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84-929: The Drúedain are a fictional race of Men , living in the Drúadan Forest , in the Middle-earth legendarium created by J. R. R. Tolkien . They were counted among the Edain who made their way into Beleriand in the First Age , and were friendly to the Elves . In The Lord of the Rings , they assist the Riders of Rohan to avoid ambush on the way to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields . The Drúedain are based on

168-432: A Tolkien scholar, notes that Tolkien did not provide the same "elaborate textual history" to contextualise his maps as he did for his writings . Danielson suggests that this has assisted the tendency among Tolkien's fans to treat his maps as "geographical fact". He calls Fonstad's atlas "magisterial", and comments that like Tolkien, Fonstad worked from the assumption that the maps, like the texts, "are objective facts" which

252-506: A map, and made the story fit (generally with meticulous care for distances). The other way about lands one in confusions and impossibilities, and in any case it is weary work to compose a map from a story. Writing in Mythlore , Jefferson P. Swycaffer suggested that the political and strategic situations of Gondor and Mordor in the Siege of Gondor were "analogous to Constantinople facing

336-598: A moral geography of Middle-earth. Tolkien scholars have traced many features of Middle-earth to literary sources such as Beowulf , the Poetic Edda , or the mythical Myrkviðr . They have in addition suggested real-world places such as Venice , Rome , and Constantinople / Byzantium as analogues of places in Middle-earth. The cartographer Karen Wynn Fonstad has created detailed thematic maps for Tolkien's major Middle-earth books, The Hobbit , The Lord of

420-455: A single place in the real world, while other locations have had two or more real-world origins proposed for them. The sources are diverse, spanning classical , medieval , and modern elements . Other elements relate to Old English poetry : several of the customs of Rohan in particular can be traced to Beowulf , on which Tolkien was an expert. Some Middle-earth placenames were based on the sound of places named in literature; thus, Beleriand

504-455: A variant of the medieval Green man , which she calls "a Pagan symbol of fertility and rebirth". The medievalist and Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger comments that the Wild Man "is infantile". Ghân-Buri-Ghân talks "like a Hollywood Tarzan " using short broken phrases like "Wild Men live here before Stone-houses" and "kill orc-folk". She compares him with the "Wild Hobbit " Gollum , who

588-545: A world of Wizards and Elves, Dwarves, Rings of Power , Hobbits, Orcs, Trolls and Ringwraiths , and heroic Men with Elvish blood in their veins, and follow their history through long ages, provided that at the end he tore it all down again, leaving nothing, once again, but dim memories. By the end of The Lord of the Rings , the reader has learnt that the Elves have left for the Uttermost West, never to return, and that

672-519: A world unknown even to the godlike Valar . Men are one of the four "free peoples" in the list-poem spoken by the Ent Treebeard ; the others being Elves, Dwarves , and Ents. Hobbits , not included on that list, were a branch of the lineage of Men. Hobbits were not known to the Ents, but on meeting Merry and Pippin , Treebeard at once worked that people into the list. The concept of

756-482: Is Erebor, the Lonely Mountain , once home to Smaug the dragon , and afterwards to Thorin 's dwarves. The large lands to the east of Rhûn and to the south and east of Harad are not described in the stories, which take place in the north-western part of Middle-earth. The events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place in the north-west of the continent of Middle-earth. Both quests begin in

840-524: Is psychotic , haunted by voices, and who uses "baby-talk", like "cruel little hobbitses": in her view, the Wild Man is "evolutionarily regressive", whereas Gollum is " psychologically regressive ". Ghân-buri-Ghân is featured in the promotional expansion card set of The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game and in the Lord of the Rings board game. The image for the latter was designed by

924-498: Is a mythology where even the gods can die, and it leaves the reader with a vivid sense of life's cycles, with an awareness that everything comes to an end, that, though [the evil] Sauron may go, the elves will fade as well." This fits with Tolkien's equation of Middle-earth with the real Earth at some distant epoch in the past, and with his apparent intention to create a mythology for England . He could combine medieval myths and legends, hints from poems and nearly-forgotten names to build

