/lit/ - Literature

>>10581291
because eagles

>>10581291
was it ever explained why this thing looks so artificially like a box?

as for an excuse: desert tends to kill armies. (remember 1st crusade)

Couldn't get around the massive scroll that says MORDOR

>>10581291
It seems obvious that if they wanted to go east they would have to in the first place, fight all of the eastern people : Haradrim, Rhûn people. Moreover, they wouldn't have enough food to make such a journey.
And if they leave Minas Tirith for a long time, no one would be left to protect it.

there are many many reasons

>>10581427

Because the maps are meant to look like the sort of hand drawn ones we see from the medieval period. It being drawn that way doesn't mean it's actually how it is. It's just an approximation.

>>10581465

Were Europeans retarded?

>>10581470
No, but you might be. That map was drawn by a North African Arab.

>>10581486

North African is European

>>10581500
>North African
>African
>European

>>10581428
best in show

>>10581291
nobody tell him i wanna see how far this goes

>>10581500
...

>>10581510

Yes. Sub Saharan Africa is a different continent because of how culturally distinct the people are at the time in question. If you disagree then explain to me how Asia is a different continent than Europe.

>>10581291

>marching your army hundreds upon hundreds of kilometers

what is logistics lmao

>>10581525
so North Africans are Culturally European then

>>10581525
There are a number of different ways of defining a continent, which you're welcome to look up for yourself but none of them would agree that Africa is European.

>>10581532

At the time, yes. North Africa was European. Who would as Saint Augustine wasn't European by today's standards?

>>10581536

I just gave you a way of defining a continent. Cultural genus.

>>10581548
I said that you could *look* up, not *make* up.

>>10581554

Then look up a way to define continents that logically explains the difference between Asia and Europe. If you find one I'm refuted.

>>10581557
It's a historical convention.

>>10581500
WE

>>10581559

I not though. Europeans throughout history did not make the distinction between Europe and North Africa that they would have between Europe and sub Saharan Africa. This is because the cultures were so radically different and this is why it makes sense to define a continent by its cultural genus. You keep telling me to look things up and appealing to some vague historical authority, why don't you try simply giving an argument to support your belief?

>>10581574
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent
or just continue being retarded, I don't care.

>>10581586

Again with the appeals to authority. How is Asia a distinct continent from Europe?

>>10581589
Because words are defined by common use and dictionaries and both those things agree that is the case.

>>10581609

The most common use of a word has nothing to do with this. Continents can be defined by culture genus and that's how the term is being used in this context. The most common use of a word isn't the only use of the word, wouldn't you agree? Can words have multiple meanings?

>>10581630

you're an retard

>>10581638

Yeah, sure. Since I'm so stupid maybe you can explain to me why we should be using a definition involving land mass distinctions as opposed to cultural distinctions in a conversation about culture.

>>10581542
St. Augustine was a Roman by ethnicity and culture. Romans were imperial occupiers of North Africa. Your argument is like saying that because Thomas Jefferson was a European thinker in America we must consider all Native Americans to be European.

>>10581660

No.

>>10581680

Yeah that's what I thought

>>10581684
Little?

>>10581661

The argument isn't that Saint Augustine is African therefore North Africa is European. The argument is that because the distinction between North Africans and sub Saharan Africans is greater than the distinction between Europeans and North Africans, it makes more sense to consider North Africans of that period a part of the European genus as opposed to the sub Saharan African genus.

>>10581500
Nice try Jamal

>>10581699
What the people are like is irrelevant. Continent refers to the landmasses, there is no such thing as a cultural continent.

>>10581723

Yeah, that's the commonly used definition of a continent but it's arbitrary and ultimately meaningless and contradictory since it can't logically explain why Asia is separate from Europe or why North America is distinct from South America. It's also not useful in a conversation about culture.

ITT I can't even tell who's WEWUZZING which KANGZ

>>10581732
It's not a conversation about culture, it's a conversation about geography. Notice how the OP image is a map? Neither "European" nor "African" are cultures. Calling a man of Middle-Eastern descent and culture, who lived in North Africa, "European" because he behaved differently to sub-Saharan Africans is just idiotic and not any sort of logic.

>>10581699
Actually by the time of that maps drawing European influence and dominance would have been completely supplanted by Arabic, nomadic Berber tribes. During the early middle ages Islam jihaded all the way to the Pyrenees mountains committing mass cultural and ethnic genocide along the way. At this point if you wanted to conflate north Africa with another continent it would be the middle East. A conflation that has some credence to this day with nation's like Libya and Egypt being central members of the pan-arab movement of the 20th century. Although, it's still complicated because Libya in particular under gadaffi also was party to a pan-african movement. But yeah since the destruction of the visigothic kingdoms there hasn't been a European North Africa culturally or ethnically.

>>10581427
>was it ever explained why this thing looks so artificially like a box?

yes. those mountains were artificially created to act as barriers and defense. when the mountains DON'T look like straight lines that means some great battle or fuckery screwed them up

the world of the Tolkienverse was created by the valar, its not a natural and organic creation

>>10581500

Israel is European too!!

>box
>artificially like a box?
>straight lines
looks more like a wifi symbol to me

>>10581799
Well they do participate in the Eurovision Song festival.

>>10581857
Or a tit with really puffy nipples

>>10581864
A deer with lopsided antlers

>not knowing the reason is Tolkien's technophobia and association of the artificial with a great evil, reflected in Mordor's angular, quadratic mountain ranges in contrast with the Free Folk's rolling green hills, forests, and organic, geologically feasible mountains

>>10581864
It's a baseball field.

>>10581761
you deserve some gold for this post

>>10581919
its actually the opposite you dingus

in the beginning everything was perfect and without flaw (straight mountains) but melkor is spitful and wanted to destroy and alter. the mountains to the west of the shire used to be straight but the sinking of beleriand or whatever and the war there altered them.

>The Misty Mountains were created by the Vala Melkor during the Years of the Trees as a hindrance for Oromë, who would hunt his fell creatures. They would later serve as a deterrent for the Elves during the Great Journey, causing some to turn south. The Elves that would not cross the Misty Mountains would become the Nandor.[1]

STOP TRYING TO APPLY ALLEGORY OR TOLKIEN OR HE WILL KILL YOU

>>10581500

>>10582985

You lost the war, whiteboy.

>>10583032
I'd argue the war has not yet started in earnest.

>>10583041

The conquering of an opponents cities usually signifies the end of a war and not the beginning.

>>10581470
i really like that lying н shaped mountain range

>>10583053
Unless you're Kutuzov

>>10582410
If you weren't going to say it I was

>>10583053
weak

hi fellow lotro player lmao didn't expect to see the game here on /lit/
what server we on lit bros?