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A map of the north-western part of Tolkien's Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age
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Middle-earth is an historical term. It is a literal translation of the Middle English term middel-erde, which developed from Old English middangeard; the term refers to the real world, the habitable lands of men. Less formally, the term "Middle-earth" often refers to the lands where the stories of J. R. R. Tolkien take place.

Tolkien said that his Middle-earth is our Earth, but in a fictional period in the past; estimating the end of the Third Age to about 6,000 years before his own time.[1] He also described the region in which the Hobbits lived as "the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea",[2] a clear reference to England and the north-western region of Europe (the Old World).

The history of Tolkien's Middle-earth is divided into several Ages. The Hobbit and the main text of The Lord of the Rings deal exclusively with events toward the end of the Third Age and conclude at the dawn of the Fourth Age, while The Silmarillion deals mainly with the First Age.

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Earlier conceptions

In ancient Germanic and Norse myths, the universe was believed to consist of nine physical "worlds" joined together. The precise arrangement of these worlds is uncertain. According to one view, seven worlds lay across an encircling sea: The lands of Elves (Alfheim), Dwarves {Niðavellir), Gods (Asgard and Vanaheim), and Giants (Jotunheim and Muspelheim). Other Norse scholars place these seven worlds in the sky, in the branches of Yggdrasil the "World Ash Tree". In either case, the world of Men (known by several names, such as Midgard, Middenheim, and Middle-earth) lay in the centre of this universe, while Bifröst, the rainbow bridge, extended from Middle-earth to Asgard. Hel, the land of the Dead, lay beneath the Middle-earth. In this conception, a "world" was more equivalent to a racial homeland than a physically separate world.

Etymology

The term "Middle-earth" was not invented by Tolkien but rather was a modern English form of the Middle English word middel-erde, which developed in turn from Old English middanġeard (the "g" being soft, i.e "yard"[3])[4].

Middangeard descends from an earlier Germanic word and so has cognates in languages related to Old English such as the Old Norse word Miðgarðr from Norse mythology, transliterated to English as Midgard.

By the time of the Middle English period, middangeard was being written as middellærd, midden-erde, or middel-erde. A slight difference of wording, but not general meaning, had taken place as middangeard properly means "middle enclosure" instead of "middle-earth".[5] Nevertheless middangeard has been commonly translated as "middle-earth".

The concept of middangeard was considered by Tolkien to be the same as a particular usage of the Greek word οἰκουμένη - oikoumenē (from which we get the word ecumenical). In this usage Tolkien says that the oikoumenē is "the abiding place of men"[6]; by this he means it is the physical world in which man lives out his life and destiny, as opposed to the unseen worlds, for example Heaven or Hell.

Tolkien encountered the term middangeard in an Old English fragment he studied in 1914:

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

This quote is from the second of the fragmentary remnants of the Crist poems by Cynewulf. The name Earendel was the inspiration for Tolkien's mariner Eärendil.[7] In Tolkien's stories of the First Age of his world, Eärendil set sail from the lands of Middle-earth to ask for aid from the angelic powers, the Valar. He was later raised by the Valar into the skies, and set to sail in his ship Vingilot as a star and bright beacon of hope for Men and Elves in Middle-earth.[8] Tolkien's earliest poem about Eärendil, from 1914, the same year he read the Crist poems, refers to "the mid-world's rim".[9]

The term Middle-earth is not, however, used in Tolkien's earliest writings about his created world, writings that date from the early 1920s and which were later published in The Book of Lost Tales (1983-4), nor is the term used in The Hobbit (1937).[9] Tolkien began to use the term "Middle-earth" in the later part of the 1930s, in place of the earlier terms "Great Lands", "Outer Lands", and "Hither Lands" that he had used to describe this region in his stories.[9] The term Middle-earth appears in the drafts of The Lord of the Rings, and the first published appearance of the word "Middle-earth" in Tolkien's works is in the Prologue to that work: "...Hobbits had, in fact, lived quietly in Middle-earth for many long years before other folk even became aware of them."[2]

The term Middle-earth can be also applied to the entirety of Tolkien's creation, as in the title of books such as The Complete Guide to Middle-earth, The Road to Middle-earth, The Atlas of Middle-earth, and in particular the series The History of Middle-earth, all of which cover areas outside of the strict geographical definition of the term Middle-earth.