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1008-500: Is at variance with the hopeful tone of the rest of the work, remaining cheerful even in the face of apparently insuperable odds. Kocher writes that the Rings of Power reflected the characteristics of the race that was to wear them. Those for Men "stimulated and implemented their ambition for power". Whereas the tough Dwarves resisted Sauron's domination, and the Elves hid their Rings from him, with Men his plan "works perfectly", turning

1092-615: Is both evil and addictive . Tolkien uses the two Men in the Fellowship created to destroy the Ring , Aragorn and the warrior Boromir , to show the effects of opposite reactions to that temptation. It becomes clear that, except for Men, all the peoples of Middle-earth are dwindling and fading : the Elves are leaving, and the Ents are childless. By the Fourth Age, Middle-earth is peopled with Men, and indeed Tolkien intended it to represent

1176-649: Is evil exactly because he seeks to dominate the wills of others; the Ringwraiths, the nine fallen kings of Men, are the clearest exemplars of the process. Kocher states that the leading Man in The Lord of the Rings is Aragorn, though critics often overlooked him in favour of Frodo as protagonist . Aragorn is one of two Men in the Fellowship of the Ring , the nine walkers from the Free Peoples opposed to

1260-953: Is hellish, while Harad in the extreme South "regresses into hot savagery". Peter Jackson , in his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , clothes the Haradrim in long red robes and turbans , and has them riding their elephants, giving them the look in Ibata's opinion of "North African or Middle Eastern tribesmen". Ibata notes that the film companion book, The Lord of the Rings: Creatures , describes them as "exotic outlanders" inspired by "12th century Saracen warriors". Jackson's Easterling soldiers are covered in armour, revealing only their "coal-black eyes" through their helmet's eye-slits. Ibata comments that they look Asian, their headgear recalling both Samurai helmets and conical "Coolie" hats. The Tolkien scholar Deborah C. Rogers compares

1344-410: Is perceived as a "leftover," a prehistoric type of human surviving in the modern world. Like the rest of his people, Ghân has a flat face, dark eyes, and wears only a grass skirt. He is seen as a good man with a kind of primitive nobility, a classic example of the noble savage . He is by no means stupid, and he "refuses to be patronized." Susan Pesznecker describes the "Wodwoses", including Tolkien's, as

1428-524: Is probably not to be taken at face value. In a world with other intelligent and cultured races, Men in Middle-earth interact with each other and with the other races in a complex history, narrated mainly in The Silmarillion . Men are in general friendly with the other free peoples, especially Elves; they are implacable enemies of the enslaved peoples, especially Orcs . In the First Age, Men,

1512-645: Is said. Remnants of an older time they be, living few and secretly, wild and wary as the beasts. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey , a philologist like Tolkien, notes that the office at Leeds University which both men used (at different times), is near Woodhouse Moor , which, as "would not have escaped Tolkien", is a modern misspelling of Wood-Wose, Old English wudu-wāsa . Clark Hall renders this word as " faun , satyr ". The Drúedain somewhat resemble Dwarves in stature and endurance; they are stumpy, clumsy-limbed with short, thick legs, and fat, "gnarled" arms, broad chests, fat bellies, and heavy buttocks. According to

1596-409: Is strong enough. Aragorn replies gracefully to the tactless suggestion. Kocher comments that by being both bold and tactful, Aragorn has won all that he wanted from Boromir: the sword is genuine, as is Aragorn's claim to own it, and he has been invited back to Gondor. The Fellowship set off, temporarily united; when they reach Parth Galen , Boromir tries to seize the Ring from Frodo, causing Frodo to use

1680-597: Is the opposite of hobbitish: tall, not provincial, untroubled by the discomforts of the wild. At the start, in Bree, he appears as a Ranger of the North, a weatherbeaten man named Strider. Gradually the reader discovers he is heir to the throne of Gondor , engaged to be married to Arwen , an Elf-woman. Equipped with a named magical sword , he emerges as an unqualified hero , in Frye's "High Mimetic" or "Romantic" literary mode, making

1764-807: Is the second race of beings, the "younger children", created by the One God , Ilúvatar . Because they awoke in the First Age at the start of the Years of the Sun , long after the Elves , the Elves called them the "afterborn", or in Quenya the Atani , the "Second People". Like Elves, Men first awoke in the East of Middle-earth , spreading all over the continent and developing a variety of cultures and ethnicities. Unlike Tolkien's Elves, Men are mortal; when they die, they depart to

