It appears Mordor, the dark home of Sauron, is not a place of fiction anymore. Worlds are converging. Middle Earth is becoming a place of reality.
Just yesterday I was having a conversation with a colleague about places in Middle Earth and who Tolkien may have based them on. We were thinking the Shire is Britain because we have a lot of shires over here, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, etc, and how Isengard could be based on Germany. Gondor was likened to America, Rivendell was Switzerland, and then there were arguments about where the Dwarves and men of Rohan originated. Feel free to add your ideas on this.
Then, low and behold, a few news articles popped up on Google. The first google news article tells of how scientists have likened the Shires to Leicestershire and Lincolnshire (fair enough...ish. That's basically what we said) but how Mordor is more like Los Angeles and Western Texas. I don't entirely agree with this. We put Mordor over in Russia - and with good reason. And this is proven with yet another google news article.
This week's Pic of the Week is from the second article. It's a picture of Kamchatka volcano in Eastern Russia taken during its most recent eruption. When compared against a picture of Mordor itself, it proves the convergence of this world and Middle Earth, making Eastern Russia the 'New Mordor'. Lord of the Ring fanatics must be leaping with joy at the moment :)
So, in this Festive Season To Be Jolly, not only do we have to be good in case Santa is watching, we also have to be aware of the 'Eye of Sauron'. If you're naughty he'll know, don't you know...
Just yesterday I was having a conversation with a colleague about places in Middle Earth and who Tolkien may have based them on. We were thinking the Shire is Britain because we have a lot of shires over here, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, etc, and how Isengard could be based on Germany. Gondor was likened to America, Rivendell was Switzerland, and then there were arguments about where the Dwarves and men of Rohan originated. Feel free to add your ideas on this.
Then, low and behold, a few news articles popped up on Google. The first google news article tells of how scientists have likened the Shires to Leicestershire and Lincolnshire (fair enough...ish. That's basically what we said) but how Mordor is more like Los Angeles and Western Texas. I don't entirely agree with this. We put Mordor over in Russia - and with good reason. And this is proven with yet another google news article.
This week's Pic of the Week is from the second article. It's a picture of Kamchatka volcano in Eastern Russia taken during its most recent eruption. When compared against a picture of Mordor itself, it proves the convergence of this world and Middle Earth, making Eastern Russia the 'New Mordor'. Lord of the Ring fanatics must be leaping with joy at the moment :)
 |
| Kamchatka volcano in Eastern Russia |
 |
| Mordor |
So, in this Festive Season To Be Jolly, not only do we have to be good in case Santa is watching, we also have to be aware of the 'Eye of Sauron'. If you're naughty he'll know, don't you know...
