Where is middle earth

I imagine the gap [between TA and now] to be about years: that is we are now at the end of the Fifth Age, if the Ages were of about the same length as S. But they have, I think, quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh.

So, as the other answers have already said, albeit with fewer citations, not only is Middle-earth in our own universe, it is on our own planet, and eventually became what we now know as Europe. The LotR wiki produced this map showing how Middle-earth would probably align with modern day Europe:. According to the understanding of his friend, C. Lewis, the legend of Numinor took place in our universe. In fact, he referred to Numinor several times over the course of his book That Hideous Strength in his Space Trilogy, which was set in post-war England.

Those who would like to learn further about Numinor and the True West must alas! In That Hideous Strength , Merlin was brought back by the antagonists as the last vestige of the days of Numinor before the "Great Disaster. With the encouragement of the protagonist, he channels the power of the Valar represented as Greek gods, and hilarity ensues. Taken as a whole I would have to say no - I personally do not believe it is meant to be Earth. I personally choose to take the whole cosmology on face value - yes, for the majority of its existence Ea was a flat plane, latterly sailed over by two ships of the moon and sun.

Yes, it became a sphere after the Downfall of Numenor - but was still orbited by the same ships. SOME commentators and readers however take the view that the cosmology was as largely made up as our own religions and it was as much a planet as our own is, in orbit around the sun and so on. Tolkien himself even sometimes dithered in that direction as mentioned in various letters and also Morgoth's Ring. I suppose if you take the latter view then yes, you can say Tolkien intended the stories to have happened here on earth, but in vanishingly distant pre-history.

In fact some of the earliest stories and early forms of later stories emphatically DO occur on earth. In the Book of Lost Tales for example, many legends are told to the Anglo Saxon sailor 'Aelfwine' who miraculously finds the 'straight path' which in later versions of the mythos is the exclusive ability of Cirdan's and other ships to follow.

Moreover these stories are recognizable, or at least carry recognizable hints to the - to be - 'what really happened' history that was incorporated into the appendices, the tale of years, unfinished tales, the silmarillion and so on. At the end of the day the frustrating answer is - or can be - YES, its Earth if you want it to be and NO if you don't.

I enjoy the latitude this give me as a lifelong Tolkien-nut. The case of 'Numenor' is a special one AND an interesting one. It began as an attempt to write a modern version of the Atlantis legend. Moreover how this inner-story actually reaches the characters of the story is through a process called 'true dreaming' which really might as well be patterned after the 'real' parapsychological phenomena 'remote viewing'!!! AND some of the events supposedly learned through this hypnogogic process bear VERY close relation to events which happened in real life long after Tolkien wrote the story - the 'Great Storm' of , the 'Great Explosion' which can be likened to the Chernobyl disaster and so on Nothing more than an interesting addendum of course, but I have read more than one conspiracy-nut make a big deal of it.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Is Tolkien's Middle-earth in our Universe? Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 3 months ago. Melkor 's destruction of the two Lamps marked the end of the Years of the Lamps. The Trees illuminated Aman, leaving the rest of Arda in darkness, illuminated only by the stars. 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 attacked and defeated Melkor in the War for Sake of the Elves , and he was imprisoned for several ages in the Halls of Mandos. But he appeared to repent and was released on parole. The larger group was led by Fingolfin. The Years of the Sun began when the Valar made the Sun and it rose over the world. 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. Thingol quarrelled with the Dwarves of Nogrod and they slew him, stealing the Silmaril.

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. The Valar responded with the War of Wrath. 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.

Feanor'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 began the Second Age.

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.

Amandil , chief of those still faithful to the Valar, tried to sail west to seek their aid. The world was changed, and Aman was removed from Ambar. 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. Elendil and his sons escaped to Endor and founded the realms of Gondor and Arnor. The 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. The dwarves eventually returned to and resettled Moria. 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. Tolkien passed away in All further works were edited by Christopher Tolkien.

Only The Silmarillion portrays itself as a finished work — the others are collections of notes and draft versions. The History of Middle-earth series:. Anderson explains that, since the Rings books were published almost fifty years ago, numerous emendations and corrections to grammar, word-choice, and punctuation and repairs to their internal consistency have been made through the various editions; while many such corrections were by Tolkien's own request such as specific and intentional word choices made by Tolkien in his original manuscript, but omitted or 'corrected' in later editions by overly-zealous editors , revisions that would have required rewriting portions of the narrative instead of simple corrections were left unmade to preserve the integrity of the text.

In Letter to Christopher Tolkien , Tolkien set out his policy regarding film adaptations of his works: "Art or Cash". The rights are currently in the hands of Middle-earth Enterprises , which has no relation to the Tolkien Estate , which retains film rights to The Silmarillion and other works. The first adaptation to be shown was The Hobbit in , made by Rankin-Bass studios. This was initially shown on United States television. The following year , 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 relatively faithful to the story, it was only a minor commercial success but not entirely well received by critics. However, this did not follow on directly from the end of the Bakshi film. Plans for a live-action version would wait until the late s to be realised.

The Shire, which is home to the Hobbit, is located on the same latitude as Oxford, England. John R. Tolkien was an English poet, writer, and philologist who became popular for his classic fantasy works such as "The Silmarillion," "The Lord of the Rings," and "The Hobbit. Later, Malkor is defeated and expelled from the Earth and his place is taken by Sauron.

However, in later years Istari wizards are sent to fight against Sauron but they become corrupted in the process. The early stages of the conflict between the two forces are recorded in "The Silmarillion" while the final stages are recorded in "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit. Aman western continent hosted Elves and Valar. Tolkien drew a number of maps of Middle-earth and its regions where the events of his stories occurred.