Scientists have always had a thing for Middle Earth. It has been the subject of many published academic journal articles, as well as some great analyses by scientists from their disciplines. Here are some good ones, the more elaborate the better... 1/n theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Let’s start with geology, and geologist & science fiction author @katsudonburi’s issues with Tolkien’s mountain ranges (written before plate tectonics was a known thing) 2/n tor.com/2017/08/01/tol…
And then there is this terrific map of the rocks of Middle Earth by a cosmogeologist 3/n
https://twitter.com/BendyScientist/status/1318670464923914241
And this six-part tour of the geology & vulcanology of Lonely Mountain that explains why there is so much gold there, among other things. 4/n pascals-puppy.blogspot.com/2013/12/unnatu… 
Turning to military history, here is historian @BretDevereaux’s six-part discussion of the Siege of Gondor from the perspective of pre-gunpowder warfare. 5/n acoup.blog/2019/05/10/col…
Here’s archaeology, with @AlmostArch looking at the material culture and ruins of Middle Earth. 6/n almostarchaeology.com/post/105051279…
And of course Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon & English literature who made up languages, but this post on the true names of the main characters of the Lord of the Rings (it isn’t what you think) revealed a lot of the cleverness of the author. 7 amethystmarietm.tumblr.com/post/185331460…
Thematically related!
https://twitter.com/kjhealy/status/1320018980292222979
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