Inspiration and Influence[]
"In Peter Jackson's The Hobbit movie trilogy, the clear Eastern design and culture of Lake-town and its inhabitants (including, the military and political leaders) are primarily derived from medieval Russian influences [...] In the movies, Peter Jackson clearly defines the culture of Lake-town and Dale as a part of the East."
Russian influences[]
As stated before, Lake-Town shares some similarities with the medieval Russia, however the fact that people spy on each other is a cliché and does not reflect the Russian history. So this speculation might be a bit ambiguous.
Peter Jackson states this town as being part of the "East" however given the geography of the middle earth and the variety of ethnic precense (dwarf, men,...) this is more relevant if we consider the middle earth geography and not our world., making the comparison a bit irrelevant.
Flemish Renaissance[]
The city also shares similarities with aspects from The Renaissance.
The aspect of trade being a majore part of the city economy, the architecture of the buildings like the windows , the precense of books at the home of the city master, the soldiers outlooks like the mercenaries from The Renaissance share a Lot of similarities with aspects from The Renaissance.
The city outlook being on a lake also share it similarities with Flemish cities like Bruges or Gand (Gent Flemish) which are centered around water for their economy.
The same elements depicts the city of Dale but with more Byzantine and Italian Renaissance aspects.
Ethymology[]
The town name Esgaroth does not share any ethymology with eastern Europe or Flemish city names. Thus making any comparison with our world ambiguous unless we accept its multiple influences.
If the person who wrote those line see this we can discuss this to improve the article. Masterus1 (talk) 19:43, November 12, 2014 (UTC)