Middle-earth

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Middle-earth is the continent on J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional ancient Earth where most of his tales take place.

The term "Middle-earth" was not invented by Tolkien, it is english for Old Norse Midgard and meant the world of men in the mythological universe of the Germanic people. Middangeard occurs, for instance, half a dozen times in Beowulf, which J. R. R. Tolkien translated and worked much on it as a scholar (Also see J. R. R. Tolkien on discussion of his inspirations and sources). See Midgard and norse mythology for the older use.

J. R. R. Tolkien was also inspired by this fragment:

Eala earendel engla beorhtast / ofer middangeard monnum sended.
Hail Earendel, brightest of angels / above the middle-earth sent unto men.

in the Crist poem of Cynewulf (notice also the name [[E�rendil]]).

The name was consciously used by J. R. R. Tolkien to locate The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and related writings. Tolkien's great mythological tales of Middle-earth are meant to be taken, fictitiously, as an ancient history of the Earth, particularly of Europe, from several thousand years before the lands took their present shape.

Although 'Middle-earth' strictly refers to a specific continent (called Endor in Elvish), representing what we know as Eurasia and Africa, the term is sometimes used to refer to this entire 'earth' (properly called Arda). This because Aman was removed from Arda, and the Eastlands were unknown, and thus 'Middle-earth' was the only known part of the world.

Tolkien wrote extensively about the linguistics, mythology and history of the land, which form the back-story for these stories. Most of these writings, with the exception of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, were edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher. Notable among them are the multiple volumes of The History of Middle-earth, which describes a larger cosmology which includes Middle-earth as well as Valinor, Númenor, and other lands.

Contents

A note on "truth" and canon

It is remarkably difficult to speak of what is true in the context of Middle-earth, perhaps more so than for any other fictional world, such as Greek mythology. The reasons for this are three:

  • Tolkien worked on Middle-earth over the course of decades, making substantial changes. Readers may remember, for example, the differences between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with regard to Gandalf and the Elves. In order to maintain consistency, it is necessary to discard many books. For instance, the Encyclopedia of Arda considers only The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion to be canonical.

In fact, three of the works claim to be the life work of Bilbo Baggins: see the Red Book of Westmarch. Like Shakespeare's King Lear, the tales occupy a historical period that could not have actually existed.

Tolkien's writing is laden with details and hints, which sometimes tend to be contradictory, especially in the posthumously published work. This information cannot be trusted against explicit statements elsewhere, but they do add confusion. In general, the revised versions of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings are considered canon, but with The Silmarillion the matter is more complex.

To add to the confusion, in some cases, Tolkien intentionally wrote inconsistencies into his works. For instance, Tom Bombadil simply does not fit into Middle-earth cosmology. In a letter, Tolkien said that any good mythological system—which Middle-earth is—needs a certain amount of mystery.

Image:Middleearth.jpg

A map of the Northwestern part of Middle-earth after the end of the First Age, courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arda

Cosmology

Historical periods

  1. Years of the Lamps
  2. Years of the Trees
  3. Years of the Sun
    1. First Age
    2. Second Age
    3. Third Age
    4. Fourth Age

Characters

What follows is a brief listing of characters from Tolkien's work which lived in Middle-earth. Note that characters are sorted according to several groups, and may appear multiple times.

First Age

House of Finw�

[[Sons of F�anor]]

House of Fingolfin

House of Finarfin

House of Elw� and Olw�

  • Elw� (Elu Thingol)
  • Melian
    • [[L�thien]] Tin�viel
  • [[Olw�]]
    • [[E�rwen]]

House of B�or

  • [[B�or]] the Old
  • Bregor

House of Marach

Descendants of L�thien and Beren

Descendants of Idril and Tuor

Haladin of Brethil

Others

For a list of the Valar, see that article.


Second Age

Kings of N�menor: see [[Kings of N�menor]]

Sauron, aka Annatar

Ringwraiths or Nazg�l

Third Age

Thorin and Company

The Fellowship of the Ring

Kings of Gondor: see Kings of Gondor

Kings of Arnor: see Kings of Arnor

Kings of Arthedain: see Kings of Arthedain

Chiefs of the Rangers of Arnor: see [[Chiefs of the D�nedain]]

Stewards of Gondor: see Steward of Gondor

Kings of Rohan: see Kings of Rohan

Wizards or Istari:

Other characters

Races

Places

The stories takes mostly place in Beleriand, Eriador, and Rhovanion, but there are many other places in Middle-earth.

See also Aman, [[N�menor]] for places outside Middle-earth.

Nations and large regions

First Age only:

Present after the First Age:

See also Regions of Gondor, Realms of Arda.

Natural features

Middle-earth was carefully designed by Tolkien, and contains many natural features such as rivers, mountains, seas, etc..

Large waters

Mountains and Hills

Rivers

First Age only:

See also the Seven rivers of Ossiriand


Present after the First Age:

See also Rivers of Gondor


Cities, fortresses and other populated places

First Age only:

Present after the First Age:

See also Cities of Gondor

Major languages

Items

Weapons

Unions

Battles

Timeline

See Timeline of Middle-earth.

Games

Role-playing Games

The works of Tolkien have been a major influence on role-playing games along with others such as Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, H.P. Lovecraft and Michael Moorcock. Although the most famous game to be inspired partially by the setting was Dungeons & Dragons, there have been two specifically Middle-earth based and licensed games. These are the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game from Decipher Inc. and the Middle Earth Role Play game (MERP) from Iron Crown Enterprises.

War Games

Simulations Publications created three war games based on Tolkien's work. War of the Ring covered most of the events in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Gondor focused on the battle of Pelennor Fields, and Sauron covered the Second Age battle before the gates of Mordor.

Computer Games

The computer game Angband is a free roguelike D&D-style game that features many characters from Tolkien's works.

External Links

References


References

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