Gollum's climbing is believable. Ever seen human climbers. at the very top of their game climbing up a really steep rock face? Like this:
Or - much safer, she is protected throughout, this young rock climber though shows how modern climbers can climb over overhanging rock faces - with immensely strong fingers able to use just the tiniest of features to cling onto. Apparently she is doing climbs here that not long ago no climber could do of any age.
But you can only climb along an overhanging rockface for a very short period of time without assistance.
Whether climbing upside down on a roof is believable or not, whether some kind of scaled up "human gecko" is possible, it's not in the book. And it doesn't seem that gecko abilities scale up to anything much larger than them in real life and Tolkien's work is closely linked to possibilities of our Earth, even same stars, same moon, same phases and same length of lunar month. In his later work he makes an "alternative history" linking it to our present day Earth with his time travelers who are able to make connection to the ancient days of middle Earth. So he is thinking of something that is very Earth-like and grounded, not some kind of alternate physics. Even though the eagles may go beyond what present day eagles do, and the black rider's mounts and dragons even more so - but - even then perhaps you can think of it as like an early Earth with more oxygen than we have now, so that larger flying creature are possible than we have now because of improved metabolism from high levels of oxygen, like the giant dragonflies. I'm not sure there, might be that his dragons go beyond what is biologically possible, and have to be "magical" beings in some sense.
So anyway not sure if you can reasonably envision human size geckos in an Earth like planet.
Anyway whether you can or not, it's not in Tolkien's work. They are just very good at climbing, like the best Earth climbers or like monkeys etc.
Free climbing by Dan Osman (who died in 1998 as a result of an accident involving "rope jumping" - controlled freefall jumping with a rope - which broke)
Or - much safer, she is protected throughout, this young rock climber though shows how modern climbers can climb over overhanging rock faces - with immensely strong fingers able to use just the tiniest of features to cling onto. Apparently she is doing climbs here that not long ago no climber could do of any age.
But you can only climb along an overhanging rockface for a very short period of time without assistance.
Whether climbing upside down on a roof is believable or not, whether some kind of scaled up "human gecko" is possible, it's not in the book. And it doesn't seem that gecko abilities scale up to anything much larger than them in real life and Tolkien's work is closely linked to possibilities of our Earth, even same stars, same moon, same phases and same length of lunar month. In his later work he makes an "alternative history" linking it to our present day Earth with his time travelers who are able to make connection to the ancient days of middle Earth. So he is thinking of something that is very Earth-like and grounded, not some kind of alternate physics. Even though the eagles may go beyond what present day eagles do, and the black rider's mounts and dragons even more so - but - even then perhaps you can think of it as like an early Earth with more oxygen than we have now, so that larger flying creature are possible than we have now because of improved metabolism from high levels of oxygen, like the giant dragonflies. I'm not sure there, might be that his dragons go beyond what is biologically possible, and have to be "magical" beings in some sense.
So anyway not sure if you can reasonably envision human size geckos in an Earth like planet.
Anyway whether you can or not, it's not in Tolkien's work. They are just very good at climbing, like the best Earth climbers or like monkeys etc.
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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