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1848-737: Is the volcanic Plateau of Gorgoroth, with the tall volcano of Orodruin or Mount Doom , where the Dark Lord Sauron forged the One Ring . To the mountain's east is Sauron's Dark Tower, Barad-dur . To the south of Gondor and Mordor lie Harad and Khand. To the east of Rhovanion and to the north of Mordor lies the Sea of Rhûn, home to the Easterlings . North of that lie the Iron Hills of Dain 's dwarves ; between those and Mirkwood

1932-566: The Edain , lived in Beleriand on the extreme West of Middle-earth. They form an alliance with the Elves and join a disastrous war against the first Dark Lord, Morgoth , which destroys Beleriand. As a reward for fighting in the war, the creator, Eru Iluvatar , gives the Edain the new island of Númenor as their home. The key difference between Men and Elves now becomes central to the story: Elves are immortal , and return to Valinor , home of

2016-466: The Elves and other Men, they had "unlovely faces": wide, flat, and expressionless with deep-set black eyes that glowed red when angered. They had "horny" brows, flat noses, wide mouths, and sparse, lank hair. They had no hair lower than the eyebrows, except for a few men who had a tail of black hair on the chin. They were short-lived and had a deep hatred of Orcs . They had certain magical powers and sat still in meditation for long periods. The Drûgs were

2100-938: The Rohirrim during the Third Age is represented by Tolkien as Púkel-men . This includes the Old English word pūcel "goblin, troll", which survives in Shakespeare 's Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream , and in two forms in Kipling 's Puck of Pook's Hill . Ryan adds that the word survives in English placenames such as Puckshot in Surrey, Pock Field in Cumberland, Puxton , Puckeridge , Pokesdown , Pockford, Pucknall, and perhaps Pucklechurch . Ryan suggests that

2184-666: The Tolkien illustrator and concept designer John Howe . Man (Middle-earth) Tolkien uses the Men of Middle-earth, interacting with immortal Elves, to explore a variety of themes in The Lord of the Rings , especially death and immortality. This appears throughout, but is the central theme of an appendix, " The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen ". Where the Hobbits stand for simple, earthbound, comfort-loving people, Men are far more varied, from petty villains and slow-witted publicans to

2268-560: The Valar , and the Elves called the Eldar . Initially, the western part of Middle-earth was the subcontinent Beleriand ; it was engulfed by the ocean at the end of the First Age . Ossë , on behalf of the Valar, then raised the island continent of Númenor as a gift to the now homeless Men of Beleriand, thenceforth called Númenóreans . After Eru Ilúvatar destroyed Númenor near the end of

2352-491: The "petty villain", Bill Ferny ; the "loathsome" Grima Wormtongue ; the "slow-thinking" publican Barliman Butterbur of Bree ; "that portrait of damnation", Denethor , Steward of Gondor ; and at the upper end of the scale, the kingly Théoden , brought back to life from Wormtongue's corruption; the "gentle warrior" Faramir and his brother the hero-villain Boromir; and finally the ranger Aragorn, who becomes king. Aragorn

2436-647: The Black Númenóreans, good men gone wrong; and the Corsairs of Umbar , rebels of Gondor. Sandra Ballif Straubhaar notes in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia that Faramir , son of the Steward of Gondor , makes an "arrogant" speech, of which he later "has cause to repent", classifying the types of Men as seen by the Men of Númenórean origin at the end of the Third Age ; she notes, too, that his taxonomy

2520-548: The Dark Lord Melkor in the First Age to impede Oromë , one of the Valar, who often rode across Middle-earth hunting. The Dwarf -realm of Moria was built in the First Age beneath the midpoint of the mountain range. The two major passes across the mountains were the High Pass or Pass of Imladris near Rivendell , with a higher and a lower route, and the all-year Redhorn Pass further south near Moria. East of

2604-635: The Drúedain were feared and loathed by other Men of the region; they were considered little better than Orcs , and there was much enmity between those peoples. Nevertheless, the Drúedain of Ghân-buri-Ghân's clan came to the aid of the Rohirrim during the War of the Ring . A large company of Orcs had been sent to the Drúadan Forest to waylay the host of Rohan as it made its way to the aid of Gondor . It