The term "Middle-earth" is sometimes mis-capitalised as "Middle-Earth"[10] and the hyphen is sometimes incorrectly omitted as well, as in "Middle Earth", "Middle earth" and "Middleearth".

Geography

Main article: Arda

Within the overall context of his legendarium, Tolkien's Middle-earth is part of his created world of Arda, which itself is part of the wider creation called Eä.

"Middle-earth" is specifically intended to describe the lands east of the Great Sea (Belegaer), thus excluding Aman, but including Harad and other mortal lands not visited in Tolkien's stories. However, Tolkien never finalized the geography for the world associated with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. In The Shaping of Middle-earth, volume IV of The History of Middle-earth, Christopher Tolkien published several remarkable maps, of both the original flat earth and round world, which his father had created in the latter part of the 1930s. Karen Wynn Fonstad drew from these maps to develop detailed, but non-canonical, "whole world maps" reflecting a world consistent with the historical ages depicted in The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.

Maps prepared by Christopher Tolkien and J.R.R. Tolkien for the world encompassing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were published as foldouts or illustrations in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. Early conceptions of the maps provided in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings were included in several volumes, including "The First Silmarillion Map" in The Shaping of Middle-earth, "The First Map of the Lord of the Rings" in The Treason of Isengard, "The Second Map (West)" and "The Second Map (East)" in The War of the Ring, and "The Second Map of Middle-earth west of the Blue Mountains" (also known as "The Second Silmarillion Map") in The War of the Jewels.

Within his stories, Tolkien translated the name "Middle-earth" as Endor (or sometimes Endórë) and Ennor in the Elvish languages Quenya and Sindarin, respectively. Endor was originally conceived of as conforming to a largely symmetrical scheme which was marred by Melkor. The symmetry was defined by two large sub-continents, one in the north and one in the south, with each of them boasting two long chains of mountains in the eastward and westward regions. The mountain chains were given names based on colours (White Mountains, Blue Mountains, Grey Mountains, and Red Mountains).

The various conflicts with Melkor resulted in the shapes of the lands being distorted. Originally, there was a single inland body of water, in the midst of which was set the island of Almaren where the Valar lived. When Melkor destroyed the lamps of the Valar which gave light to the world, two vast seas were created, but Almaren and its lake were destroyed. The northern sea became the Sea of Helcar (Helkar). The lands west of the Blue Mountains became Beleriand. Melkor raised the Misty Mountains to impede the progress of the Vala Oromë as he hunted Melkor's beasts during the period of darkness prior to the awakening of the Elves.

The violent struggles during the War of Wrath between the Host of the Valar and the armies of Melkor at the end of the First Age brought about the destruction of Beleriand. It is also possible that during this time the inland sea of Helcar was drained.

The world, not including associated celestial bodies, was identified by Tolkien as "Ambar" in several texts, but also identified as "Imbar", the Habitation, in later post-Lord of the Rings texts. From the time of the destruction of the two lamps until the time of the Downfall of Númenor, Ambar was supposed to be a "flat world", in that its habitable land-masses were all arranged on one side of the world. His sketches show a disc-like face for the world which looked up to the stars. A western continent, Aman, was the home of the Valar (and the Eldar). The middle lands, Endor, were called "Middle-earth" and they are the site of most of Tolkien's stories. The eastern continent was not inhabited.

