Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendarium. Tolkien’s most widely read works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, are set entirely in Middle-earth. Middle-earth has also become a short-hand for the legendarium and Tolkien’s fictional take on the world.
Middle-earth is the main continent of Earth (Arda) in an imaginary period of the Earth’s past with the end of the Third Age about 6,000 years ago. Tolkien’s Middle-earth stories mostly focus on the north-west of the continent. This part of Middle-earth is suggestive of Europe, the north-west of the Old World, with the environs of the Shire intended to be reminiscent of England.
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. 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.
The Lord of the Rings
“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, seven for the Dwarf-lords in halls of stone, nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die. One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne in the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. One Ring to rule them all, one Ring to find them, one Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.
The title names the story’s main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who had in an earlier age created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. From homely beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land reminiscent of the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the quest mainly through the eyes of the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin.
Although generally known to readers as a trilogy, the work was initially intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set along with The Silmarillion, but this idea was dismissed by his publisher. For economic reasons, The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955. The three volumes were titled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Structurally, the work is divided internally into six books, two per volume, with several appendices of background material at the end. Some editions print the entire work into a single volume, following the author’s original intent.
Tolkien’s work, after an initially mixed reception by the literary establishment, has been the subject of extensive analysis of its themes and origins. Influences on this earlier work, and on the story of The Lord of the Rings, include philology, mythology, religion, earlier fantasy works, and his own experiences in the First World War. The Lord of the Rings in its turn has had a great effect on modern fantasy.
The Lord of the Rings has since been reprinted many times and translated into at least 38 languages. The enduring popularity of The Lord of the Rings has led to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien’s works, and the publication of many books about Tolkien and his works. It has inspired numerous derivative works including artwork, music, films and television, video games, board games, and subsequent literature. Award-winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio, theatre, and film. It has been named Britain’s best novel of all time in the BBC’s The Big Read.
The Lord of the Rings is that rarest of things: a piece of fiction as fun as it is deep, and as moving as it is wildly entertaining. It’s perhaps for that reason, beyond anything else, the series has had such monumental impact on the hearts of fans… as well as its outsized influence on fantasy fiction for the past 60-odd years.
But Tolkien didn’t just set out to tell a genre-defining story, the author wanted to build a world. At that, he truly excelled. The LOTR series is littered with information that alludes to a story going back hundreds and hundreds of years.
The story concerns peoples such as hobbits, Elves, Men, Dwarves, Wizards, and Orcs (called goblins in The Hobbit), and centers on the Ring of Power made by the Dark Lord Sauron. Starting from quiet beginnings in the Shire, the story ranges across Middle-earth and follows the courses of the War of the Ring.
The back story begins thousands of years before the action in the book, with the rise of the eponymous Lord of the Rings, the Dark Lord Sauron, a malevolent reincarnated deity who possessed great supernatural powers and who later became the ruler of the dreaded realm of Mordor. At the end of the First Age of Middle-earth, Sauron survived the catastrophic defeat and chaining of his lord, the ultimate Dark Lord, Morgoth Bauglir (who was formerly counted as one of the Vala, the angelic Powers of the world). During the Second Age, Sauron schemed to gain dominion over Middle-earth. In the disguise as “Annatar” or Lord of Gifts, he aided Celebrimbor and other Elven-smiths of Eregion in the forging of magical rings which confer various powers and effects on their wearers. The most important of these were The Nine, the seven an the three called the Rings of Power or Great Rings.
However, he then secretly forged a Great Ring of his own, the One Ring, by which he planned to enslave the wearers of the other Rings of Power. This plan failed when the Elves became aware of him and took off their Rings. Sauron then launched a war during which he captured sixteen and distributed them to lords and kings of Dwarves and Men; these Rings were known as the Seven and the Nine respectively. The Dwarf-lords proved too tough to enslave although their natural desire for wealth, especially gold, increased; this brought more conflict between them and other races. The Men who possessed the Nine were slowly corrupted over time and eventually became the Nazgûl or Ringwraiths, Sauron’s most feared servants. The Three Sauron failed to capture, and remained in the possession of the Elves (who forged these independently). The war ended as the Men of the island-nation of Númenor, a great nation, helped the besieged Elves, and Sauron’s forces retreated from the coasts of Eriador. At this time he still held most of Middle-earth, excluding Imladris (Rivendell) and the Gulf of Lune.
