river instead of the sea, galleys seems also a good possibility, with small draft galleys could travel up rivers). Overall though it's based mostly on speculation and we can't say much on the topic.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...