106-610: In J. R. R. Tolkien 's fantasy writings, Isengard ( / ˈ aɪ z ən ɡ ɑːr d / ) is a large fortress in Nan Curunír , the Wizard's Vale, in the western part of Middle-earth . In the fantasy world, the name of the fortress is described as a translation of Angrenost , a word in Tolkien's elvish language , Sindarin , a compound of two Old English words: īsen and ġeard , meaning "enclosure of iron". In The Lord of
212-465: A Catholic , realised he had created a dilemma for himself , as if these beings were sentient and had a sense of right and wrong, then they must have souls and could not have been created wholly evil. Dragons (or "worms") appear in several varieties, distinguished by whether they have wings and whether they breathe fire (cold-drakes versus fire-drakes). The first of the fire-drakes ( Urulóki in Quenya)
318-477: A portcullis , and the gate of Isengard at the south, at both shores of the river. For most of its history, Isengard was a green and pleasant place, with many fruiting trees. Orthanc was built towards the end of the Second Age by men of Gondor from four many-sided columns of rock joined by an unknown process and then hardened. No known weapon could harm it. Orthanc rose to more than 500 feet (152 metres) above
424-598: A siege that seemed to threaten civilisation. Further, in Livingston's opinion, the Steward Denethor's two sons, Boromir and Faramir , play the roles of Hector in Homer 's Iliad , "the heroic example of martial, mortal man", and of Paris , the younger brother "little loved by [his father]", in "asterisk" form, as they might have been. Livingston notes that Paris, like Faramir, is seriously wounded by
530-762: A tightrope unaided. Their eyesight is keen. Elves are immortal, unless killed in battle. They are re-embodied in Valinor if killed. Men were "the Secondborn" of the Children of Ilúvatar: they awoke in Middle-earth much later than the Elves. Men (and Hobbits) were the last humanoid race to appear in Middle-earth: Dwarves, Ents and Orcs also preceded them. The capitalized term "Man" (plural "Men")
636-411: A "deadly dart"; he is dragged back into Troy, just as Faramir is carried to Minas Tirith's Houses of Healing. Both men suffer burning fevers. Paris can't be saved; Faramir can. Paris's body is burned on a pyre; his abandoned wife Oenone burns herself to death with him. Denethor has himself burned alive on a pyre, and he tries to have Faramir burned with him, but is foiled in this. Tolkien's map-notes for
742-826: A 1951 letter, Tolkien wrote of "the Byzantine City of Minas Tirith", thus associating Gondor's capital with Constantinople , the capital of the Byzantine Empire . The classical scholar Miryam Librán-Moreno writes that Tolkien drew heavily on the history of the Byzantine Empire, and its struggle with the Goths and Langobards . The Byzantine Empire and Gondor were both, in Librán-Moreno's view, only echoes of older states (the Roman Empire and
848-793: A catastrophic transition from a flat to a spherical world, known as the Akallabeth, in which Aman became inaccessible to mortal Men. Tolkien described the region in which the Hobbits lived as "the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea", and the north-west of the Old World is essentially Europe , especially Britain . However, as he noted in private letters, the geographies do not match, and he did not consciously make them match when he
954-519: A deep blue hue", while Howe's city more closely resembles a traditional castle of fairytales with pennants on every pinnacle, in Fauvist style. Lee chooses instead to look within Minas Tirith, showing "the same glimmering spires and white stone", a guard standing in the foreground in place of Gandalf and his horse; his painting gives a feeling of "how massive the city is", with close attention to
1060-516: A letter, Tolkien stated that Minas Tirith, some "600 miles south [of the village of Hobbiton in the Shire], is at about the latitude of Florence . The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir [in the south of Gondor] are at about the latitude of ancient Troy ." Michael Livingston comments in Mythlore that Minas Tirith resembled Troy in having "impregnable walls", and in being subjected to
1166-476: A little glorified by enchantment of distance in time. ...if it were 'history', it would be difficult to fit the lands and events (or 'cultures') into such evidence as we possess, archaeological or geological, concerning the nearer or remoter part of what is now called Europe; though the Shire , for instance, is expressly stated to have been in this region...I hope the, evidently long but undefined gap in time between
