What modern day items are mentioned in JRRT's writings?

Question

I read LOTR again recently and noticed that they mentioned top hats, matches and tomatoes, all items that don't really fit the era. (top hats maybe)

A friend recently mentioned to me that Tolkien regretted including tomatoes in LOTR as they are a relatively newer fruit and not something that fits the time period.

Is there any other time travelling items mentioned in any of JRRT's writings?

Bonus points for any of Tolkien's writings on this topic.

Cleverly, most (if not all) of these anachronisms can be explained by Tolkien's in-universe framing device. In other words, they're not anachronisms; Tolkien just used a modern English word in his translation — Jason Baker, Sep 18 '15 at 19:55
Who says tomatoes are modern?! Maybe they are modern to Europe, but so what? — ThePopMachine, Sep 18 '15 at 20:00
I have no doubt the VTC camp is going to argue this is a list question so should be closed. I'm not going to, but my experience is, people love to VTC if they can think of a reason to apply a perceived "rule". — ThePopMachine, Sep 18 '15 at 20:03
@CarlSixsmith: It's not Europe, right? It's "based on Europe" and even so, it occurs at an undetermined time in the past with fantastical races. Since there's no continuity from Middle-Earth to the modern day historically, it means when things were invented/available in Middle-Earth doesn't map to modern Europe. Presumably things were/could be re-invented/re-discovered. So who can say why it's any weirder that Hobbits have umbrellas than that they have a new-world fruit?! ... — ThePopMachine, Sep 18 '15 at 20:25
@ThePopMachine no it's Europe. The lands have changed since but it's definitely Europe. — , Sep 18 '15 at 20:26
... Just like umbrellas were possibly reinvented, tomatoes could be transported from North-America to Middle-Earth in the past and then lost in Europe. Or transported from Europe to North America in the first place. Either way, it seems arbitrary to me to call out tomatoes as somehow weirder than umbrellas, clarinets and matches — ThePopMachine, Sep 18 '15 at 20:27
@CarlSixsmith: It doesn't actually matter to my point. That's the 'even so' part. — ThePopMachine, Sep 18 '15 at 20:27
As dismayed as I am to discover this, it does in fact seem to be Europe. Relevant question: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/22034/is-tolkiens-middle-earth-in-our-universe — Dan, Sep 18 '15 at 22:00
Ah. Europe, then? Europe that us ruled over by the Valar, has crazy orcs and immortal elves constantly ruining each other's shit, cave trolls, balrogs, fire-breathing dragons, an evil overlord Sauron and his rings and ringwraiths, and a weird rogue wizard running around getting up into all the kings' business. But God forbid it has tomatoes. — Misha R, Sep 18 '15 at 22:24
@CarlSixsmith Oh interesting... looks like Mount Doom would have been close to Pompei! — , Sep 19 '15 at 05:44
Does the nursery rhyme about the cow jumping over the moon count in this? Obviously it's not an object and Tolkien is suggesting it has ancient roots, but the roots part could be said about most of this. Especially the golf example! (It's in Fellowship in the Prancing Pony in a longer form). — ThruGog, Sep 20 '15 at 21:28

Rand al'Thor · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-18T21:35:16.110

21

Pop-guns

"Carefully! Carefully!" he said. "It is not like you, Bilbo, to keep friends waiting on the mat, and then open the door like a pop-gun!"
_{- The Hobbit, Chapter 1: An Unexpected Party}

Umbrellas

Frodo [...] escorted her firmly off the premises, after he had relieved her of several small (but rather valuable) articles that had somehow fallen inside her umbrella.
_{- The Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter 1: A Long-expected Party}

And again, also Lobelia:

'"I'll give you Sharkey, you dirty thieving ruffians!" says she, and ups with her umbrella and goes for the leader, near twice her size. So they took her. Dragged her off to the Lockholes, at her age too. They’ve took others we miss more, but there’s no denying she showed more spirit than most.'"
_{- The Return of the King, Chapter 18: The Scouring of the Shire}

Buttoned waistcoats

If Balin noticed that Mr. Baggins' waistcoat was more extensive (and had real gold buttons), Bilbo also noticed that Balin's beard was several inches longer.
_{- The Hobbit, chapter 19: The Last Stage}

Clocks

"If you had dusted the mantelpiece, you would have found this just under the clock," said Gandalf, handing Bilbo a note (written, of course, on his own note-paper).
_{- The Hobbit, chapter 2: Roast Mutton}

Lamps

"Just then I saw the eyes: two pale sort of points, shiny-like, on a hump at the near end of the log... But whether those two lamps spotted me moving and staring, or whether I came to my senses, I don't know."
_{- The Fellowship of the Ring, chapter 21: The Great River}

Golf

He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul's head clean off with a wooden club. It sailed a hundred yards through the air and went down a rabbit-hole, and in this way the battle was won and the game of Golf invented at the same moment.
_{- The Hobbit, chapter 1: An Unexpected Party}

Clarinets

Bombur produced a drum from the hall; Bifur and Bofur went out too, and came back with clarinets that they had left among the walking-sticks.
_{- The Hobbit, chapter 1: An Unexpected Party}

Matches

"Raise the Shire!" said Merry. "Now! Wake all our people! They hate all this, you can see: all of them except perhaps one or two rascals, and a few fools that want to be important, but don’t at all understand what is really going on. But Shire-folk have been so comfortable so long they don’t know what to do. They just want a match, though, and they’ll go up in fire."
_{- The Return of the King, Chapter 18: The Scouring of the Shire}

