this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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kawaiiiiiii (mander.xyz)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Didn't Middle Earth lore say the Earth was flat, but was made spherical later? Had that happened by then?

[–] [email protected] 40 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Yes, but it's not spherical for the elves, just the other races, which is why elven boats can sail to the undying lands, but human boats can't.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

This gives strong "Lovecraft describing things he doesn't understand as noneuclidian" vibes.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago

Eru damn tangential elves flying off into space.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Wait, is it the boat that ignores the spherical attribute or the entity that commands the boat?

Can an elf sail to the undying lands commanding a human built vessel?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It's neither, it's the Will of Eru Illuvatar that determines whether you can travel the Straight Road or not. Ælfwine travelled the Straight Road and landed at Tol Eressëa in 869AD after fleeing the Danes, and he was a Man, not an Elf.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Gimli and Frodo both also were able to sail to the undying lands

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Yeah but Ælfwine got there by accident, and wasn't escorted by elves.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 5 days ago

I think you have to be an elf building a ship and convince each plank individually that the world is flat

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

the world was flat until numenor made war on the undying lands. at that point, numenor sank and the world was made round and the undying lands were placed somehow outside them, so that elves could still sail west along the straight way and get there, but everyone else just sailed west around the globe.

later, tolkien changed his mind about a lot of this and played with it, trying to turn it into an always roundworld (scientifically accurate myth was his goal at this point) but couldnt really figure out how it'd work and he was old and then he died

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

so you're saying flat earth killed tolkien?