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#17327810559691272-737: A long lamp-lit slope ran up to the seventh gate. Thus men reached at last the High Court, and the Place of the Fountain before the feet of the White Tower: tall and shapely, fifty fathoms from its base to the pinnacle, where the banner of the Stewards floated a thousand feet above the plain. The Lord of the Rings , book 5, ch. 1 "Minas Tirith" Minas Tirith ( Sindarin : "Tower of Guard" )
1378-598: A mind of metal and wheels"; that Isengard means "Irontown"; that the Ents are attacked in Isengard with "a kind of napalm [or] perhaps ... [given] Tolkien's own experience, a Flammenwerfer ". Shippey concludes that Saruman had been led into "wanton pollution ... by something corrupting in the love of machines", which he connects to "Tolkien's own childhood image of industrial ugliness ... Sarehole Mill , with its literally bone-grinding owner". David D. Oberhelman, writing in
1484-430: A mistake. Tolkien made detailed sketches of Isengard and Orthanc , published in J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator , as he developed his conception of them. The scholar of English literature Charles A. Huttar describes Isengard as an "industrial hell ". He quotes Tolkien's description of Isengard, supplying his own emphasis on Tolkien's words: " tunneled .. circle .. dark .. deep .. graveyard of unquiet dead ..
1590-596: A rival to Sauron for absolute power in Middle-earth. Other races involved in the struggle against evil were Dwarves , Ents and most famously Hobbits . 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 . Conflict over the possession and control of precious or magical objects
1696-595: A small company, led by a hereditary captain. Contact with Minas Tirith gradually decreased and eventually ceased altogether. When Cirion, Steward of Gondor , gave Calenardhon to the Éothéod, becoming the land of Rohan, Isengard was the sole fortress retained by Gondor north of the Ered Nimrais . The small guard intermarried much with the Dunlendings , until the fortress became Dunlending in all but name. The tower of Orthanc however remained locked and inaccessible to
1802-577: Is a recurring theme in the stories. 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 ). 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
1908-533: Is called Khuzdul , and was kept largely as a secret language for their own use. Like Hobbits, Dwarves live exclusively in Middle-earth. They generally reside under mountains, where they are specialists in mining and metalwork. Tolkien identified Hobbits as an offshoot of the race of Men. Another name for Hobbit is 'Halfling', as they were generally only half the size of Men. In their lifestyle and habits they closely resemble Men, and in particular Englishmen, except for their preference for living in holes underground. By
2014-608: Is from Old English īsen , "iron" and geard , "court, enclosure". The names, supposedly given by the Rohirrim , for Orthanc, the cunningly-built tower of Isengard, and for the Ents, the tree-giants of Fangorn forest who eventually destroy Isengard, are similarly in reality from Old English. Both are found in the poem The Ruin , which describes the ancient Roman ruins as orþanc , "skilful work", and enta geweorc , "the work of giants" and in Maxims II . Clark Hall gives
2120-531: Is locked in Orthanc and guarded by Treebeard, who later sets him free. Saruman hands the tower's keys over to Treebeard, and takes Gríma with him. Saruman exploits Treebeard's unwillingness to see any living thing caged, most likely using his power with words . During the Fourth Age , when Aragorn has been crowned as King Elessar ("Elfstone"), he visits Orthanc, finding there heirlooms of Isildur , among them
2226-579: Is taken by his lieutenant Sauron , a Maia . 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. The most important wizards were Gandalf the Grey and Saruman the White . Gandalf remained true to his mission and proved crucial in the fight against Sauron. Saruman, however, became corrupted and sought to establish himself as
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#17327810559692332-584: Is the setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien 's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the Miðgarðr of Norse mythology and Middangeard in Old English works, including Beowulf . Middle-earth is the oecumene (i.e. the human-inhabited world, or the central continent of Earth ) in Tolkien's imagined mythological past . Tolkien's most widely read works, The Hobbit and The Lord of
2438-476: Is the known world, "recalling the Norse Midgard and the equivalent words in early English", noting that Tolkien made it clear that this was " our world ... in a purely imaginary ... period of antiquity". Tolkien explained in a letter to his publisher that it "is just a use of Middle English middle-erde (or erthe ), altered from Old English Middangeard : the name for the inhabited lands of men 'between
