Middle-earth is a fictitious land created by J. R. R. Tolkien where the action of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion takes place. 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.
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. In fact, three of the works claim to be the life work of Bilbo Baggins. Like Shakespeare's King Lear, they occupy a historical period that could not have actually existed.
The term "Middle-earth" was not invented by Tolkien; it occurs many times in Middle English (Middel-erde) and Old English writings (Middangeard). It occurs half a dozen times in Beowulf, and is cognate to Midgard in Old Norse. It is consistently misspelled as 'Middle Earth' by journalists.
Although 'Middle-earth' strictly refers to a specific continent on Tolkien's fictional ancient earth, representing what we know as Eurasia and Africa, the term is sometimes erroneously used to refer to this entire 'earth' (properly called Arda).
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.
- Tolkien's writing is laden with details and hints, which tend to be contradictory. They cannot be trusted against explicit statements elsewhere, but they do add 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.
A map of the Northwestern part of Middle-earth after the end of the First Age, courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arda
Cosmology
- Timeless Halls
- Eä
Historical periods
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.
House of Finwë
First Age
House of Elwë and Olwë
House of Bëor
House of Marach
Descendants of Lúthien and Beren
Descendants of Idril and Tuor
Haladin of Brethil
Others
For a list of the Valar, see that article.
Kings of Númenor: see Kings of Númenor
Ringwraiths or Nazgûl
Thorin and Company
Second Age
Third Age
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 Dúnedain
Stewards of Gondor: see Steward of Gondor
Kings of Rohan: see Kings of Rohan
Wizards or Istari:
- Saruman the White
- Gandalf the Grey
- Radagast the Brown
- Ithryn Luin (Blue Wizards)
- Elves
- Men
- Beorn
- Vidugavia
- Vidumavi
- Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth
- Hobbits
- Bandobras Bullroarer Took
- Déagol
- Sméagol, or Gollum
- Treebeard
- Tom Bombadil
- Shelob
- Eye of Sauron
Races
- Ainur
- Elves (Quendi, the ''First Children of Ilúvatar) (see Sundering of the Elves)
- Men (Atani, the ''Second Children of Ilúvatar)
- Atanatari — Men descended of or related to the 'Fathers of Men'
- Edain — Men of the West
- Bëorians — First House of Men
- Haladin — Second House of Men
- Drúedain (Woses of Drúadan Forest)
- Marachians — Third House of Men
- Númenóreans — Men of the West
- Dúnedain — Men of Gondor and Arnor
- Black Númenóreans — Servants of Sauron
- Middle Men
- Edain — Men of the West
- Easterlings
- Southrons
- Haradrim of Far Harad and Near Harad
- Corsairs of Umbar
- Forodwaith — Ice-men of the North
- Lossoth (see [1]), also known as Snowmen of Forochel
- Atanatari — Men descended of or related to the 'Fathers of Men'
- Half-elven
- Dwarves (Naugrim, the ''Adopted Children of Ilúvatar)
- Hobbits
- Harfoots
- Stoors
- Fallohides
- Ents
- Huorns
- Eagles
- Dragons
- Orcs -- usually called "goblins" in The Hobbit
- Trolls
- Wargs
Places
Countries and other large places are shown in italics; cities and other small places are shown in standard font.- Annúminas
- Bay of Belfalas
- Beleriand
- Bree
- Caras Galadhon
- Dale
- Eregion
- Eriador
- Fangorn
- Gondor
- Harad
- Helm's Deep
- Ice-bay of Forochel
- Isengard
- Lindon
- Lonely Mountain
- Lothlórien
- Minas Morgul
- Minas Tirith
- Mirkwood
- Moria
- Mordor
- Mount Doom
- Osgiliath
- Rhovanion
- Rhûn
- Rivendell
- Rohan
- The Shire
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.
The computer game Angband is a free roguelike D&D-style game that features many characters from Tolkien's works.
Major languages
Items
Weapons
Unions
Role-playing Games
Computer Games
External Links
References