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2688-583: The Earth. The extreme west of Middle-earth in the First Age was Beleriand . It and Eriador were separated from much of the south of Middle-earth by the Great Gulf. Beleriand was largely destroyed in the cataclysm of the War of Wrath , leaving only a remnant coastal plain, Lindon, just to the west of the Ered Luin (also called Ered Lindon or Blue Mountains). The cataclysm divided Ered Luin and Lindon by

2772-794: The Eastfarthing, while the once good but corrupted Saruman 's men arrive in the Southfarthing. J. K. Newman compares the adventurous quest to Mordor to "the perpetual temptation felt in the West 'to hold the gorgeous East in fee'" (citing Wordsworth on Venice ), in a tradition which he traces back to Herodotus and to the myth of the Golden Fleece . Tolkien scholars including John Garth have traced many features of Middle-earth to literary sources or real-world places. Some places in Middle-earth can be more or less firmly associated with

2856-462: The Men of The Lord of the Rings with the Hobbits . She notes that the Hobbits are to an extent the low, simple, earthbound "clods" of the story who like beer and comfort and do not wish to go on adventures; they fit the antihero of modern literature and Northrop Frye 's lower literary modes including various forms of humour. In contrast, Tolkien's Men are not all of a piece: Rogers mentions

2940-608: The Misty Mountains, Anduin, the Great River, flows southwards, with the forest of Mirkwood to its east. On its west bank opposite the southern end of Mirkwood is the Elvish land of Lothlorien . Further south, backing on to the Misty Mountains, lies the forest of Fangorn , home of the tree-giants, the ents . In a valley at the southern end of the Misty Mountains is Isengard , home to the wizard Saruman . Just to

3024-578: The North "barbaric", South "the region of decadence", East "danger" but also the "locale of adventure", West "safety" (and uttermost West "ultimate safety"), North-West "specifically English insularity" where hobbits of the Shire live "in provincial satisfaction". Other scholars such as Walter Scheps and Isabel G. MacCaffrey have noted Middle-earth's "spatial cum moral dimensions", though not identically with Magoun's interpretation. In their view, North and West are generally good, South and East evil. That places

3108-602: The Pelennor Fields has parallels with the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields . The Misty Mountains derive from the Poetic Edda , where the protagonist in the Skírnismál notes that his quest will involve misty mountains peopled with orcs and giants, while the mountains' character was partly inspired by Tolkien's travels in the Swiss Alps in 1911. Mirkwood is based on Myrkviðr , the romantic vision of

3192-815: The Púkel-men may derive from a combination of "Proto-Celts, Druid -figures, or ... roadside fertility deities". Ryan notes Christopher Tolkien 's statement that the name Púkel-men is "also used as a general equivalent to Drúedain". In Westron , the Common Tongue of western Middle-earth, the Drúedain were called the Wild Men , or the [Wood-] Woses : You hear the Woses, the Wild Men of the Woods: thus they talk together from afar. They still haunt Druadan Forest, it

3276-446: The Ring to escape; the Fellowship is scattered. Orcs attack, seeking the Ring; Boromir repents, and dies trying to save the Hobbits, an act which redeems him. Aragorn gives Boromir an honourable boat-funeral . The quest eventually succeeds, and Aragorn, growing in strength through many perils and wise decisions is crowned King. Boromir gave in to the temptation of power, and fell; Aragorn responded rightfully, and rose. The status of

3360-518: The Rings was death and the human desire to escape it. The theme, which recurs throughout the work, is sharply visible in an appendix, " The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen ", in which the immortal Elf Arwen chooses mortality so that she can marry the mortal Man Aragorn . The result, as with the earlier intermarriage of their ancestors Lúthien and Beren in the First Age in Beleriand, was to make Aragorn's line exceptionally long-lived among Men, and as

3444-592: The Rings – as well as the events described in The Silmarillion . The editor of Tolkien Studies , David Bratman , notes that the atlas provides historical, geological , and battle maps, with a detailed commentary and explanation of how Fonstad approached the mapping task from the available evidence. Michael Brisbois, also in Tolkien Studies , describes the atlas as "authorized", while the cartographers Ina Habermann and Nikolaus Kuhn take Fonstad's maps as defining Middle-earth's geography. Stentor Danielson,