_{Credit for clarinets and matches to @Richard and his sockpuppet @Buffybot; permission has been given for me to copy this and the other answer will be deleted in 60 days. See chat here and here.}

edited Sep 18 '15 at 21:35

answered Sep 18 '15 at 19:45

Rand al'Thor

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There is of course also paper, pens, ink, writing, etc., which are anachronistic in terms of real-world human inventions and development, but not in terms of the in-universe Tolkienite history. A lot of the things you mention here seem to me likely fall in the same category: since Middle Earth had its own history of inventions, there’s no reason they shouldn’t at some point have invented umbrellas and waistcoats, for instance. (Though I agree express trains is probably a stretch.) – Janus Bahs Jacquet Sep 18 '15 at 20:04
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Some of these examples are just illustrative to the modern reader, and do not indicate that these objects actually existed in ME. This is not how the people from ME would have described them. – Jason Hutchinson Sep 18 '15 at 20:29
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Are umbrellas really that modern? – David says Reinstate Monica Sep 18 '15 at 20:52
@DavidGrinberg Good point! I'd thought they were only a few centuries old, but apparently they go back a couple of thousand years. – Rand al'Thor Sep 18 '15 at 21:10
@JasonHutchinson Fair enough; I'll edit out those examples since they're sort of explained away by the 'trick' Jason Baker mentioned. – Rand al'Thor Sep 18 '15 at 21:11
@randal'thor I'm not sure if the Trains one is valid. Can you provide more context? The pop-gun one might just be lost in translation, but I'm not sure on that one. – Jason Hutchinson Sep 18 '15 at 21:26
@JasonHutchinson Oops, thought I'd removed that one for the reason you raised. It's gone now. – Rand al'Thor Sep 18 '15 at 21:40
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What about gunpowder (which was presumably what was used at the Battle of Helm's Deep) and, of course, fireworks (though both might be considered magical [and, if I recall correctly, Gandalf's fireworks had some behaviors which would require sufficiently advanced technology]). – Sep 18 '15 at 22:28
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Lamps are several thousand years old – Nate Eldredge Sep 19 '15 at 03:33
a lot of this feels very "hobbitish" to me - i'm getting a new sense that hobbits, in their desire to be comfortable and live pleasant lives, were actually quite technological in having developed these items for themselves – Nacht Sep 19 '15 at 09:02
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@Nacht Yes, hobbits had Victorian-era technology while most of the rest of Middle-Earth was stuck in Anglo-Saxon times! – Rand al'Thor Sep 19 '15 at 10:32
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Lamps and matches aren’t so anachronistic. A modern electric lamp or self-igniting match certainly would be, but both words originally meant simpler things that have existed much longer. A match, for instance, used to be just a stick or similar object used for lighting fires; and this older sense still fits the quote given. – PLL Sep 19 '15 at 11:12

Tobyffub · Answer 2 · 2015-09-18T20:02:30.277

There are a number of anachronistic items in Middle Earth

The dwarves possess clarinets (invented 1740AD)

Bombur produced a drum from the hall; Bifur and Bofur went out too, and came back with clarinets that they had left among the walking-sticks Dwalin and Balin said: "Excuse me, I left mine in the porch!" - _{^{The Hobbit}}

Lobelia owns an umbrella (invented circa 4000BC)

Then there was Lobelia. Poor thing, she looked very old and thin when they rescued her from a dark and narrow cell. She insisted on hobbling out on her own feet; and she had such a welcome, and there was such clapping and cheering when she appeared, leaning on Frodo’s arm but still clutching her umbrella, that she was quite touched, and drove away in tears. - _{^{LOTR : The Grey Havens}}

Merry has matches (invented 1826AD)

‘Raise the Shire!’ said Merry. ‘Now! Wake all our people! They hate all this, you can see: all of them except perhaps one or two rascals, and a few fools that want to be important, but don’t at all understand what is really going on. But Shire-folk have been so comfortable so long they don’t know what to do. They just want a match, though, and they’ll go up in fire. The Chief’s Men must know that. They’ll try to stamp on us and put us out quick. We’ve only got a very short time.

These references are crappily given: just "The Hobbit", and no source at all for the last one? You're not up to your master's standards! ;-) — Rand al'Thor, Sep 18 '15 at 21:22

M. A. Golding · Answer 3 · 2017-06-07T22:16:26.243

If you look at the sentence...

...He took off his party clothes, folded up and wrapped in tissue paper his embroidered silk waistcoat, and put it away. _{^{The Fellowship of the Ring "A Long-Expected Party"}}

We can add Silk and Tissue paper to the anachronistic stuff already mentioned.

Also, according to Wikipedia, embroidery dates to the warring states era of China, thousands of years after LOTR so if you include Waistcoats, that means that the sentence mentions FOUR totally anachronistic elements.

Compare a map of northwestern Middle-earth with a modern map of Europe, north Africa, and western Asia. Obviously one or more catastrophes changed the shapes of lands and seas, mountains and plains, to make the world we know sometime between LOTR and the dawn of history.

So that explains a lot of the anachronistic stuff. It was invented or discovered or developed, lost in the post-LOTR catastrophes, and reinvented, redeveloped and rediscovered thousands of years later.