The Atlas of Middle Earth

Product Information

Tolkien's first encounter with the term middangeard, as he stated in a letter, was in an Old English fragment he studied in 1913-14: [T 5] This Wiki is used because it's the most complete English Wiki about the whole Tolkien universe. It also has a well-defined structure and was most recommended by the Tolkien community when I started Arda Maps. Tolkien passed away in 1973. All further works were edited by Christopher Tolkien. Only The Silmarillion portrays itself as a finished work — the others are collections of notes and draft versions. The geography of Middle-earth encompasses the physical, political, and moral geography of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, strictly a continent on the planet of Arda but widely taken to mean the physical world, and Eä, all of creation, as well as all of his writings about it. [1] Arda was created as a flat world, incorporating a Western continent, Aman, which became the home of the godlike Valar, as well as Middle-earth. At the end of the First Age, the Western part of Middle-earth, Beleriand, was drowned in the War of Wrath. In the Second Age, a large island, Númenor, was created in the Great Sea, Belegaer, between Aman and Middle-earth; it was destroyed in a cataclysm near the end of the Second Age, in which Arda was remade as a spherical world, and Aman was removed so that Men could not reach it.

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, both set in Middle-earth, have been the subject of a variety of film adaptations. There were many early failed attempts to bring the fictional universe to life on screen, some even rejected by the author himself, who was skeptical of the prospects of an adaptation. While animated and live-action shorts were made of Tolkien's books in 1967 and 1971, the first commercial depiction of The Hobbit onscreen was the Rankin/Bass animated TV special in 1977. [29] In 1978 the first big screen adaptation of the fictional setting was introduced in Ralph Bakshi's animated The Lord of the Rings. [30] Beleriand was a vast region located in north-western Middle-earth during the First Age. Originally, its name referred only to the area around the Bay of Balar, but in time the name was also applied to the entire land. The root of the word, Beler or Balar, is believed to refer to the Maia Ossë, who often dwelt at the shores of Balar. The War of Wrath at the end of the First Age brought the destruction of the entire continent (except Lindon), and its descent into the sea. Dol GuldurThe term "Middle-earth" was not invented by J.R.R. Tolkien. Rather, it comes from Middle English middel-erde, itself a folk-etymology for the Old English word middangeard ( geard not meaning 'Earth', but rather 'enclosure' or 'place', thus 'yard', with the Old Norse word miðgarðr being a cognate). It is Germanic for what the Greeks called the οικουμένη ( oikoumenē) or "the abiding place of men", the physical world as opposed to the unseen worlds ( The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, 151). The word Mediterranean comes from two Latin stems, medi- , amidst, and terra, (earth/land), meaning "the sea placed at the middle of the Earth / amidst the lands". Evendim is a region located between the Shire and the northern Forochel, and west of The North Downs. A vast region dominated by the majestic lake from which it gets its name, Lake Evendim is also known as Nenuial which is Sindarin for “Lake of Twilight”. Here the dwindling numbers of Dúnedain have struggled for long to honour their heritage. Fangorn

He did confirm, however, that the Shire, the land of his Hobbit heroes, was based on England, in particular the West Midlands of his childhood. [T 15] In the Prologue to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien writes: "Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past, and the shape of all lands has been changed..." [T 16] The Appendices make several references in both history and etymology of topics "now" (in modern English languages) and "then" (ancient languages); Mirkwood was a great forest in Middle-earth located in the eastern region of Rhovanion between the Grey Mountains and Gondor. Arda began as a single flat world, which the Valar gave light to through two immense Lamps. Melkor destroyed the lamps and brought darkness to the world. The Valar retreated to the extreme western regions of Arda, where they created the Two Trees of Valinor to give light to their new homeland, leaving Middle-earth in darkness After many ages, the Valar imprisoned Melkor to punish and rehabilitate him, and to protect the awakening Elves. But when Melkor was released he poisoned the Two Trees. The Valar took the last two living fruit of the Two Trees and used them to create the Moon and Sun, which remained a part of Arda but were separate from Ambar (the world).

This book has completely integrated all of the indices from the previous twelve volumes into one large index. The Complete Tolkien Companion ( ISBN 0330411659, J. E. A. Tyler – a reference, covers The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and Unfinished Tales; substantially improved over the two earlier editions.) a b Kocher, Paul (1974) [1972]. Master of Middle-earth: The Achievement of J.R.R. Tolkien. Penguin Books. pp.8–11. ISBN 0140038779.

Bilbo's Last Song [1974] • The Silmarillion [1977] • Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth [1980] The Valar withdrew from direct involvement in the affairs of Middle-earth after the defeat of Morgoth, but in later years they sent the wizards or Istari to help in the struggle against Sauron. The most important wizards were Gandalf the Grey and Saruman the White. Gandalf remained true to his mission and proved crucial in the fight against Sauron. Saruman, however, became corrupted and sought to establish himself as a rival to Sauron for absolute power in Middle-earth. Other races involved in the struggle against evil were Dwarves, Ents and most famously Hobbits. The early stages of the conflict are chronicled in The Silmarillion, while the final stages of the struggle to defeat Sauron are told in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings. [T 3] Post Lord of the Rings efforts to revise the mythology for publication. Includes the controversial 'Myths Transformed' section, which documents how Tolkien's thoughts changed radically in the last years of his life.

With his "Southrons" from Harad, Tolkien had – in the view of John Magoun, writing in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia – constructed a "fully expressed moral geography", [11] from the hobbits' home in the Northwest, evil in the East, and "imperial sophistication and decadence" in the South. Magoun explains that Gondor is both virtuous, being West, and has problems, being South; Mordor in the Southeast is hellish, while Harad in the extreme South "regresses into hot savagery". [11] Steve Walker similarly speaks of "Tolkien's moral geography", naming the North "barbaric", South "the region of decadence", East "danger" but also the "locale of adventure", West "safety" (and uttermost West "ultimate safety"), North-West "specifically English insularity" where hobbits of the Shire live "in provincial satisfaction". [24] Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-31555-2. Source material for the appendices in The Lord of the Rings and some more late writings related to The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. The development of The Lord of the Rings, from 'The Hobbit 2' to what would become more a sequel for ' The Silmarillion'. Sauron Defeated also includes another version of the Númenor connection