Over 1500 years later, word reaches the current Kings of Númenor, Ar-Pharazôn, that Sauron has been bearing the title “Lord of all Middle-earth”. This provoked Ar-Pharazôn and gave him an opportunity to show the glory and strength of Númenor. He arrived in Middle-earth with such overwhelming force that Sauron’s armies flee at the sight of them. Abandoned by his minions, Sauron surrendered to the Númenóreans, and was taken to Númenor as a “prisoner”. Sauron then started to poison the minds of the Númenóreans against the Valar. Thus, Sauron set into motion events that brought about Númenor’s destruction. He did this by corrupting the King’s mind, telling him that the immortality of the Elves was his to take if he set foot upon the lands of Aman, the Blessed Realm, where Valinor, the realm of the Valar, was located. With old age on his mind, Ar-Pharazôn led an invasion of Aman and Valinor with the greatest host seen since the end of the First Age. However, upon reaching Aman, he and his army were buried by a landslide, and there they would remain until the Final Battle in Tolkien’s eschatology. Manwë, the King of Arda, calls upon Eru Ilúvatar (God), who opened a great chasm in the sea, destroying Númenor, and removed the Undying Lands from the mortal world. The destruction of Númenor destroyed Sauron’s fair and handsome physical body, but his spirit returned to Mordor and assumes a new form — black, burning hot (though he was not on fire), and terrible.
Over 100 years later, he launched an attack against the Númenórean exiled (the Faithful, who did not join Ar-Pharazôn’s expedition), who managed to escape to Middle-earth. However, the exiles (led by Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion) had time to prepare, and, after forming the Last Alliance of Elves and Men with the Elven-king Gil-galad, they marched against Mordor, defeated Sauron on the plain of Dagorlad, and besieged Barad-dûr, at which time Anárion was slain. After seven years of siege, Sauron himself was ultimately forced to engage in single combat with the leaders. Gil-galad and Elendil perished as they combat Sauron, and Elendil’s sword, Narsil, broke beneath him. However, Sauron’s body was also overcome and slain,[3] and Isildur cut the One Ring from Sauron’s hand with the hilt-shard of Narsil, and at this Sauron’s spirit flees and does not reappear in his terrible form for many centuries. Isildur was advised to destroy the One Ring by the only way it could be — by casting it into the volcanic Mount Doom where it was forged — but he refused, attracted to its beauty and kept it as compensation for the deaths of his father and brother (weregild).
So began the Third Age of Middle-earth. Two years later, while journeying to Rivendell, Isildur and his soldiers were ambushed by a band of Orcs at what was eventually called the Disaster of the Gladden Fields. While the latter were almost all killed, Isildur escaped by putting on the Ring — which made mortal wearers invisible. However, the Ring slipped from his finger while he was swimming in the great River Anduin; he was killed by Orc-arrows and the Ring was lost for two millennia. It was then found by chance by a hobbit named Déagol. His relative and friend[3] Sméagol strangled him for the Ring and was banished from his home by his maternal grandmother. He fled to the Misty Mountains where he slowly withered and became a disgusting, slimy creature called Gollum.
In The Hobbit, set 60 years before the events in The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien relates the story of the seemingly accidental finding of the Ring by another hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, who takes it to his home, Bag End. Story-externally, the tale related in The Hobbit was written before The Lord of the Rings, and it was only later that the author developed Bilbo’s magic ring into the “One Ring.” Neither Bilbo nor the wizard, Gandalf, are aware at this point that Bilbo’s magic ring is the One Ring, forged by the Dark Lord Sauron.
Influences on the fantasy genre
Following the massive success of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien considered a sequel entitled The New Shadow, in which the Men of Gondor turn to dark cults and consider an uprising against Aragorn’s son, Eldarion. Tolkien decided not to do it, and the incomplete story can be found in The Peoples of Middle-earth. Tolkien returned to finish his mythology, which was published in novel form posthumously by Christopher Tolkien in 1977, and the remaining information of his legendarium was published through Unfinished Tales (1980) and The History of Middle-earth, a 12 volume series published from 1983 to 1996, of which The Peoples of Middle-earth is part.
It also strongly influenced the role playing game industry which achieved popularity in the 1970s with Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons features many races found in The Lord of the Rings most notably the presence of halflings, elves, dwarves, half-elves, orcs, and dragons. However, Gary Gygax, lead designer of the game, maintains that he was influenced very little by The Lord of the Rings, stating that he included these elements as a marketing move to draw on the then-popularity of the work. The Lord of the Rings also has influenced Magic: The Gathering. The Lord of the Rings has also influenced the creation of various video games, including The Legend of Zelda, Baldur’s Gate, Everquest, The Elder Scrolls, Neverwinter Nights, and the Warcraft series, as well as video games set in Middle-earth itself.
The work has also had an influence upon such science fiction authors as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. In fact, Clarke (who compared it to Frank Herbert’s Dune) makes a reference to Mount Doom in his work 2061: Odyssey Three. Tolkien also influenced George Lucas’ Star Wars films.The work has also had an influence upon such science fiction authors as Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. In fact, Clarke (who compared it to Frank Herbert’s Dune) makes a reference to Mount Doom in his work 2061: Odyssey Three. Tolkien also influenced George Lucas’ Star Wars films.