When Melkor poisoned the Two Trees of the Valar and fled from Aman back to Endor, the Valar created the Sun and the Moon, which were separate bodies (from Ambar) but still parts of Arda (the Realm of the Children of Ilúvatar). A few years after publishing The Lord of the Rings, in a note associated with the unique narrative story "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" (which is said to occur in Beleriand during the War of the Jewels), Tolkien equated Arda with the Solar System; because Arda by this point consisted of more than one heavenly body.

According to the accounts in both The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, when Ar-Pharazôn invaded Aman to seize immortality from the Valar, they laid down their guardianship of the world and Ilúvatar intervened, destroying Númenor, removing Aman "from the circles of the world", and reshaping Ambar into the round world of today. Akallabêth says that the Númenóreans who survived the Downfall sailed as far west as they could in search of their ancient home, but their travels only brought them around the world back to their starting points. Hence, before the end of the Second Age, the transition from "flat Earth" to "round Earth" had been completed.

History

Main articles: Ainulindalë and History of Arda

The history of Middle-earth is divided into four time periods, known as the Ainulindalë, the Years of the Lamps, the Years of the Trees and the Years of the Sun.

The supreme deity of Tolkien's universe is called Eru Ilúvatar. In the beginning, Ilúvatar created spirits named the Ainur and he taught them to make music. After the Ainur had become proficient in their skills, Ilúvatar commanded them to make a great music based on a theme of his own design. The most powerful Ainu, Melkor (later called Morgoth or "Dark Enemy" by the elves), disrupted the theme, and in response Ilúvatar introduced new themes that enhanced the music beyond the comprehension of the Ainur. The movements of their song laid the seeds of much of the history of the as yet unmade universe and the people who were to dwell therein.

Then Ilúvatar stopped the music and he revealed its meaning to the Ainur through a Vision. Moved by the Vision, many of the Ainur felt a compelling urge to experience its events directly. Ilúvatar therefore created Eä, the universe itself, and some of the Ainur went down into the universe to share in its experience. But upon arriving in Eä, the Ainur found it was shapeless because they had entered at the beginning of Time. The Ainur undertook great labours in these unnamed "ages of the stars", in which they shaped the universe and filled it with many things far beyond the reach of Men. In time, however, the Ainur formed Arda, the abiding place of the Children of Ilúvatar, Elves and Men. The fifteen most powerful Ainur are called the Valar, of whom Melkor was the most powerful, but Manwë was the leader. The Valar settled in Arda to watch over it and help prepare it for the awakening of the Children.

Arda began as a single flat world, to which the Valar gave light 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 to give light to their new homeland. After many ages, the Valar imprisoned Melkor to punish and rehabilitate him, and to protect the awakening Children. But when Melkor was released on parole 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).

Before the end of the Second Age, when the Men of Númenor by the deceits of Sauron, Morgoth's most powerful servant of all and chief captain, rebelled against the Valar, Ilúvatar destroyed Númenor, separated Valinor 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.

The Years of the Lamps began shortly after the Valar finished their labours in shaping Arda. The Valar created two lamps to illuminate the world, and the Vala Aulë forged great towers, one in the furthest north, and another in the deepest south. The Valar lived in the middle, on the island of Almaren. Melkor's destruction of the two Lamps marked the end of the Years of the Lamps.

Then Yavanna made the Two Trees named Telperion and Laurelin in the land of Aman. The Trees illuminated Aman, leaving the rest of Arda in darkness, illuminated only by the stars. At the start of the First Age the Elves awoke beside Lake Cuiviénen in the east of Endor, and were soon approached by the Valar. Many of the Elves were persuaded to undertake the Great Journey westwards towards Aman, but not all of them completed the journey (see Sundering of the Elves). The Valar had imprisoned Melkor but he appeared to repent and was released on parole. He sowed great discord among the Elves and stirred up rivalry between the Elven princes Fëanor and Fingolfin. He then slew their father, king Finwë and stole the Silmarils, three gems crafted by Fëanor that contained light of the Two Trees, from his vault, and destroyed the Trees themselves.

