Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere: I've Noted Some of My Readers Hate Tolkien · HGL's F.B. writings: Are Some Presenting me as Toxic Because of Tolkien?
Apart from rumours he was a National Socialist, when in fact he quarrelled with NS censors in Germany on being asked about his "Arian purity" and went out of his way to defend the Jewish race, apart from rumours he was an Illuminato who got a special permission from their council to divulge runes, a rumour arising in the US, while in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, but also UK, Netherlands, Scandinavia, runes were at this point common knowledge both among learned people and even among school children (my mother who was born 1947 had a book on Swedish literary history which starts with runes), apart from such rumours, there are another class.
"Tolkien wrote badly, he has so many plotholes."
Not as many as Isaac Asimov ... where did Hari Seldon get the raw data to calculate his percentages of chances in psychostatistics or whatever that unreadable stuff was? ... and finding one not already answered (like the Eagles) is pretty hard. Here is a try, then my reply:
The Witch-king and The Shire Plot Hole
Darth Gandalf | 13 May 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-e2sxl-ss4
That leaves us with the answer, "The Witch King never learned about the Shire." Or in other words, he was focused on capturing Fornost and the rest of Arthodine didn't matter to him. But this would be really odd for an experienced military campaigner like the Witch King. If you're planning on conquering a kingdom, you want all the information you can possibly get your hands on. You would have spies in their lands and detailed maps.
That's supposing detailed maps existed at this point in history.
Did Frederick II of Prussia know where Appenzell was? I think that's about as close as Shire to Fornost. I don't think he knew.
Even if he loved cheese, I was just going to suggest that he might have had Tilsit cheese closer to home, and I just found out he didn't, that production started in the 19th C.
Internet allowing me to verify when Tilsit cheese started, Tilsit cheese, two things that didn't exist in Frederick II's day. A bit further back, detailed maps could be added to the list. Xenophon didn't give a detailed map of Persia and didn't have one. Even if repeatedly he says "pente parasangas" we don't know how far that is. Presumably he was less good in geography than we would be. Thror's map was not all that detailed and it was an item from the dwarves, not men.
So, I presume the Witch-King was simply as bad in geography as many Medievals would have been.
on the battle-field
A Saracen who saw a Belgian (like Geoffroy de Bouillon) on the battle-field might not know where Belgium was.
[Many of the other commenters suggested a translation issue: he never knew the Shire under that name, it was known in a different way when he was a ruler closeish by.]
Do try to make a Middle Earth plot holes series!
I predict you will find his plot holes internally are rare. The one glaring plot hole with both archaeology and Christianity is saying this is our world in a pre-Christian era, and Tolkien admitted it was "an imaginary time" a k a an Uchronia.
