Elf Tech

amysrevenge

Well-Known Member
Looking to do some very broad discussion about Elf technology, most specifically about Noldor at the height of their powers.

The discussion about 2h in to session 4.12 put it in my mind, with Cory talking about surveyors and showing Gondolin in-construction but saving the reveal for S5.

What does "in construction" look like? They can't possibly have cranes (can they?), but what about rigging with pulleys and rope? How about scaffolding? Do they build a tower from the ground up by piling rocks on top of other rocks, or from the center out like a modern downtown office building?

I try not to think too much about this, both because I don't really like any of the possible answers and because it's a bit too on the nose coming from me.

/engineer
 
Looking to do some very broad discussion about Elf technology, most specifically about Noldor at the height of their powers.

The discussion about 2h in to session 4.12 put it in my mind, with Cory talking about surveyors and showing Gondolin in-construction but saving the reveal for S5.

What does "in construction" look like? They can't possibly have cranes (can they?), but what about rigging with pulleys and rope? How about scaffolding? Do they build a tower from the ground up by piling rocks on top of other rocks, or from the center out like a modern downtown office building?

I try not to think too much about this, both because I don't really like any of the possible answers and because it's a bit too on the nose coming from me.

/engineer

Well, it depends on how tall we want their towers to be. The impression I get is that they are pretty darn tall. Towers are a big motif in descriptions if High Elvish construction.

/failed engineer
 
Well, it depends on how tall we want their towers to be. The impression I get is that they are pretty darn tall. Towers are a big motif in descriptions if High Elvish construction.

/failed engineer
What did we have for Tirion? Because Turgon makes Gondolin into as much of a copy of Tirion as he can.
 
I suppose I also don't really want to do the legwork of actual research into, say, 15th century construction techniques. Or even 19th century. In my mind, I always sort of visualize it as a time-lapse growth without showing the nitty gritty. Probably some sort of defense mechanism.
 
Well, I know a bit more about ancient and medieval construction than I do about modern building methods so maybe we could meet in the middle somewhere. Perhaps it might be beneficial to set some benchmarks. The Pisa bell tower for example was completed in the 14th century, but probably could have been finished earlier. It's about 180' tall and was built from the bottom up.
 
Actually, late Medieval Italy is a good place to look for this sort of thing. Bologna used to have a ton of tall, thin towers. This is what it may have looked like.

1200px-Medieval_Bologna.jpg

towers-of-bologna
 
What did we have for Tirion? Because Turgon makes Gondolin into as much of a copy of Tirion as he can.

Tirion is tall enough for its light to be seen from the bay. The hill on which it sits contributes to this, but I imagine that the Tower of Ingwë is taller than any human tower could be before the use of steel framing.
 
Apparently, one of the tallest stone towers is pretty close to home for me. Philadelphia City Hall tower is 548' tall.

Finished around the turn of the 20th century. Do we think this is too advanced?
 
1322131172_bridg-129.jpg Tower-of-babel-unknown.jpg 6a00e0099229e8883301310fcd241f970c-600wi.jpg pont_valentre_construction.jpg

Why should not they have cranes? Well of course the elves have their magia naturalis... but that should not keep them away from everykind of green technology they might have learned from Aule...

I thought we had all ready at Tirion and Formenos made the compromise that elves lay bricks, thatch roofs and even use wheels on vehicles and machines to move great weight - even if they don't like wheels very much - like everybody else , though still - they have a word for wheel and even wain and so have a concept of it... though they might still prefer sleds and magic
 
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Scaffolding is not a modern concept and does not require modern materials. Scaffolding can be built from sticks. So, yes, they have that.

What they don't have is concrete poured over steel rebar. :p

There is information available about the construction of medieval cathedrals and castles and towers. I suggest we reference that. Tolkien saw Gondolin being built over a 50 year time span.

We featured the construction of Ingwe's tower in Season 2, but of course we did not detail the process at the time. Finwe was a bit of an architect, and Turgon clearly is too. Not sure who the construction expert is in the group. Probably Ecthelion. There was some reason it was his fountain before he killed a balrog in it.
 
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