Talk:List of Middle-earth roads

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First of all, thanks to Fang Aili for following my suggestion at Old South Road's nomination for deletion (which suceeded). As I said there, I really think these roads might be better off merged into here, not just linked to. For example, East Road shares its name with Great East Road (Zambia). Rather than moving it to East Road (Middle-earth), why not merge it to here? This is probably an relatively obscure Tolkien topic anway, compared to characters and battles, and thus a meta-(mega?)article would probably be best... And some maps would help, if it's allowed. Uthanc 17:56, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't mind merging the roads. In fact, I was hoping for some communication from involved parties to figure out what to do (thanks Uthanc :). Also, I think there needs to be some fact checking from a Tolkien buff; I am not sure if "Old South Road" is really the right name for the road. It is probably "North-South Road". I scanned through LOTR and could find no reference to "Old South Road" (though admittedly there are some 1000 pages). I also went to the bookstore and looked through various Middle-earth guides and could find nothing called "Old South Road", even on a large map. And Arda does not list "Old South Road" (and that site is pretty darn exhaustive). So in sum, we need some merging and checking of facts, etc. How can we redirect people from East Road to Roads of Middle-earth without neglecting Great East Road (Zambia)? --Fang Aili talk 18:07, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
Agree with merging. The form 'Old South Road' for the southern portion of the North-South road appears on CJRT's map in LotR. Tolkien also used the term "old south road" for the road to Nargothrond in Beleriand. On 'Great East Road', if that is the most common name of the road in Zambia I'd suggest moving that article there and adding a hatnote directing people to this page if they want the Middle-earth variant. We could redirect them here first and then hatnote back to Zambia, but I think it would be easier to do it the other way around. --CBD 01:44, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
Merging them into this article (and sorting them by giving each a subsection in a table of contents) improves the article and makes content less likely to come up for possible deletion. MadMaxDog 10:53, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

The distinction between a street and a road is similar to that between a boat and a ship. The Lampwrights' Street in Minas Tirith is not a road, but a city street, and should not be listed here. Tolkien himself was very particular about language - we ought to try to be as clear. john k 21:01, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

I think you would be hard pressed to find a dictionary which defines the word 'street' without using the word 'road'. The term 'road' is used to describe a constructed path for traveling between areas and the term 'street' is used either synonymously with that or more specifically to describe a 'road' with the bounds of a settlement... but still a road. --CBD 21:28, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
Semantic arguments aside, there really is no argument for having a separate article for Lampwrights Street. Listing it here is the only sensible option. --Fang Aili talk 01:00, 28 August 2007 (UTC)