Etymology Ĭhristian cosmology: heaven above, earth in the middle, hell below. The Second and Third Age are dominated by the forging of the Rings of Power, and the fate of the One Ring forged by Sauron, which gives its wearer the power to control or influence those wearing the other Rings of Power (hence the title The Lord of the Rings). The First Age is dominated by the doomed quest of the elf Fëanor and most of his Noldorin clan to recover three precious jewels called the Silmarils that Morgoth stole from them (hence the title The Silmarillion). Ĭonflict over the possession and control of precious or magical objects is a recurring theme in the stories. 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. Other races involved in the struggle against evil were Dwarves, Ents and most famously Hobbits. Saruman, however, became corrupted and sought to establish himself as a rival to Sauron for absolute power in Middle-earth. Gandalf remained true to his mission and proved crucial in the fight against Sauron. The most important wizards were Gandalf the Grey and Saruman the White. 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. In later ages, after Morgoth's defeat and expulsion from Arda, his place is taken by his lieutenant Sauron, a Maia. Tolkien's stories chronicle the struggle to control the world (called Arda) and the continent of Middle-earth between, on one side, the angelic Valar, the Elves and their allies among Men and, on the other, the demonic Melkor or Morgoth (a Vala fallen into evil), his followers, and their subjects, mostly Orcs, Dragons and enslaved Men. Through the imagined history, the peoples other than Men dwindle, leave or fade, until, after the period described in the books, only Men are left on the planet.Īrda began as a symmetrical flat disc, and was repeatedly transformed through cataclysmic interventions by the Valar and by the creator, Eru Ilúvatar. Tolkien's Middle-earth is peopled not only by Men, but by Elves, Dwarves, Ents, and Hobbits, and by monsters including Dragons, Trolls, and Orcs. This part of Middle-earth is suggestive of Europe, the north-west of the Old World, with the environs of the Shire reminiscent of England, but, more specifically, the West Midlands, with the town at its centre, Hobbiton, at the same latitude as Oxford. Tolkien's tales of Middle-earth mostly focus on the north-west of the continent.

Middle-earth is the main continent of Earth (Arda) in an imaginary period of the Earth's past, ending with Tolkien's Third Age, about 6,000 years ago. '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.

Tolkien's most widely read works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, are set entirely in Middle-earth. Middle-earth is the human-inhabited world, that is, the central continent of the Earth, in Tolkien's imagined mythological past. The term is equivalent to the Miðgarðr of Norse mythology and Middangeard in Old English works, including Beowulf. Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. The northwest of Middle-earth in the Third Age

Middle earth map