Fëanor persuaded most of his people, the Noldor, to leave Aman in pursuit of Melkor to Beleriand, cursing him with the name Morgoth. Fëanor led the first of two groups of Noldor. The larger group was led by Fingolfin. The Noldor stopped at the Teleri's port-city, Alqualondë, but the Teleri refused to give them ships to get to Middle-earth. The first Kinslaying thus ensued, Fëanor and many of his followers attacked the Teleri and stole their ships. Fëanor's host sailed on the stolen ships, leaving Fingolfin's behind to cross over to Middle-earth through the deadly Helcaraxë (or Grinding Ice) in the far north. Subsequently Fëanor was slain, but most of his sons survived and founded realms, as did Fingolfin and his heirs.

The Years of the Sun began when the Valar made the Sun and it rose over the world, Imbar. After several great battles, a Long Peace ensued for four hundred years, during which time the first Men entered Beleriand by crossing over the Blue Mountains. When Morgoth broke the siege of Angband, one by one the Elven kingdoms fell, even the hidden city of Gondolin. The only measurable success achieved by Elves and Men came when Beren of the Edain and Lúthien, daughter of Thingol and Melian, retrieved a Silmaril from the crown of Morgoth. Afterward, Beren and Lúthien died, and were restored to life by the Valar with the understanding that Lúthien was to become mortal and Beren should never be seen by Men again.

Thingol quarrelled with the Dwarves of Nogrod and they slew him, stealing the Silmaril. With the help of Ents, Beren waylaid the Dwarves and recovered the Silmaril, which he gave to Lúthien. Soon afterwards, both Beren and Lúthien died again. The Silmaril was given to their son Dior Half-Elven, who had restored the Kingdom of Doriath. The sons of Fëanor demanded that Dior surrender the Silmaril to them, and he refused. The Fëanorians destroyed Doriath and killed Dior in the second Kinslaying, but Dior's young daughter Elwing escaped with the jewel. Three sons of Fëanor — Celegorm, Curufin, and Caranthir — died trying to retake the jewel.

By the end of the age, all that remained of the free Elves and Men in Beleriand was a settlement at the mouth of the River Sirion. Among them was Eärendil, who married Elwing. But the Fëanorians again demanded the Silmaril be returned to them, and after their demand was rejected they resolved to take the jewel by force, leading to the third Kinslaying. Eärendil and Elwing took the Silmaril across the Great Sea, to beg the Valar for pardon and aid. The Valar responded. Melkor was captured, most of his works were destroyed, and he was banished beyond the confines of the world into the Door of Night.

The Silmarils were recovered at a terrible cost, as Beleriand itself was broken and began to sink under the sea. Fëanor's last remaining sons, Maedhros and Maglor, were ordered to return to Valinor. They proceeded to steal the Silmarils from the victorious Valar. But, as with Melkor, the Silmarils burned their hands and they then realized they were not meant to possess them and that the oath was null. Each of the brothers met his fate: Maedhros threw himself with the Silmaril into a chasm of fire, and Maglor threw his Silmaril into the sea. Thus the three Silmarils ended in the sky with Eärendil, in the earth, and in the sea respectively.

Thus began the Second Age. The Edain were given the island of Númenor toward the west of the Great Sea as their home, while many Elves were welcomed into the West. The Númenóreans became great seafarers, but also became increasingly jealous of the Elves for their immortality. But after a few centuries, Sauron, Morgoth's chief servant, began to organize evil creatures in the eastern lands. He persuaded Elven smiths in Eregion to create Rings of Power, and secretly forged the One Ring to control the other rings. But the Elves became aware of Sauron's plan as soon as he put the One Ring on his hand, and they removed their own Rings before he could master their wills.

