We also talked about whether a society like Tolkien's would actually be possible in our world today...since so many of us dream of going back to that time, could we do it? In one sense at least, I think it's impossible...Middle-earth is an agrarian society, and every race is tied to the land they inhabit. The Elves are creatures of the forest; the Dwarves are shaped by their years in the mines; the hobbits' identity is drawn from the Shire, and the various races of Men are all defined by where they come from. We who have less of a sense of land and home don't know what it's like to stay in one place our whole lives, and to derive so much of our identity from it. The land almost takes on a spirit of its own in that kind of society...it suffers and rejoices with the people, and it almost seems to act against evil at times.

The ideals behind this society - honor, integrity, fellowship, care for the earth, and so on - are not dead by any means, and I think our world would benefit from a return to them. But that's another discussion for another day...