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1"Middle-earth exists on a round planet (or has at least since the seas were bent in the Second Age)" *except for the Elves– TristanCommented Jan 4, 2023 at 11:13
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The weird part about this is we're talking about dwarves. Celestial navigation makes sense for elves and men and even hobbits, but the dwarves live underground most of the time, and looking to the sky for navigation wouldn't even be an option for them. A magnetic compass might be something they'd have access to, even if it wasn't explicitly called out in the books. Or they could just navigate by recognizable landmarks, e.g. the prominent mountain range...– Darrel HoffmanCommented Jan 4, 2023 at 17:34
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1Dwarves still travel extensively above ground; while they prefer underground dwellings for habitation, I think the amount of time they spend "indoors", so to speak, is exaggerated.– chepnerCommented Jan 4, 2023 at 22:56
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3@DarrelHoffman I don't think Dwarves travel huge distances underground. It's not like all the dwarven kingdoms were connected by ridiculous tunnel networks. In their holds, they probably navigate the same way we do inside giant buildings like shopping centres and airports; maps and signs, counting turns, etc. You don't typically need to know (or at least I usually have no clue) which way is north when you're inside a complex 3d structure. But dwarves would use different techniques to navigate when travelling long distances between dwarf holds, which would likely include celestial navigation.– BenCommented Jan 5, 2023 at 2:22
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2@DarrelHoffman A magnetic compass is quite treacherous underground, I doubt they would use that - especially when they're fond of living in mountainous terrain which commonly has large magnetic anomalies. Of course, we've had good and reliable ways of mapping out underground spaces almost as soon as we started serious underground mining. Some of those instruments were pretty clever :)– LuaanCommented Jan 5, 2023 at 9:04
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