The last Númenórëan king Ar-Pharazôn, by the strength of his army, humbled even Sauron and brought him to Númenor as a hostage. But with the help of the One Ring, Sauron deceived Ar-Pharazôn and convinced the king to invade Aman, promising immortality for all those who set foot on the Undying Lands. Amandil, chief of those still faithful to the Valar, remembering the embassy of Eärendil, set sail to seek mercy from the Valar. To disguise his intent, he sailed first to the east, and then sailed west, but was never heard from again. His son Elendil and grandsons Isildur and Anárion kept the Faithful out of the coming war and made preparations to flee by ship. When the King's forces landed on Aman, the Valar called for Ilúvatar to intervene. The world was changed, and Aman was removed from Imbar. From that time onward, Men could no longer find Aman, but Elves seeking passage in specially hallowed ships received the grace of using the Straight Road, which led from Middle-earth's seas to the seas of Aman. Númenor was utterly destroyed, and with it the fair body of Sauron, but his spirit endured and fled back to Middle-earth. Elendil and his sons escaped to Endor and founded the realms of Gondor and Arnor. Sauron soon rose again, but the Elves allied with the Men to form the Last Alliance and defeated him. His One Ring was taken from him by Isildur, but not destroyed.

The Third Age saw the rise in power of the realms of Arnor and Gondor, and their decline. By the time of The Lord of the Rings, Sauron had recovered much of his former strength, and was seeking the One Ring. He discovered that it was in the possession of a Hobbit and sent out the nine Ringwraiths to retrieve it. The Ring-bearer, Frodo Baggins, travelled to Rivendell, where it was decided that the Ring had to be destroyed in the only way possible: casting it into the fires of Mount Doom. Frodo set out on the quest with eight companions—the Fellowship of the Ring. At the last moment he failed, but with the intervention of the creature Gollum—who was saved by the pity of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins—the Ring was nevertheless destroyed. Frodo with his companion Sam Gamgee were hailed as heroes. Sauron was destroyed forever and his spirit dissipated.

The end of the Third Age marked the end of the dominion of the Elves and the beginning of the dominion of Men. As the Fourth Age began, many of the Elves who had lingered in Middle-earth left for Valinor, never to return; those who remained behind would "fade" and diminish. The Dwarves eventually dwindled away as well, and they also returned in large numbers to Moria and resettled it. Peace was restored between Gondor and the lands to the south and east. Eventually, the tales of the earlier Ages became legends, the truth behind them forgotten.

Languages

Main article: Languages of Middle-earth

Tolkien devised two main Elven languages which would later become known to us as Quenya, spoken by the Vanyar, Noldor, and some Teleri, and Sindarin, spoken by the Sindar, the Elves who stayed in Beleriand (see below). These languages were related, and a Common Eldarin form ancestral to them both is postulated. Tolkien compared the use of Quenya as like Latin, with Sindarin as the common speech.

Other languages of the world include

Culture

Main article: Middle-earth peoples
See also: List of Middle-earth peoples

Middle-earth is home to several distinct intelligent species. First were the Ainur, angelic beings created by Ilúvatar. The Ainur sang for Ilúvatar, who created Eä to give existence to their music in the cosmological myth called the Ainulindalë, or "Music of the Ainur". Some of the Ainur then entered Eä, and the greatest of these were called the Valar. Melkor (later called Morgoth), the chief personification of evil in Eä, was initially one of the Valar.

The other Ainur who entered Eä are called the Maiar. In the First Age the most active Maia was Melian, wife of the Elven King Thingol; in the Third Age, during the War of the Ring, five of the Maiar were embodied and sent to Endor to help the free peoples to overthrow Sauron. Those are the Istari (or Wise Ones) (called Wizards by Men), including Gandalf, Saruman, Radagast, Alatar and Pallando. There were also evil Maiar, called Umaiar, including the Balrogs and the second Dark Lord, Sauron.

Later came the Children of Ilúvatar: Elves and Men, intelligent beings created by Ilúvatar alone. The Silmarillion tells how Elves and Men awaken and spread through the world. The Dwarves are said to have been made by the Vala Aulë, who offered to destroy them when Ilúvatar confronted him. Ilúvatar forgave Aulë's transgression and adopts the Dwarves. Three tribes of Men who allied themselves with the Elves of Beleriand in the First Age are called the Edain.

