Characters wearing glasses in fantasy novels set in a period equivalent to the 1000s to 1100s England?

[v_legolas_gleaf]

Is this an incongruity? For example, I was just re-watching The Fall of Erebor from the first Hobbit movie on Youtube and noticed a Dwarf in Erebor wearing what appeared to be modern kind of glasses (here The Hobbit : The Fall of Erebor )

Actually a quick google search revealed that the first kinds of glasses were invented in the late 1200s (First Eyeglasses) so it may not be too far off from reality. However, if a novel containing Elfs, Dwarfs, Princes and Kings and Orcs and Wizards and other forms of magic were also to contain a character wearing Glasses, would it pull the reader out of their imagination due to the seeming incongruity as we associate spectacles with the modern age?

 

[Michael Ehrler]

I think it would for me unless you do a little work to set up that they are rare and require specialist knowledge to make. Perhaps only being made in one or two places which are famous for their lenses. I had to think of something similar for my historical/epic fantasy setting, so I decided that the character who wore them had obtained them while traveling to a distant land where they have secret techniques for making extremely precise lenses.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Secondary world... I doubt it's a problem.

It's a natural problem for humans, and therefore, one that would face immediate attempts to improve eyesight as we age. In a magical world, bet your ass there would be solutions! If inserting them into an old time period, it might be useful to mention the material of the glasses to make sure they aren't mistaken for modern plastic lenses. Heavy glass, quartz, whatever. It's doable. Crude magnifying glasses could go back to BC times, so... Glasses are just an extension of this principle. Dwarves and other species with particular skills could advance the tech pretty quick.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Yup, it's just a matter of where and how and why your science of optics got going. Your world, your rules, as long as you obey your own rules. "Plausible" is the name of this game.

 

[CupofJoe]

The Romans and Greeks wrote about optics and lenses. The Chinese are believed to have used magnifying lens and "sunglasses" and there is even a story or two of Vikings using crystal lenses to "see" the sun [but those could be wishful thinking].
So many things could be possible.
You make the rules of your world. You just have to be consistent.

 

[Finchbearer]

I’m pretty sure I’ve pondered this very issue. Given it’s a secondary world, I’d say go for it.

 

[Mad Swede]

Yes, this is entirely plausible. The first so-called reading stones (ground quartz lenses) seem to have appeared in Europe in the eleventh century and examples include the so-called Visby stones which have been dated to the eleventh or early twelth century. However, such reading stones would have been rare and expensive. Robert Grosseteste (also known as Robert of Lincoln) wrote a treatise on optics called De iride which he completed in 1235, and the first true eye glasses (as in spectacles) in Europe were made in Italy a few years later.

 

[pmmg]

I agree with Michael, in that I would notice this and file it away is maybe something that does not fit. I would have to see by context of the rest of the story that it is more likely than not. Given a world with Dwarves and Elves and magic, I think something like shaping glass might come about sooner than here on earth, but perhaps are still uncommon.

Another aspect to this is what does it mean that they are invented? cause some breakthroughs lead to others, and it might seem odd if one thing existed but others thing didn't. For example, someone having a car, but gears have not been invented yet. How could that be, and would it be likely?

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Flintstones, meet the Flintstones... heh heh. My old feet hurt just thinking about it.

I agree with Michael, in that I would notice this and file it away is maybe something that does not fit. I would have to see by context of the rest of the story that it is more likely than not. Given a world with Dwarves and Elves and magic, I think something like shaping glass might come about sooner than here on earth, but perhaps are still uncommon.

Another aspect to this is what does it mean that they are invented? cause some breakthroughs lead to others, and it might seem odd if one thing existed but others thing didn't. For example, someone having a car, but gears have not been invented yet. How could that be, and would it be likely?

 

[pmmg]

You've put that song in my head. I hope your happy ...

 

[Demesnedenoir]

My work is done here.

You've put that song in my head. I hope your happy ...

 

[Rexenm]

Maybe it’s good for spies. I used to walk around with my fingers curled up, like a manacle. Even then, manacles, are more common for that time period - at least in my imagination.

 

[pmmg]

My work is done here.

 

[LostName]

People often mistake the way technology and society progressed irl as THE WAY but this is fiction. Not just that, but also irl countless innovations were created by accident or by specific people because of their specific circumstances. Obviously a lot of progress was made by various people in increments and sometimes even nearly parallel so often enough the progress was inevitable and at most would be delayed by a few decades if those people all were taken out of the equation but sometimes stuff like penicillin or microwave ovens were created because of pure coincidence.

So glasses, telephones or whatever else you want are 100% fine if you have any halfway believable reason not why it happened, but why it's not impossible that it happened.

No one cried foul when Naruto was shown to have no guns or cars but actual computers and some pretty advanced lab and medical equipment because in the end, this is far from what the audience actually cares about.

Not to mention the rate of progress that happened irl is pure happenstance and there are a myriad reasons why a large variety of technologies might have developed centuries apart from each other even though in hindsight it should have been obvious and they should have been developed close in time to each other, stuff like that also exists irl.