The Hobbits are described as inhabiting ‘the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea’, and therefore it’s tempting to associate their home with Tolkien’s own, England. The correct term for the total world is Arda – probably derived from German Erde (’Earth’) and only first mentioned posthumously in the Silmarillion (1977) and Eä (for the whole Universe).

That term doesn’t thus describe the entirety of the world Tolkien thought up. The world of men is the one in the middle, called Midgard, Middenheim or Middle-earth. Tolkien didn’t create Middle-earth ex nihilo: ancient Germanic myths divide the Universe in nine worlds, inhabited by elves, dwarves, giants, etc. At the time of the events described in ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’, Middle-earth is moving towards the end of its Third Age, about 6.000 years ago. Tolkien’s invented mythology centred on an epic story of the struggle between Good and Evil, but it also included an elaborate backstory, a complex of languages, genealogies, cultures and peoples – and a map.Ĭreated by Tolkien somewhere in the 1930s, the map shows the ‘mortal lands’ of Middle-earth, which according to Tolkien himself is part of our own Earth, but in a previous, mythical era. The millionth hit on this blog is as good an occasion as any to finally broach the inevitable subject for a blog about curious cartography: Middle-earth. I took this from somewhere blog.what think you about this? Hope its ok put post this,because will share with all TATW fans

Middle earth map from book