2544-543: Is used as a gender-neutral racial description, to distinguish humans from the other human-like races of Middle-earth. In appearance they are much like Elves, but on average less beautiful. Unlike Elves, Men are mortal, ageing and dying quickly, usually living 40–80 years. However the Númenóreans could live several centuries, and their descendants the Dúnedain also tended to live longer than regular humans. This tendency
2650-477: The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia , states, following Anne C. Petty, that there are multiple "industrial 'hells' in Tolkien's work, such as Saruman's blighted, machine-ridden Isengard". He notes that its prototype was the fallen Vala Morgoth 's subterranean fortress, Angband , whose name meant "Iron Prison" or "Hell of Iron". Isengard is the promised reward for the nameless "Mouth of Sauron", as soon as Gondor and its allies had surrendered. In his words in front of
2756-742: The Ainur entered Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of labour throughout Eä , the fictional universe . Time from that point was measured using Valian Years , though the subsequent history of Arda was divided into three time periods using different years, known as the Years of the Lamps , the Years of the Trees and the Years of the Sun . A separate, overlapping chronology divides
2862-710: The Black Speech (Burzum) for his slaves (such as Orcs ) to speak. In the Third Age , five of the Maiar were embodied and sent to Middle-earth to help the free peoples to overthrow Sauron. These are the Istari or Wizards , including Gandalf , Saruman , and Radagast . The Elves are known as "the Firstborn" of Ilúvatar: intelligent beings created by Ilúvatar alone, with many different clans . Originally Elves all spoke
2968-657: The Dwarves , the Elves , the Drúedain , and the Shire leads to diversity, "evil tends to homogeneity". In Peter Jackson 's films of The Lord of the Rings , Isengard and Orthanc were based on Alan Lee 's illustrations and modelled under the direction of Richard Taylor ; Lee worked as the project's conceptual artist in New Zealand throughout the making of the film trilogy. The very large miniature or "bigature" of Orthanc
3074-689: The Elendilmir , the Star of Arnor, and the small gold case on a chain that Isildur had used to carry the One Ring, evidence that Saruman had found and apparently destroyed Isildur's remains. Isengard is restored, and the entire valley granted to the Ents. The Ents name the new forest the Treegarth of Orthanc. Orthanc becomes again a tower of the Reunited Kingdom of Gondor and Arnor. "Isengard"
3180-527: The "Wizard's Vale". On Sauron 's return to Mordor, Saruman asserted himself as Lord of Isengard. During the War of the Ring , Saruman prepares for war against Rohan, defiling the valley of Isengard with deep pits where he breeds large numbers of powerful warrior Orcs, Uruk-hai , smithing weapons in underground workshops full of machinery, and felling the valley's trees. The Orcs of Isengard bear upon their shields
3286-678: The "first victory of Evil" in The Silmarillion as "resolved into the harmony of the victory of Good" in The Lord of the Rings . In The Silmarillion , the Dark Lord Melkor greatly influences the story, and the development of Middle-earth, whereas in The Lord of the Rings , Melkor's acolyte, the Dark Lord Sauron is almost successful but fails in his plans. In Peter Jackson 's film adaptation of The Lord of
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3392-853: The Ainur entered Eä, and the greatest of these were called the Valar . Melkor , the chief agent of evil in Eä, and later called Morgoth , was initially one of the Valar. With the Valar came lesser spirits of the Ainur, called the Maiar . Melian, the wife of the Elven King Thingol in the First Age , was a Maia. There were also evil Maiar, including the Balrogs and the second Dark Lord, Sauron . Sauron devised
3498-660: The Black Gate: West of the Anduin as far as the Misty Mountains and the Gap of Rohan shall be tributary to Mordor, and men there shall bear no weapons, but shall have leave to govern their own affairs. But they shall help to rebuild Isengard which they have wantonly destroyed, and that shall be Sauron's, and there his lieutenant shall dwell: not Saruman, but one more worthy of trust. Shippey compares Sauron's offer to
3604-647: The Citadel through the Seventh Gate on its eastern part. The White Tower, at the city's highest level with a commanding view of the lower vales of Anduin , stood in the Citadel, 700 feet higher than the surrounding plains, protected by the seventh and innermost wall atop the spur. Originally constructed by a king of yore, it is also known as the Tower of Ecthelion, the Steward of Gondor who had it re-built. The seat of
