I've never seen any such reference, but I would surmise it's a plant product, not animal - the inner pith of something, like flax, or fluffy seed-fibers like those of thistledown, milkweed, cat-tail, cottonwood. Knowing Tolkien, he probably never gave this question any thought - all through his writing, one can see his disconnection from the real world where clothing and food don't just magically spring out of nowhere.
Take Gildor Inglorion's band, for instance: the food they had was beautiful fine white bread and the loveliest of apples. So where are the Elven wheat-fields, windmills and apple-orchards? Tolkien specifically says that the Dwarves of Erebor traded with Men for all their food rather than raising or gathering any themselves, and presumably the same was true for Khazad-dum: yeah right, and turnips were selling for three gold coins apiece, chickens for twenty, a fine fat hog for a diamond crown, because even Dwarves can't eat metal and stones. Even lembas: Tolkien thought it was made of grain, but that makes no sense either. I hold that lembas was made from mallorn-nut flour, like honey-almond biscotti; the Elves of Lothlorien may have had no wheat-fields, but they had plenty of mallorns.
Tolkien also apparently lived his whole life oblivious to the fact that the Moon follows a consistent, predictable pattern. In The Hobbit, the thinnest crescent of the New Moon is setting at sunset on Durin's Day, when they get the secret door open and Bilbo first goes down to Smaug's lair. Two nights later, when Smaug is attacking Lake Town, the waxing moon is rising after dark: WTF?!? If one is going to mention moon-phases in a story at all, it would only make sense to get them right - otherwise it's like saying the sun was setting in the East an hour after breakfast. However, apparently there are a whole lot of folk who live their whole lives on this planet without realizing that the Moon's phases are not random, and thus would never notice the anomaly.
Anyway, yeah, if asked, Tolkien would probably have said the Elves got the wool for their cloaks from wild sheep, which of course are found in abundance in the deep Elven-forests, right? My vote is for thistledown, dyed with the boiled silvery-grey husks of mallorn nuts.
Will answer more in a bit--have to make dinner, but wanted to note that "hithlain" (mist thread) was the soft grey rope the elves used in Lorien, according to Noel's "The Languages of MIddle Earth". I was considering that the rope and the cloaks may be made of the same fiber.
That seems likely - it could even have been some kind of reed fiber, like the way bamboo cloth is made. Check it out, I found you a link on spinning milkweed - apparently thistledown is too fragile, and cattail fluff is too short to spin well, but milkweed stem pith makes good rope, and milkweed seed fluff can be spun into yarn.
Thanks for that link! *grin* Encouraging me to do insane things is...well...ok, it leads to interesting things.
And it's been a long time since I read Tolkien--I think I am do for a review, oh, some 15 years later. :) But yeah, his world building did leave some details out. :) I think he was more concerned with the mythic epic. I can't help but giggle at the moon timing, though!
And I think I'd agree on the mallorn nuts for lembas, but I'd leave a place for magic in the weaving of the fiber, whatever the base is. You know, it could be a form of silk-a moth of some kind eating mallorn leaves and making cocoons. It would be stronger than the reed fibers, I think and would have the right reflective luster and take might take dyes, if dyes were used, easier than plant fiber. I tend to think of those cloaks/fibers as undyed, though. Maybe that's where all the magic came in. :) But silk and it's reflective properties would be a good place to start, and Tolkien's magic often worked with the innate virtue of a thing, amplifying/purifying it in the art/crafting. (This latter is me thinking, with no research--just a thought off the top of my head. It may not stand up to critical theory and research. PSA. :))
http://elenbarathi.livejournal.com/483213.html
I've never seen any such reference, but I would surmise it's a plant product, not animal - the inner pith of something, like flax, or fluffy seed-fibers like those of thistledown, milkweed, cat-tail, cottonwood. Knowing Tolkien, he probably never gave this question any thought - all through his writing, one can see his disconnection from the real world where clothing and food don't just magically spring out of nowhere.
Take Gildor Inglorion's band, for instance: the food they had was beautiful fine white bread and the loveliest of apples. So where are the Elven wheat-fields, windmills and apple-orchards? Tolkien specifically says that the Dwarves of Erebor traded with Men for all their food rather than raising or gathering any themselves, and presumably the same was true for Khazad-dum: yeah right, and turnips were selling for three gold coins apiece, chickens for twenty, a fine fat hog for a diamond crown, because even Dwarves can't eat metal and stones. Even lembas: Tolkien thought it was made of grain, but that makes no sense either. I hold that lembas was made from mallorn-nut flour, like honey-almond biscotti; the Elves of Lothlorien may have had no wheat-fields, but they had plenty of mallorns.
Tolkien also apparently lived his whole life oblivious to the fact that the Moon follows a consistent, predictable pattern. In The Hobbit, the thinnest crescent of the New Moon is setting at sunset on Durin's Day, when they get the secret door open and Bilbo first goes down to Smaug's lair. Two nights later, when Smaug is attacking Lake Town, the waxing moon is rising after dark: WTF?!? If one is going to mention moon-phases in a story at all, it would only make sense to get them right - otherwise it's like saying the sun was setting in the East an hour after breakfast. However, apparently there are a whole lot of folk who live their whole lives on this planet without realizing that the Moon's phases are not random, and thus would never notice the anomaly.
Anyway, yeah, if asked, Tolkien would probably have said the Elves got the wool for their cloaks from wild sheep, which of course are found in abundance in the deep Elven-forests, right? My vote is for thistledown, dyed with the boiled silvery-grey husks of mallorn nuts.
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LOL, amazing, the Internet, isn't it?
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And it's been a long time since I read Tolkien--I think I am do for a review, oh, some 15 years later. :) But yeah, his world building did leave some details out. :) I think he was more concerned with the mythic epic. I can't help but giggle at the moon timing, though!
And I think I'd agree on the mallorn nuts for lembas, but I'd leave a place for magic in the weaving of the fiber, whatever the base is. You know, it could be a form of silk-a moth of some kind eating mallorn leaves and making cocoons. It would be stronger than the reed fibers, I think and would have the right reflective luster and take might take dyes, if dyes were used, easier than plant fiber. I tend to think of those cloaks/fibers as undyed, though. Maybe that's where all the magic came in. :) But silk and it's reflective properties would be a good place to start, and Tolkien's magic often worked with the innate virtue of a thing, amplifying/purifying it in the art/crafting. (This latter is me thinking, with no research--just a thought off the top of my head. It may not stand up to critical theory and research. PSA. :))
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