Searching for the science behind Tolkien's Middle-earth: Leicester University students map the hobbit metabolism

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

A pair of Leicester University students with a passion for Tolkien have published an academic project analysing his creation under the microscope of modern science

JRR Tolkien’s literary output reflects his life and interests – he had a lifelong love for constructing languages and when writing the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings he used the fictitious Red Book of Westmarch as literary device to link his narratives.

A philologist at Oxford University, he claimed to have translated his stories and presented Middle-Earth, tongue-in-cheek, as a historic and linguistic reality rather than a work of fantasy.

Now a group of natural sciences students at Leicester University have applied the same idea to their subject and have delved into the science behind Tolkien’s creation, calculating the practical considerations the fellowship would have faced on their quest.

The results of their study have been published in a series of papers in the peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics.

"Writing for the journal is a great way of finding novel solutions to problems nobody has thought of before,” said Krisho Manoharan, who worked on the project with fellow student Skye Rosetti.

"It’s great to be able to work as a team and develop new ideas.”

The pair began by modelling the basal metabolic rate of hobbits, humans and elves.

For the purposes of their model, they substituted roe deer for elves, given their “woodland habitat, vegetarian diet and fast reactions”. Humanity, meanwhile, was represented by the red fox, due to its “dietary similarities with Paleolithic humans”, and Austrialia’s southwestern pygmy possum, chosen for its hobbitlike “preference for tree hollows and varied diet”.

They discovered that, of the three, elves have the lowest resting metabolic rate. Hobbits have the highest, explaining their need for six regular meals a day (if they can get them), although perhaps not their preference for ale.

Having compared the metabolic rate for each species, Manoharan and Rosetti went on to calculate how much of the magical lembas bread the fellowship would have needed to consume when walking to Mordor. Their conclusion of 675 pieces of lembas suggests that Tolkien underestimated the logistic requirements for the trip.

The pair's Tolkienesque thought experiments were performed alongside their fellow natural science students as part of Leicester University’s innovative science topics module, which offers undergraduates to the opportunity to write, critique and publish their own mini research papers, applying scientific principles to popular culture and everyday life.

“We want the students to gain the ability to communicate science to a wider audience,” said Dr Cheryl Hurkett, a physics fellow at the university’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Science.

Dr Hurkett added: “The key is that this is not research...but is emphatically about communication and a novel way of applying science.”

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Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/art528464-searching-for-the-science-behind-tolkien-middle-earth-leicester-university-students-map-the-hobbit-metabolism