3710-403: The Crebain, evil crows who become spies for Saruman , and the Ravens of Erebor , who brought news to the Dwarves. The horse-line of the Mearas of Rohan, especially Gandalf's mount, Shadowfax, also appear to be intelligent and understand human speech. The bear-man Beorn had a number of animal friends about his house. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , both set in Middle-earth, have been
3816-436: The Dunlendings, as the Steward of Gondor alone held the keys in Minas Tirith . The line of hereditary Captains died out, and during the rule of Rohan's King Déor, Isengard became openly hostile to the Rohirrim . Using Isengard as their base, the Dunlendings continually raided Rohan until during the rule of Helm Hammerhand, the Dunlending lord Freca and his son Wulf nearly managed to destroy the Rohirrim. The Rohirrim fought off
3922-433: The Fall of Barad-dûr and our Days is sufficient for 'literary credibility', even for readers acquainted with what is known as 'pre-history'. I have, I suppose, constructed an imaginary time, but kept my feet on my own mother-earth for place. I prefer that to the contemporary mode of seeking remote globes in 'space'. In another letter, Tolkien made correspondences in latitude between Europe and Middle-earth: The action of
4028-411: The Fords of Isen from enemy incursions into Calenardhon together with the fortress of Aglarond to its south. The river Isen or Angren began on Methedras, the southernmost peak of the Misty Mountains . Methedras stood behind Isengard, forming its northern wall. The rest of its perimeter consisted of a large wall, the Ring of Isengard, breached only by the inflow of the river at the north-east through
4134-635: The King , rested in a secret chamber at the top of the Tower. There was a buttery of the Guards of the Citadel in the basement of the tower. Behind the tower, reached from the sixth level, was a saddle leading to the Hallows or necropolis of the Kings and Stewards, with its street of tombs, Rath Dínen. Tolkien was influenced by many authors when constructing Middle-earth, including several classical sources . Scholars, following various leads in Tolkien's fantasy and letters, have identified Minas Tirith with several different historical or mythical cities, including Troy, Rome, Ravenna, and Constantinople. In
4240-452: The Rings , Orthanc , the tower at the centre of Isengard, is the home of the Wizard Saruman . He had been ensnared by the Dark Lord Sauron through the tower's palantír , a far-seeing crystal ball able to communicate with others like it. Saruman had bred Orcs in Isengard, in imitation of Sauron's forces, to be ready for war with Rohan . The Orcs cut down many trees in the forest of the Ents , who retaliate by destroying Isengard while
4346-411: The Rings , Minas Tirith was according to the concept designer Alan Lee given an ancient appearance reminiscent of Byzantium or ancient Rome. However, the appearance and structure of the city was based upon the inhabited tidal island and abbey of Mont Saint-Michel , France. In the films, the towers of the city, designed by Lee, are equipped with trebuchets . The film critic Roger Ebert called
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4452-405: The Rings , are set entirely in Middle-earth. "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. Middle-earth is the main continent of Earth (Arda) in an imaginary period of the past, ending with Tolkien's Third Age , about 6,000 years ago. Tolkien's tales of Middle-earth mostly focus on
4558-514: The Rings , Tolkien writes: "Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past, and the shape of all lands has been changed..." The Appendices make several references in both history and etymology of topics "now" (in modern English languages) and "then" (ancient languages); The year no doubt was of the same length,¹ [ the footnote here reads : 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds.] for long ago as those times are now reckoned in years and lives of men, they were not very remote according to
4664-1008: The Rings: The Return of the King received 11 Academy Award nominations and won all of them, matching the totals awarded to Ben-Hur and Titanic . Two well-made fan films of Middle-earth, The Hunt for Gollum and Born of Hope , were uploaded to YouTube on 8 May 2009 and 11 December 2009 respectively. Numerous computer and video games have been inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien 's works set in Middle-earth. Titles have been produced by studios such as Electronic Arts , Vivendi Games , Melbourne House , and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment . Aside from officially licensed games, many Tolkien-inspired mods , custom maps and total conversions have been made for many games, such as Warcraft III , Minecraft , Rome: Total War , Medieval II: Total War , The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim . In addition, there are many text-based MMORPGs (known as MU*s ) based on Middle-earth. The oldest of these dates back to 1991, and