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3528-604: The Rings , and The Silmarillion . Tolkien's Middle-earth was part of his created world of Arda . It was a flat world surrounded by ocean. It included the Undying Lands of Aman and Eressëa , which were all part of the wider creation, Eä . Aman and Middle-earth were separated from each other by the Great Sea Belegaer , analogous to the Atlantic Ocean . The western continent, Aman, was the home of

3612-426: The River Baranduin (Brandywine), were abandoned. A small part of the region was occupied by Hobbits to form the Shire . To the northwest lay Lake Evendim, once called Nenuial by the Elves. A remnant of the ancient forest of Eriador survived throughout the Third Age just to the east of the Shire as the Old Forest , the domain of Tom Bombadil . Northeast of there is Bree , the only place where hobbits and Men live in

3696-442: The Second Age, he remade Arda as a round world, and the Undying Lands were removed from Arda so that Men could not reach them. The Elves could go there only by the Straight Road and in ships capable of passing out of the sphere of the earth. Tolkien then equated Arda, consisting of both Middle-earth's planet and the heavenly Aman, with the Solar System , the Sun and Moon being celestial objects in their own right, no longer orbiting

3780-401: The Second House of Men, the Haladin, in the First Age in the forest of Brethil , whence the Elves came to know and love them. Aghan the Drûg is a protagonist in "The Faithful Stone", a short story set in Beleriand in the First Age . Although a number of the Drúedain came with the Edain to Númenor , they had left or died out before the Akallabêth , as had the Púkel-men of Dunharrow . At

3864-428: The Shire and the elves' Grey Havens in the Northwest as certainly good, and Mordor in the Southeast as certainly Evil; Gondor in the Southwest is in their view morally ambivalent, matching the characters of both Boromir and Denethor . They observe further that the Shire's four quadrants or "Farthings" serve as a "microcosm" of the moral geography of Middle-earth as a whole: thus, the evil Black Riders appear first in

3948-421: The Shire, travel east through the wilds of Eriador to Rivendell and then across the Misty Mountains, involve further travels in the lands of Rhovanion or Wilderland to the east of those mountains, and return home to the Shire. The cartographer Karen Wynn Fonstad prepared The Atlas of Middle-earth to clarify and map the two journeys – of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit , and of Frodo Baggins in The Lord of

4032-430: The South of both Fangorn and Isengard is the wide grassy land of the Riders of Rohan , who provide cavalry to its southerly neighbour, Gondor . The River Anduin passes the hills of Emyn Muil and the enormous rock statues of the Argonath and flows through the dangerous rapids of Sarn Gebir and over the Falls of Rauros into Gondor. Gondor's border with Rohan is the Ered Nimrais, the White Mountains, which run east–west from

4116-424: The West". Arnor becomes fragmented, and declines until its kings become Rangers in the wilds, but they retain their memory of Númenor or "Westernesse", through many generations down to Aragorn , a protagonist in The Lord of the Rings . The line of kings in Gondor eventually dies out, and the country is ruled by Stewards , the throne empty, until Aragorn returns. Tolkien stated that the core theme of The Lord of

4200-462: The ambitious kings into Ringwraiths , the nine Black Riders. With the One Ring to rule them, Sauron gains complete control over them, and they become his most powerful servants. Kocher comments that for Tolkien, the exercise of personal free will , the most precious gift, is "the distinguishing mark of his individuality". The wise, like the Wizard Gandalf and the Elf-queen Galadriel , therefore avoid putting pressure on anybody. In contrast, Sauron

4284-425: The boxshape of Asia Minor "; that "Dol Amroth makes a fine Venice "; that the Rohirrim and their grasslands are comparable to " Hungary of the Magyars , who were weak allies of Byzantine Constantinople"; and that the Corsairs of Umbar resembled the Barbary pirates who served Mehmed the Conqueror . The linguist David Salo writes that Gondor recalls "a kind of decaying Byzantium"; its piratical enemy Umbar like

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4368-422: The cartographer must fully reconcile. He gives as an instance the work that she did to make the journey of Thorin's company in The Hobbit consistent with the map, something that Tolkien found himself unable to do. Danielson writes that in addition, Fonstad created "the most comprehensive set" of thematic maps of Middle-earth, presenting geographic data including political boundaries, climate, population density, and

