Matches
Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2021 2:53 am
So! One of the things that I feel has been stopping me from getting out and about in my kit has been my abysmal lack of skill at getting a fire started using historical methods. This is something I want to remedy over the coming year but it’s going to take a lot of practice. In the meantime I wanted a more reliable alternative that maintains immersion and produces consistent results. Lucky for me, Tolkien makes a couple of pretty explicit references to matches in middle earth, most notably the passage from riddles in the dark; “After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he felt for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely. Just as well for him, as he agreed when he came to his senses. Goodness knows what the striking of matches and the smell of tobacco would have brought on him out of dark holes in that horrible place.”
Again from the scouring of the shire albeit less explicit and used in a metaphorical context: “‘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.”
Especially in regards to the first passage, I’d say it’s pretty safe to assume that Tolkien is referencing more modern, self igniting matches as prior to these, the only matches I can find mention of require pretty complex methods of ignition. Not exactly all that convenient when you’re stuck in a pitch black cavern. “The striking of matches” also implies, you know, striking a match. Not necessarily a modern safety match, but at least something friction based.
As far as I’m aware, (though I’d be happy to be proven wrong) matches only seem to be referenced by hobbits so it looks like it’s one of those fun little victorian anachronisms that we tend to avoid. In this case though I don't think it would be much of a stretch to assume that a ranger patrolling the wilds of Eriador, in and around the borders of the Shire, would happily keep a small, lightweight, and quick method of getting a fire started in his kit. If only as a last resort.
All this to say I made up a little proof of concept for what a match box could look like in the world of middle earth. After a couple of preliminary sketches I came up with this design and polished it up in illustrator. The translation is meant to say “Old Willow”, the idea being that it’s the name of the company producing the matches. I had a look at old matchbox designs to try and get a feel for any common naming conventions from back in the day and my conclusion is that it was basically a free for all. People were just coming up with whatever they wanted. ‘Old Willow’ felt like it would fit into the context of the shire to me but if anyone has any names they think would be better I’m open to suggestions! The Tengwar translation was done over here: https://www.tecendil.com/?q=Old%20Willow (Learing the english mode of the alphabet is also on my to-do list this year) If it is wrong/ inaccurate please let me know cause I don’t have the slightest clue! After finalising the design I transferred it onto a lino-block and carved out a stamp for it. It came out pretty rough, especially in the lettering but as a proof of concept it gets the job done I think. Here’s the final matchbox as it stands now. I want to experiment with adding some colour in the background to make it pop a bit and I’d love to figure out how to put a striking surface on the side without just cutting one off a modern box and gluing it on, but let me know what you guys think!
Again from the scouring of the shire albeit less explicit and used in a metaphorical context: “‘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.”
Especially in regards to the first passage, I’d say it’s pretty safe to assume that Tolkien is referencing more modern, self igniting matches as prior to these, the only matches I can find mention of require pretty complex methods of ignition. Not exactly all that convenient when you’re stuck in a pitch black cavern. “The striking of matches” also implies, you know, striking a match. Not necessarily a modern safety match, but at least something friction based.
As far as I’m aware, (though I’d be happy to be proven wrong) matches only seem to be referenced by hobbits so it looks like it’s one of those fun little victorian anachronisms that we tend to avoid. In this case though I don't think it would be much of a stretch to assume that a ranger patrolling the wilds of Eriador, in and around the borders of the Shire, would happily keep a small, lightweight, and quick method of getting a fire started in his kit. If only as a last resort.
All this to say I made up a little proof of concept for what a match box could look like in the world of middle earth. After a couple of preliminary sketches I came up with this design and polished it up in illustrator. The translation is meant to say “Old Willow”, the idea being that it’s the name of the company producing the matches. I had a look at old matchbox designs to try and get a feel for any common naming conventions from back in the day and my conclusion is that it was basically a free for all. People were just coming up with whatever they wanted. ‘Old Willow’ felt like it would fit into the context of the shire to me but if anyone has any names they think would be better I’m open to suggestions! The Tengwar translation was done over here: https://www.tecendil.com/?q=Old%20Willow (Learing the english mode of the alphabet is also on my to-do list this year) If it is wrong/ inaccurate please let me know cause I don’t have the slightest clue! After finalising the design I transferred it onto a lino-block and carved out a stamp for it. It came out pretty rough, especially in the lettering but as a proof of concept it gets the job done I think. Here’s the final matchbox as it stands now. I want to experiment with adding some colour in the background to make it pop a bit and I’d love to figure out how to put a striking surface on the side without just cutting one off a modern box and gluing it on, but let me know what you guys think!