4770-405: The South Road to the southern provinces of Gondor; and the road to Osgiliath, which lay to the north-east of Minas Tirith. Except for the high saddle of rock which joined the west of the hill to Mindolluin, the city was surrounded by the Pelennor , an area of farmlands. The city's main street zigzagged up the eastern hill-face and through each of the gates and the central spur of rock. It led to
4876-419: The Vichy treaty imposed on France after its surrender in 1940: "sovereignty over the disputed territory of Ithilien [East of the Anduin], the Alsace-Lorraine of Middle-earth, is to be transferred", and in the lands to the West "a demilitarized zone , with what one can only call Vichy status , which will pay war-reparations , and be governed [from Isengard] by what one can again only call a Quisling ." During
4982-517: The War of the Ring, Isengard was controlled by Saruman until the fortress's destruction, but Saruman had become "more like Sauron than he realizes", like him believing in "supremacy through absolute power", and unintentionally a pupil of Sauron, having against Elrond's advice "stud[ied] too deeply the arts of the enemy". The Tolkien scholars Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull note that the palantír in Orthanc had formed what Gandalf called "some link between Isengard and Mordor, which I have not yet fathomed":
5088-415: The Warden of the Houses of Healing and the Warden of the Keys. The Warden of the Keys was in charge of the city's security, especially its gates, and the safe-keeping of its treasury, notably the Crown of Gondor; he had command of the city when it was besieged by the forces of Mordor . Minas Tirith had seven walls: each wall held a gate, and for strength of defence each gate faced a different direction from
5194-540: The ability to give conscious life to things. The precise origins of Orcs and Trolls are unclear, as Tolkien considered various possibilities and sometimes changed his mind, leaving several inconsistent accounts. Late in the Third Age, the Uruks or Uruk-hai appeared: a race of Orcs of great size and strength that tolerate sunlight better than ordinary Orcs. Tolkien also mentions "Men-orcs" and "Orc-men"; or "half-orcs" or "goblin-men". They share some characteristics with Orcs (like "slanty eyes") but look more like men. Tolkien,
5300-417: The army of Orcs is away attacking Rohan at Helm's Deep . However, the Ents are unable to harm the tower of Orthanc. Saruman, isolated in the tower, is visited by members of the Fellowship of the Ring ; his staff is broken by the Wizard Gandalf . Isengard has been described by Tolkien scholars as an industrial hell , and as an illustration of the homogeneity of evil , in contrast to the evident diversity of
5406-418: The book for the benefit of readers, despite the expense involved. The definitive and iconic map of Middle-earth was published in The Lord of the Rings . It was refined with Tolkien's approval by the illustrator Pauline Baynes , using Tolkien's detailed annotations, with vignette images and larger paintings at top and bottom, into a stand-alone poster, " A Map of Middle-earth ". In Tolkien's conception, Arda
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#17327810559695512-413: The culture of ancient Egypt. Tuthill compares Howe's and Murray's versions of the same scene; Howe shows only a corner of the city, but vividly captures the movement of the horse and the rider's flying robes, with a strong interplay of light and dark, the white horse against the dusky rocks. Murray similarly uses strong contrast, with the white city against dark clouds overhead, but using "flat bold lines and
5618-466: The destruction of their home countries; the brothers Romulus and Remus found Rome, while the brothers Isildur and Anárion found the Númenórean kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor in Middle-earth; and both Gondor and Rome experienced centuries of " decadence and decline ". Judy Ann Ford adds in Tolkien Studies that Minas Tirith was entirely built of stone, and "the only culture within [the Anglo-Saxons'] historical memory that had made places like Minas Tirith
5724-515: The events in Tolkien's stories take place in the north-west of Middle-earth. In the First Age , further to the north-west was the subcontinent Beleriand ; it was engulfed by the ocean at the end of the First Age. Tolkien prepared several maps of Middle-earth. Some were published in his lifetime. The main maps are those published in The Hobbit , The Lord of the Rings , The Silmarillion , and Unfinished Tales , and appear as foldouts or illustrations. Tolkien insisted that maps be included in
