Talk:Lembas

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"The secret of lembas is closely guarded, and only on rare occasions is it given to non-Elves." How do we know this? Rich Farmbrough 21:56, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

One reference is the Túrinsaga: "Here is lembas, the waybread of the Eldar, that no Man yet has tasted." (from UT.) This is also in the Silmarillion, Túrin, chapter 21 (page 240 in the HarperCollins pocket). The Tuorsaga has more references. Jordi·✆ 22:07, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

"The cakes are very nutritious, stay fresh for months when wrapped in leaves, and are used for sustenance on long journeys."

Lembas must have a shelf life of years. You can know this because Sam and Frodo continues to eat them till near the end of their journey, that's after 3-years. The lembas still stays fresh. Clockword 09:54, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Original research/suppositions

Two paragraphs need to be sourced or removed: "Tolkien may have based lembas and cram on hard tack..." and "It is also possible that the Catholic Tolkien chose..." --Fang Aili ^talk 16:19, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Because of its very nature, it could hardly be anything other than a type of hardtack. The type that Men made was called cram, and lembas was the Elvish variety, which (of course!) tastes better. (Hello, Keebler?) It's quite certain that Tolkien would be familiar with hardtack, from Navy folklore probably as well as from his Army experience. The following is a well-researched site that goes into detail on Naval life, including diet: http://www.hms.org.uk/nelsonsnavymain.htm As for comparisons of lembas to Communion bread, that's an interesting observation, but I would think that manna would be another influence. Afalbrig 05:38, 1 July 2007 (UTC)