The Royal Astronomer and the Astronomer Royal: Tar-Meneldur and Sir Harold Spencer Jones

Elsewhere I argued that there are parallels between Tar-Meneldur and the lives of several pre-20th century astronomer-nobles (Ulugh Beg, Johannes Hevelius, Wilhelm IV, Tycho Brahe, and James Ludovic Lindsay) and noted several real-world astronomical events that may have informed/motivated Tolkien’s development of Tar-Meneldur’s avocation, including political controversies concerning the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford and the Royal Observatories at Greenwich and Edinburgh. Since that publication I have continued to ponder Tolkien’s depiction of Tar-Meneldur as an astronomer (and king), and offer another possible source of inspiration for the royal astronomer in the form of the tenth Astronomer Royal, Sir Harold Spencer Jones.