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
Revan343@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
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.
Isoprenoid@programming.dev 4 days ago
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?
Kellenved@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
I think you have to be an elf building a ship and convince each plank individually that the world is flat
RedFrank24@lemmy.world 4 days ago
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.
Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Gimli and Frodo both also were able to sail to the undying lands
MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
Eru damn tangential elves flying off into space.
IrritableOcelot@beehaw.org 4 days ago
This gives strong “Lovecraft describing things he doesn’t understand as noneuclidian” vibes.