The Atlas of Middle Earth

Product Information

The computer game Angband is a free roguelike D&D-style game that features many characters from Tolkien's works. The most complete list of Tolkien-inspired computer games can be found at http://www.lysator.liu.se/tolkien-games/

Before the end of the Second Age, when the Men of Númenor rebelled against the Valar, Ilúvatar destroyed Númenor, separated Aman from the rest of Arda, and formed new lands, making the world round. Only Endor remained of the original world, and Endor had now become Eurasia. Middle-earth is the setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the Miðgarðr of Norse mythology and Middangeard in Old English works, including Beowulf. Middle-earth is the human-inhabited world, that is, the central continent of the Earth, in Tolkien's imagined mythological past. Tolkien's most widely read works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, are set entirely in Middle-earth. "Middle-earth" has also become a short-hand term for Tolkien's legendarium, his large body of fantasy writings, and for the entirety of his fictional world.

Family Tree

The extreme west of Middle-earth in the First Age was Beleriand. It and Eriador were separated from much of the south of Middle-earth by the Great Gulf. Beleriand was largely destroyed in the cataclysm of the War of Wrath, leaving only a remnant coastal plain, Lindon, just to the west of the Ered Luin (also called Ered Lindon or Blue Mountains). The cataclysm divided Ered Luin and Lindon by the newly-created Gulf of Lune; the northern part was Forlindon, the southern Harlindon. [4] Eriador [ edit ] It was inhabited by all the Free peoples of Middle-earth, being the location of many of the most important events of the Second and Third Ages. By the end of the Third Age, its main inhabitants were Hobbits of the Shire and Men of the surrounding lands. Esgaroth This was the moment where I actually was the first time thinking about creating something like Arda Maps. 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.

The maps are organised first by period, with chapters on the First, Second, and Third Ages of Middle-earth. [10] A chapter covers regional maps, and a short chapter focuses on The Hobbit. [11] A major chapter follows the action in The Lord of the Rings. [12] The book ends with a chapter of thematic maps, illustrating the landforms, climate, vegetation, population, and languages of Middle-earth. [13] Reception [ edit ] Fonstad created "the most comprehensive set" of thematic maps of Middle-earth, such as Frodo and Sam's route to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. [7] 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]

New in Series

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] Ford, G. L. (17 January 2020). "Christopher Tolkien, 1924-2020 Keeper of Middle-earth's Legacy". Book and Film Globe . Retrieved 26 July 2020. Lewis's Space Trilogy drew on Tolkien's Middle-earth lore at several points, where he used it to deepen the mythology underlying his action. Bolintineanu, Alexandra (2013). "Arda". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Routledge. pp.24–25. ISBN 978-0-415-86511-1.

The history of Middle-earth, as described in The Silmarillion, began when the Ainur entered Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of labour throughout Eä, the fictional universe. [T 21] Time from that point was measured using Valian Years, though the subsequent history of Arda was divided into three time periods using different years, known as the Years of the Lamps, the Years of the Trees and the Years of the Sun. [T 22] A separate, overlapping chronology divides the history into 'Ages of the Children of Ilúvatar'. The first such Age began with the Awakening of the Elves during the Years of the Trees (by which time the Ainur had already long inhabited Arda) and continued for the first six centuries of the Years of the Sun. All the subsequent Ages took place during the Years of the Sun. [T 23] Carpenter 1981, #137 to Rayner Unwin, 11 April 1953; #139 to Rayner Unwin, 8 August 1953; #141 to Allen & Unwin, 9 October 1953; #144 to Naomi Mitchison, 25 April 1954; #160 to Rayner Unwin, 6 March 1955; #161 to Rayner Unwin, 18 April 1955 Angmar was a realm established in TA 1300 by the Lord of the Nazgûl later called the “Witch-king of Angmar”– located in a northern fork in the western Misty Mountains, and founded with the sole purpose of weakening the northern realm of Arnor. The land was known in part for its cold and snowy weather. Arnor Edoras is the city of Rohan. It is where the King of Rohan resides, and is where the Rohirrim live. Edoras is built at the end of the valley of Harrowdale, which lies under the great mountain Starkhorn. The river Snowbourn flows past the city on its way west towards the Entwash. The city was protected only by a high wall of timber, and a one-way road allowed access to the city. The city was built by Rohan’s second king Brego. Erebor

Latest Posts

The Hobbit (1937) • The Lord of the Rings ( The Fellowship of the Ring [1954] • The Two Towers [1954] • The Return of the King [1955]) • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil [1962] • The Road Goes Ever On [1967] Mordor is a wasteland where only Sauron’s servants live. Sauron completely perverted Mordor and raised his kingdom there. The basement of the mountain is in Mordor, and in it, Sauron forged the Ring of Power. 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); Tolkien, J. R. R. (1980). Christopher Tolkien (ed.). Unfinished Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-29917-3. Brisbois, Michael J. (2005). "Tolkien's Imaginary Nature: An Analysis of the Structure of Middle-earth". Tolkien Studies. Project Muse. 2 (1): 197–216. doi: 10.1353/tks.2005.0009. ISSN 1547-3163. S2CID 170238657.

Helm’s Deep, named for Helm Hammerhand, was a fortified gorge in the White Mountains located below the Thrihyrne. It lay near the Westfold, and was commonly known as the location of the Hornburg. It was later made famous by the Battle of the Hornburg, a major battle of the War of the Ring. Isengard The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins joins a company of Dwarves and the Wizard Gandalf in a quest to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug.Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955). The Return of the King. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 519647821. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are presented as Tolkien's retelling of events depicted in the Red Book of Westmarch, which was written by Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, and other Hobbits, and corrected and annotated by one or more Gondorian scholars. Years after publication, Tolkien 'postulated' in a letter that the action of the books takes place roughly 6,000 years ago, though he was not certain. At the Grey Havens (Mithlond), on the Gulf of Lune, Cirdan built the ships in which the Elves departed from Middle-earth to Valinor. [T 3] [5] Misty Mountains [ edit ] if it were 'history', it would be difficult to fit the lands and events (or 'cultures') into such evidence as we possess, archaeological or geological, concerning the nearer or remoter part of what is now called Europe; though the Shire, for instance, is expressly stated to have been in this region...I hope the, evidently long but undefined gap in time between the Fall of Barad-dûr and our Days is sufficient for 'literary credibility', even for readers acquainted with what is known as 'pre-history'. I have, I suppose, constructed an imaginary time, but kept my feet on my own mother-earth for place. I prefer that to the contemporary mode of seeking remote globes in 'space'. [T 7] Great Tales ( The Children of Húrin [2007] • Beren and Lúthien [2017] • The Fall of Gondolin [2018])