When the Internet Was Really SLOOOOOW

One of the cool parts of The Return of the King is when Gandalf and Pippin light the beacons of Minas Tirith. Cool visuals. Majestic music. Neat suff!

Thing is, a bunch of folks probably thought “What a cool idea Tolkien (or maybe Jackson) had here.” But the idea wasn’t original.

Beacons (fires set on hilltops or other high places as a means of communication) were used in antiquity. The Greeks and Romans had beacons linked in relay that were used to rapidly transmit information across long distances. Homer mentions them in The Illiad (which is what that Troy movie is loosely based on). They served as a low-tech form of Internet, though with severe limitations about what kind of information could be sent.

To get around the problem of only being able to send a limited number of messages, the ancients would also use flags, smoke signals, and other means that could transmit a more data-rich message.

As cool as the beacons of Minas Tirith sequence is in The Return of the King, I do have one criticism of it: Peter Jackson shows the beacons taking way too much time. The sequence shows them being lit for part of a day, all of a night, and part of another day in order to get the “Help!” message from Gondor to Rohan, which the film tells us are only a few days’ ride apart. That’s too much time.

The Roman beacon system was much faster, speed being the whole point of the beacon network. As soon as the guys at one beacon see another catch fire, they start lighting their own, and so the message is communicated from beacon station to beacon station much faster than a horse could carry a rider. A basic message could be sent across Europe by the real-world system in less time than it took the message to travel in the film.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

5 thoughts on “When the Internet Was Really SLOOOOOW”

  1. It’s amazing the kind of stuff humans could come up with before the invention/discovery of electricity.

  2. Herodotus mentions them in The Illiad
    I’m not sure if you mean Homer in the Illiad or Herodotus in his Histories…

  3. For those who are in or will visit the San Diego are between now and September 6th there is a great exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art.
    “Saint Peter and the Vatican” is a wonder display of the Legacy of the Popes.
    Here’s a clip of the advertisement:
    “This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition explores the 2,000-year history of the papacy with important historical objects, precious liturgical items, rare documents, and spectacular works of art, many of which have never left the Vatican or been on public view. Visitors will be immersed in rich architectural settings that present more than 390 objects in their historical and cultural contexts. The very floors, walls, doors, and foundations of the Vatican help tell the story of one of the world’s oldest and most influential institutions.”
    Don’t miss this. I don’t get out to the Vatican very often (never… would like to someday)and this was a great opportunity to view some of it’s treasures and learn a little history.
    God Bless

  4. Tolkien had it right, and Jackson had it (as well as so many other things) wrong.
    Tolkien would have translated the Illiad when he was in what we would call grade school. And living in the west midlands, he would have been well aware of the Brecon Beacons – the range of mountains in Powys that were used to warn the Romano-Britains of a Saxon or Norman attack.

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