4452-426: The dark forests of the North. Scholars have likened Gondor to Byzantium (medieval Istanbul), while Tolkien connected it to Venice. The Corsairs of Umbar have been linked to the Barbary corsairs of the late Middle Ages. Númenor echoes the mythical Atlantis described by Plato . About the origins of his storytelling and the place of cartography within it, Tolkien stated in a letter: I wisely started with

4536-478: The end of the Third Age the Drûgs still lived in the Drúadan Forest of the White Mountains, and on the long cape of Andrast west of Gondor . The region north of Andrast was still known as Drúwaith Iaur , or "Old Drûg land". The term Púkel-men used by the Rohirrim was also applied to the statues constructed by the Drúedain to guard important places and homes; some evidently had the power to come to life. Because of their ugly appearance and frightening statues

4620-421: The end of the Second Age, in which Arda was remade as a spherical world, and Aman was removed so that Men could not reach it. In The Lord of the Rings , Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age is described as having free peoples, namely Men , Hobbits , Elves , and Dwarves in the West, opposed to peoples under the control of the Dark Lord Sauron in the East. Some commentators have seen this as implying

4704-417: The first to migrate from Hildórien, the land where the race of Men awoke in the east of Middle-earth. Initially they headed south, into Harad , but then they turned north-west, becoming the first Men to cross the great river Anduin . Many of them settled in the White Mountains , where they were the first people . Some of the Drúedain continued north-west, settling in Beleriand . There a band lived among

4788-402: The form Drûg , with a regular English plural Drûgs . Drughu became Rú in Quenya , with the later suffixed form Rúatan (plural Rúatani ). The Orcs called the Drúedain Oghor-hai . John S. Ryan, writing in Mallorn , notes that Tolkien also uses the forms "Drúadan Forest" (the home of the Woses) and "Drúwaith-laur" (the Dru-folk's ancient wilderness). The word used for the Drúedain by

4872-507: The free peoples is shared by Elrond . The Tolkien scholar Paul H. Kocher writes that, in the style of the medieval Great Chain of Being , this list places Men and the other speaking peoples higher than the beasts, birds, and reptiles which he lists next. "Man the mortal, master of horses" is listed last among the free peoples, who were created separately. Although all Men in Tolkien's legendarium are related to one another, there are many different groups with different cultures. Those on

4956-420: The friendly races has been debated by critics. David Ibata, writing in The Chicago Tribune , asserts that the protagonists in The Lord of the Rings all have fair skin, and they are mainly blond-haired and blue-eyed as well. Ibata suggests that having the "good guys" white and their opponents of other races, in both book and film, is uncomfortably close to racism. The theologian Fleming Rutledge states that

5040-406: The gentle warrior Faramir and the genuinely heroic Aragorn ; Tolkien had wanted to create a heroic romance suitable for the modern age. Scholars have identified real-world analogues for each of the varied races of Men, whether from medieval times or classical antiquity . The weakness of Men, The Lord of the Rings asserts, is the desire for power; the One Ring promises enormous power, but

5124-402: The godlike Valar , when they become weary of Middle-earth, or are killed in battle. Men, however, are mortal. Morgoth's servant, Sauron , tempts the Men of Númenor to attack Valinor, in their search for immortality: Sauron has falsely insinuated that Men can become immortal just by being in that place. The Men and Númenor are destroyed: the island is drowned, Atlantis -like, beneath the waves;

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5208-545: The leader of the Drúedain, Ghân-buri-Ghân, is treated as a noble savage . Michael N. Stanton writes in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia that Hobbits were "a distinctive form of human beings", and notes that their speech contains "vestigial elements" which hint that they originated in the North of Middle-earth. The scholar Margaret Sinex states that Tolkiens' construction of the Easterlings and Southrons draws on centuries of Christian tradition of creating an "imaginary Saracen". Zakarya Anwar judges that while Tolkien himself

5292-434: The mythological woodwoses , the wild men of the woods of Britain and Europe; the Riders of Rohan indeed call them woses. Within Tolkien's fiction, the Drúedain call themselves Drughu . When the Drúedain settled in Beleriand , the Sindarin Elves adapted this to Drû (plurals Drúin , Drúath ) and later added the suffix -adan "man", resulting in the usual Sindarin form Drúadan (plural Drúedain ). Tolkien also used