As a reward for their loyalty and suffering in the Wars of Beleriand, the descendants of the Edain were given the island of Númenor to be their home. But as described in the section on Middle-earth's history, Númenor was eventually destroyed and a remnant of the Númenóreans established realms in the northern lands of Endor. Those who remained faithful to the Valar found the kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor. They were then known as the Dúnedain, whereas other Númenórean survivors, still devoted to evil but living far to the south, became known as the Black Númenóreans.

Tolkien identified Hobbits as an offshoot of the race of Men. Although their origins and ancient history are not known, Tolkien implied that they settled in the Vales of Anduin early in the Third Age, but after a thousand years the Hobbits began migrating west over the Misty Mountains into Eriador. Eventually, many Hobbits settled in the Shire.

After they were granted true life by Ilúvatar, the Dwarves' creator Aulë laid them to sleep in hidden mountain locations. Ilúvatar awakened the Dwarves only after the Elves have awakened. The Dwarves spread throughout northern Endor and eventually founded seven kingdoms. Two of these kingdoms, Nogrod and Belegost, befriended the Elves of Beleriand against Morgoth in the First Age. The greatest Dwarf kingdom is Khazad-dûm, later known as Moria.

The Ents, shepherds of the trees, were created by Ilúvatar at the Vala Yavanna's request to protect trees from the deprivations of Elves, Dwarves, and Men.

Orcs and Trolls are evil creatures bred by Morgoth. They are not original creations but rather "mockeries" of the Children of Ilúvatar and Ents, since only Ilúvatar has the ability to give being to things. The detailed origins of Orcs and Trolls are unclear (Tolkien considered many possibilities and frequently changed his mind). It seems most likely that the Orcs were bred largely from corrupted Elves or Men or both. Late in the Third Age, the Uruks or Uruk-hai appeared: a race of Orcs of great size and strength that, unlike ordinary Orcs, are not hurt by daylight. (Some claim that by the end of the Third Age, the only Uruks properly called Uruk-hai are those serving Saruman). Saruman bred Orcs and Men together to produce "Men-orcs" and "Orc-men"; at times, some of these are called "half-orcs" or "goblin-men". (There is no consensus as to whether Saruman's Uruk-hai were among these. The books contain no hint of the "pod grown" Uruk-hai portrayed in Peter Jackson's recent movie trilogy - although Jackson's idea may have been inspired by Gandalf's reference, in The Fellowship of the Ring, to "all the orcs ever spawned" [emph. added].) Trolls were rarely seen (and not really described by Tolkien), stupid creatures, foul mouthed and brutal. If they were struck by daylight they turned to stone. In an episode of The Hobbit, three trolls catch Bilbo and his Dwarf companions, and plan on eating them.

Seemingly sapient animals also appear, such as the Eagles, Huan the Great Hound from Valinor, and the Wargs. The Eagles were created by Ilúvatar along with the Ents, but in general these animals' origins and nature are unclear. Some of them might have been Maiar in animal form, or perhaps even the offspring of Maiar and normal animals. The giant spiders such as Shelob were descended from normal spiders and Ungoliant, who is possibly an Ainu.

Books

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. Tolkien wrote extensively about the linguistics, mythology and history of the world, which provide back-story for these stories. Many of these writings were edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher.

Notable among them is The Silmarillion, which provides a Bible-like creation story and description of the cosmology that includes Middle-earth. The Silmarillion is the primary source of information about Valinor, Númenor, and other lands. Also notable are Unfinished Tales and the multiple volumes of The History of Middle-earth, which includes many incomplete stories and essays as well as numerous drafts of Tolkien's Middle-earth mythology, from the earliest forms down through the last writings of his life.

Middle-earth works by Tolkien

Tolkien died in 1973. All further works were edited by Christopher Tolkien. Only The Silmarillion is presented as a finished work — the others are collections of notes and draft versions.

