what time period is Lord of the Rings set in?

Question

the clothing? what time period is it? middle ages, industreal, colonel?

Answer 1

Middle Ages and not on this planet.

Answer 2

It's rather difficult to say what real workld time period the story reflects. It would be easy to say it reflects the Middle Ages, save for Saruman's rather industrial age methods for producing an army. And look what he turned the Shire into when you finally get back to it at the end of "The Return of the King." He's industrialized it just like he'd done to Isengard before being defeated by the Ents. So you've got both the Middle Ages and the Industrial Age being reflected in Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." Quite possibly you could find the Renissance and other pre-Industrial age time periods being represented in his masterpiece.

Answer 3

*LOL* NOT "Middle Ages" - That is a real time in real history on the real Earth. The Lord of the Rings is set in "Middle Earth" - a fictional place. The fictional time is at the dawn of the Age of Men. The Second Age of Middle Earth ended with the ring being cut from Sauron's finger. The destruction of the ring was the official beginning of the Age of Men. It is similar to elements of modern times as well as elements of historical times. There is a great deal of emphasis on free will, the actions of free people, and the responsibility of all to protect that precious freedom. Sounds a lot like the political rhetoric of this day and age! According to the notes in the extended DVD collection, Tolkien himself attempted not to make the story strictly symbolic of any current event in his own time. The story can be interpreted as allegory, but Tolkien said he did not intend it to be allegorical.

A note added after I read some other answers - The author of the book drew much of the artwork used as the basis for the costumes in the movie. Tolkien was astonishingly talented. He developed an entire language. Some of us have trouble mastering the niceties of the one we have used all our lives!

Answer 4

Tolkien's goal was to create a mythology for England. Middle Earth is not another planet--it is meant to be Northwestern Europe in a remote age (a time before time,if you will.) Certainly most of the clothes/weapons descriptions are similar to early medieval items--except for the hobbits who wear waistcoats like Edwardians. The riders of Rohan are similar to Saxons in both nomenclature and appearance; the culture of Gondor was roughly based on Byzantine (though the king's crown is similar to Egyptian!). The elves are similar in many ways to the celtic Sidhe--beautiful, immortal unless slain, passing into the West as man progresses forward.
So there is really a bit of many cultures/time periods in LOTR.

Answer 5

According to Tolkien, the story took place in the last days of the Third Age of Middle Earth. I don't think that he intended it to be matched to any particular time period in reality.

Answer 6

Lord of The Rings is entirely fictional.

It is not set in any time period, and the costumes are designed to fit the fantasy genre of the film, they don't really conform to any one particular period.

Answer 7

Tolkien calls it, "Middle Earth." This may mean an imaginary period before our own, but after some even more remote period. "Before our own" may mean far before the beginnings of historical Egypt in 3000 BC.

Answer 8

Umm...being that its set in a fictional world theres no way of knowing perhaps??....

It could be year 234....34,000....12....just cos' it's in the style of middle age England...doesnt mean that it would be the middle ages in their world...

Answer 9

It is set in "Tolkien Time". Middle Earth is a world that Tolkien created; it's time is not related to real time. So it's actually any time you envision it to be.

Answer 10

middle ages