5376-409: The newly created Gulf of Lune; the northern part was Forlindon, the southern Harlindon. In the northwest of Middle-earth, Eriador was the region between the Ered Luin and the Misty Mountains. Early in the Third Age, the northern kingdom of Arnor founded by Elendil occupied a large part of the region. After its collapse, much of Eriador became wild; regions such as Minhiriath, on the coast south of

5460-481: The nine Black Riders. The other is Boromir , elder son of the Steward of Gondor, and the two Men are sharply opposed. Both are ambitious, and both intend one day to rule Gondor. Boromir means to fight valiantly, to save Gondor, with any help he can get, and to inherit the Stewardship. Aragorn knows he is in the line of kings by his ancestry, but he is unknown in Gondor. When they meet at the Council of Elrond , they dispute who has been holding back Sauron. Aragorn presents

5544-435: The other peoples, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents and all the rest, are dwindling and fading, leaving only a world of Men. Kocher writes that the furthest look into Man's future in The Lord of the Rings is the conversation between the Elf Legolas and the Dwarf Gimli , close friends, at the moment when they first visit Minas Tirith , the capital city of the Men of Gondor, "and see the marks of decay around them". Gimli says that

5628-427: The real world in the distant past. Commentators have questioned Tolkien's attitude to race, given that good peoples are white and live in the West, while enemies may be dark and live in the East and South. However, others note that Tolkien was strongly anti-racist in real life. The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkien 's fictional world, in his books The Hobbit , The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion ,

5712-450: The routes of characters and armies. At the end of the Third Age, much of the northwest of Middle-earth is wild, with traces here and there of ruined cities and fortresses from earlier civilisations among the mountains, rivers, forests, hills, plains and marshes. The major nations that appear in The Lord of the Rings are Rohan and Gondor on the side of the Free Peoples, and Mordor and its allies Harad (Southrons) and Rhûn (Easterlings) on

5796-413: The royal family intermarried with other people of Gondor, to maintain or extend the lifespan of the entire race. The overall feeling in The Lord of the Rings , however, despite the victories and Aragorn's long-awaited kingship and marriage, is of decline and fall , echoing the view of Norse mythology that everything will inevitably be destroyed. As the Tolkien scholar Marjorie Burns put it, "Here

5880-449: The same villages. Further east from Bree is the hill of Weathertop with the ancient fortress of Amon Sûl, and then Rivendell , the home of Elrond . South from there is the ancient land of Hollin, once the elvish land of Eregion, where the Rings of Power were forged. At the Grey Havens (Mithlond), on the Gulf of Lune, Círdan built the ships in which the Elves departed from Middle-earth to Valinor. The Misty Mountains were thrown up by

5964-400: The sea to a point near the Anduin; at that point is Gondor's capital city, Minas Tirith . Across the river to the East is the land of Mordor . It is bordered to the north by the Ered Lithui, the Ash Mountains; to the west by the Ephel Duath, the Mountains of Shadow. Between those two ranges, at Mordor's northwest tip, are the Black Gates of the Morannon . In the angle between the two ranges

6048-581: The seagoing Carthage ; the Southrons (of Harad) "Arab-like"; and the Easterlings "suggesting Sarmatians , Huns and Avars ". The geologist Alex Acks, writing on Tor.com , outlines mismatches between Tolkien's maps and the processes of plate tectonics which shape the Earth's continents and mountain ranges . Acks comments that no natural process creates right-angle junctions in mountain ranges, such as are seen around Mordor and at both ends of

6132-577: The shards of the broken sword of his ancestor, Elendil, and asks Boromir if he wants the House of Elendil (the line of kings) to return. Boromir evasively replies that he would welcome the sword. The One Ring is then shown to the Council. Boromir at once thinks of using it himself. Elrond explains how dangerous the Ring is; Boromir reluctantly sets the idea of using it aside for the moment, and suggests again that Elendil's sword might help save Gondor, if Aragorn

6216-468: The side of the Dark Lord. Gondor, once extremely powerful, is by that time much reduced in its reach, and has lost control of Ithilien (bordering Mordor) and South Gondor (bordering Harad). Forgotten by most of the rest of the world is the Shire, a small region in the northwest of Middle-earth inhabited by hobbits amidst the abandoned lands of Eriador. With his "Southrons" from Harad, Tolkien had – in