  • 1977 The Silmarillion
    • The history of the Elder Days, before the Lord of the Rings, including the Downfall of Númenor
  • 1980 Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth
    • Stories and essays related to the Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings, but many were never completed.

Maps

Tolkien prepared several maps of Middle-earth and the regions of Middle-earth in which his stories took place. Some were published in his lifetime, though some of the earliest maps were not published until after his death. The main maps were those published in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. A map of Númenor was published in Unfinished Tales.

Adaptations

See also: Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings

Films

In a letter to his son Christopher Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien set out his policy regarding film adaptations of his works: "Art or Cash".[11] He sold the film rights for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to United Artists in 1969 after being faced with a sudden tax bill. They are currently in the hands of Tolkien Enterprises. The Tolkien Estate retains the film rights to The Silmarillion and other works.

The first adaptation to be shown was The Hobbit in 1977, made by Rankin-Bass studios. This was initially shown on United States television.

The following year (1978), a movie entitled The Lord of the Rings was released, produced and directed by Ralph Bakshi; it was an adaptation of the first half of the story, using rotoscope animation. Although the film was relatively faithful to the story and a commercial success, its critical response (from readers and non-readers alike) was mixed.

In 1980, Rankin-Bass produced a TV special covering roughly the last half of The Lord of the Rings, called The Return of the King. However, this did not follow on directly from the end of the Bakshi film.

Plans for a live-action version of The Lord of the Rings would wait until the late 1990s to be realized. These were directed by Peter Jackson and funded by New Line Cinema with backing from the New Zealand government and banking system.

The films were a huge box office and critical (both reader and non-reader) success and together won seventeen Oscars (at least one in each applicable category for a fictional, English language, live-action feature film, except in the acting categories). The films have also helped to increase the impact of Tolkien's works on mainstream pop culture. However, in adapting the book to film, Jackson and company's changes to the storyline and characters have offended some of its fans, although many are quick to defend them too, stemming from the practical necessities of adapting the story for a modern audience.

Games

See also: Works inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien and Middle-earth in video 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 Playing game (MERP) from Iron Crown Enterprises. A Middle-earth play-by-mail game was originally run by Flying Buffalo and is now produced by Middle-earth Games; this game was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design's Hall of Fame in 1997.

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. Gondor focused on the battle of Pelennor Fields, and Sauron covered the Second Age battle before the gates of Mordor. The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, a war game based on the Jackson movies, is currently published by Games Workshop. A board game also called War of the Ring is currently published by Fantasy Flight Games.

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

EA Games has released games based on the Jackson movies for the gaming consoles and the PC. These include the platformers The Two Towers, The Return of the King, the real-time strategy game The Battle for Middle-earth, its sequel The Battle for Middle-earth II, and the role-playing game The Third Age.

Book-based games (officially licensed from Tolkien Enterprises) include Vivendi's own platformer, The Fellowship of the Ring, and Sierra's own real-time strategy game, War of the Ring, both games that proved highly unsuccessful Template:ME-fact, and the many games based on The Hobbit.

Turbine is also making the first Middle-earth-based graphical massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG): Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar, which is planned to be released in 2006.

There are many text-based MMORPGs (known as MU*s) based on Tolkien's Middle-earth. The oldest of which date back as long as fifteen years (MUME - Multi Users in Middle-earth). For a (rather long) list of all the Tolkien inspired MU*s go to The Mud Connector and run a search for 'tolkien'.

Aside from officially licensed games, many Tolkien-inspired mods and custom maps have been made for many games, such as Warcraft III and Rome: Total War. There is also a Middle-earth based "mod" project at [1] for TES IV: Oblivion.

Middle-earth in other works

There are allusions to concepts similar to, or identical to Middle-earth, in other works by Tolkien, and the work of other writers. The oldest example of this is C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, in which Earth is also called Middle-earth. Lewis's novels, set around World War II (with the last novel, That Hideous Strength, taking place in post-war England), specifically bring in references to Tolkien's legendarium (at that time largely unpublished) and treats these references as primary fact within Lewis's fiction. Merlin, of King Arthur fame, is treated as a successor to the Atlantis magic found within "Numinor" (Lewis's unintentional misspelling of Númenor), and Lewis specifically references the earth as Middle-earth twice, both in Chapter 14, "They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven on Their Head".

Lewis and Tolkien were part of a literary circle of friends that came to be known as The Inklings. Some of Tolkien's works, including The Lord of the Rings, were read out to the Inklings as they were being written, leading to Lewis's borrowing of the names. Tolkien's unpublished and unfinished time travel stories (The Lost Road and The Notion Club Papers), set in England, also connected to his world of Middle-earth and to Númenor.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ (Letters, no. 211, footnote)
  2. ^ a b (The Lord of the Rings, Prologue)
  3. ^ Bruce Mitchell and Fred C. Robinson, A Guide to Old English, Sixth ed., p. 360
  4. ^ The word middangeard appears several times in the Beowulf poem.
  5. ^ "-geard" (Old Norse garðr) means, among other things, "yard" or "enclosure", while "-erde" (Old Norse jörð) means "earth".
  6. ^ (Letters, nos. 151 and 183)
  7. ^ (Letters, no. 297)
  8. ^ "Now when first Vingilot was set to sail in the seas of heaven, it rose unlooked for, glittering and bright; and the people of Middle-earth beheld it from afar and wondered, and they took it for a sign, and called it Gil-Estel, the Star of High Hope". (The Silmarillion, 'Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath', pg 301)
  9. ^ a b c (The Ring of Words, pg. 164)
  10. ^ An example of this spelling is the Blind Guardian album Nightfall in Middle-Earth.
  11. ^ (Letters, no. 202)

References

  • Blackham, Robert S. (2006). The Roots of Tolkien's Middle-earth (1st edition ed.). Stroud: Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-3856-5. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  • Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (1st edition ed.). London: George Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-04-928037-6. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  • Fonstad, Karen Wynn (1981). The Atlas of Middle-earth (1st edition ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-28665-4. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  • Garth, John (2003). Tolkien and the Great War (1st edition ed.). London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 0-00-711952-6. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  • Gilliver, Peter (2006). The Ring of Words (1st edition ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-861069-6. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Hammond, Wayne G. (2004) [1995]. J. R. R. Tolkien - Artist & Illustrator. London: HarperCollinsPublishers. 0261103229. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Hammond, Wayne G. (2005). The Lord of the Rings - A Reader's Companion (1st edition ed.). London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 0-00-720907-X. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Shippey, Tom (1992) [1982]. The Road to Middle-earth (2nd edition ed.). London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 0-261-10275-3. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  • Shippey, Tom (2001) [2000]. Author of the Century (1st paperback edition ed.). London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 0-261-10401-2. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  • Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1981) [1937]. The Hobbit (4th edition ed.). London: Unwin Paperbacks. ISBN 0-04-823188-6. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  • Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (2004) [1954-5]. The Lord of the Rings (2004 single-volume edition ed.). London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 0-00-718236-8. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  • Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1977). Tolkien, Christopher (Ed.) (ed.). The Silmarillion (1st edition ed.). London: Unwin Paperbacks. ISBN 0-04-823153-3. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  • Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1980). Tolkien, Christopher (Ed.) (ed.). Unfinished Tales (1st edition ed.). London: George Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-04-823179-7. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
  • Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1995) [1981]. Carpenter, Humphrey (Ed.) (ed.). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 0-261-10265-6.
  • Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1997) [1983]. Tolkien, Christopher (Ed.) (ed.). The Monsters and the Critics. London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 0-261-10263-X.
  • Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (2003) [2002]. Douglas Anderson (Ed.) (ed.). The Annotated Hobbit (Revised and expanded edition ed.). London: HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 0-00-713727-3. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)

Further reading

A small selection from the many books about Tolkien and his created world:

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