6300-788: The side of the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings are the Dúnedain , the men who fought on the side of the Elves in the First Age against Morgoth in Beleriand , from whom other friendly groups, the Rangers including Aragorn , and the men of Gondor are descended; and their allies the Rohirrim . The main human adversaries in The Lord of the Rings are the Haradrim and the Easterlings. The Haradrim or Southrons were hostile to Gondor, and used elephants in war. Tolkien describes them as "swart", meaning "dark-skinned". The Easterlings lived in Rhûn,

6384-556: The vast eastern region of Middle-earth; they fought in the armies of Morgoth and Sauron . Tolkien describes them as "slant-eyed"; they ride horses or wagons, leading to the name "wain-riders". The Variags of Khand formed a third but smaller group, who appear as vassals of Mordor in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields . Their name is from Russian : Варяги ( Variag ), meaning the Varangians , Viking or other Germanic warriors who served as mercenaries . Other human adversaries include

6468-665: The view of John Magoun, writing in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia – constructed a "fully expressed moral geography", from the hobbits' home in the Northwest, evil in the East, and "imperial sophistication and decadence" in the South. Magoun explains that Gondor is both virtuous, being West, and has problems, being South; Mordor in the Southeast is hellish, while Harad in the extreme South "regresses into hot savagery". Steve Walker similarly speaks of "Tolkien's moral geography", naming

6552-465: The whole novel indeed a heroic romance : he regains his throne, marries Arwen, and has a long, peaceful, and happy reign. Rh%C3%BBn The geography of Middle-earth encompasses the physical, political, and moral geography of J. R. R. Tolkien 's fictional world of Middle-earth , strictly a continent on the planet of Arda but widely taken to mean the physical world , and Eä , all of creation, as well as all of his writings about it. Arda

6636-445: The works of Men always "fail of their promise"; Legolas replies that even if that's so, "seldom do they fail of their seed", in marked contrast to the scarcity of children among Elves and Dwarves, implying that Men will outlast the other races. Gimli suggests again that Men's projects "come to naught in the end but might-have-beens". Legolas just replies "To that the Elves know not the answer". Kocher comments that this "sad little fugue"

6720-468: The world is made round; and Valinor is removed from the world, so that only the Elves can reach it. Sauron's body is destroyed, but his spirit escapes to become the new Dark Lord of Middle-earth. A remnant of the Men of Númenor who remained faithful, under Elendil , sail to Middle-earth, where they found the kingdoms of Arnor in the North and Gondor in the South, remaining known as the Dúnedain, "Men of

6804-402: Was anti-racist, his fantasy writings can certainly be taken the wrong way. With his different races of Men arranged from good in the West to evil in the East, simple in the North and sophisticated in the South, Tolkien had, in the view of John Magoun, constructed a "fully expressed moral geography ": Gondor is both virtuous, being West, and has problems, being South; Mordor in the Southeast

6888-517: Was borrowed from the Broceliand of medieval romance. Tolkien tried out many invented names in search of the right sound , in Beleriand's case including Golodhinand, Noldórinan ("valley of the Noldor "), Geleriand, Bladorinand, Belaurien, Arsiriand, Lassiriand, and Ossiriand (later used as a name for the easternmost part of Beleriand). The Elves have been linked to Celtic mythology. The Battle of

6972-630: Was created as a flat world, incorporating a Western continent, Aman , which became the home of the godlike Valar , as well as Middle-earth. At the end of the First Age , the Western part of Middle-earth, Beleriand , was drowned in the War of Wrath. In the Second Age , a large island, Númenor , was created in the Great Sea, Belegaer , between Aman and Middle-earth; it was destroyed in a cataclysm near

7056-490: Was the "woodcrafty beyond compare" Drúedain who held off the Orcs with poisoned arrows whilst they guided the Rohirrim through the forest by secret paths. Without their help the Rohirrim would not have arrived at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields , and Sauron would likely have triumphed. This action earned the Drúedain the respect of other Men, and King Elessar granted them the Drúadan Forest "forever" in thanks. Ghân-buri-Ghân

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