5830-512: The films' interpretation of Minas Tirith a "spectacular achievement", and compared it to the Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz . He praised the filmmakers' ability to blend digital and real sets. The setting of Minas Tirith has appeared in video game adaptations of The Lord of the Rings , such as the 2003 video game The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King where it is directly modelled on Jackson's film adaptation. Christopher Tuthill, in A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien , evaluates
5936-418: The first big screen adaptation of the fictional setting was introduced in Ralph Bakshi 's animated The Lord of the Rings . New Line Cinema released the first part of director Peter Jackson 's The Lord of the Rings film series in 2001 as part of a trilogy; it was followed by a prequel trilogy in The Hobbit film series with several of the same actors playing their old roles. In 2003, The Lord of
6042-438: The free societies of Middle-earth, including those of the Elves , Dwarves , and Gondor . Others have compared it to Vichy France , and its proposed governor on behalf of Mordor , the Mouth of Sauron , to a traitorous Quisling . The Númenóreans in exile built Isengard in the Second Age as a walled circular enclosure, with the tower of Orthanc at its centre. It lay just outside the north-western corner of Rohan , guarding
6148-406: The gift of life but under the condition that they be taken and put to sleep in widely separated locations in Middle-earth and not to awaken until after the Firstborn were upon the Earth. They are mortal like Men, but live much longer, usually several hundred years. A peculiarity of Dwarves is that both males and females are bearded, and thus appear identical to outsiders. The language spoken by Dwarves
6254-574: The ground trembled .. treasuries .. furnaces .. iron wheels .. endlessly .. lit from beneath .. venomous ." Huttar comments: "The imagery is familiar, its connotations plain. This is yet another hell [after Moria and Mordor ]." All the same, he writes, the tower of Orthanc cannot but be admired, with its "marvellous shape" and wonderful, ancient strength; he supposes that for Tolkien, technology could neither be "wholeheartedly embraced nor utterly rejected". Shippey, discussing Saruman's character, notes several facts about him: Treebeard's comment that "He has
6360-425: The history into 'Ages of the Children of Ilúvatar'. The first such Age began with the Awakening of the Elves during the Years of the Trees (by which time the Ainur had already long inhabited Arda) and continued for the first six centuries of the Years of the Sun. All the subsequent Ages took place during the Years of the Sun. Arda is, as critics have noted, "our own green and solid Earth at some quite remote epoch in
6466-660: The illustrator Pauline Baynes indicate that Minas Tirith had the latitude of Ravenna , an Italian city on the Adriatic Sea , though it lay "900 miles east of Hobbiton more near Belgrade ". The Tolkien scholar Judy Ann Ford writes that there is an architectural connection with Ravenna in Pippin 's description of the great hall of Denethor, which in her view suggests a Germanic myth of a restored Roman Empire. Sandra Ballif Straubhaar states in The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia that "the most striking similarities" are with ancient Rome . She identifies several parallels: Aeneas , from Troy , and Elendil, from Númenor, both survive
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#17327810559696572-584: 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. 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. In later ages, after Morgoth's defeat and expulsion from Arda, his place
6678-461: The invaders and blockaded Isengard, eventually taking it. Gondor did not wish to relinquish its claim to the tower, but lacked the strength to garrison it. A solution presented itself to the Steward of Gondor, Beren, as the Wizard Saruman suddenly reappeared from the East, offering to guard Isengard. Beren gladly gave him the keys to Orthanc. At first he resided there as Warden of the Tower on behalf of Gondor. The valley became known as Nan Curunír,
6784-418: The latitude of ancient Troy . In another letter he stated: ...Thank you very much for your letter. ... It came while I was away, in Gondor ( sc. Venice ), as a change from the North Kingdom, or I would have answered before. He did confirm, however, that the Shire , the land of his Hobbit heroes, was based on England , in particular the West Midlands of his childhood. In the Prologue to The Lord of
6890-470: The link was that Sauron had used the stone to take control of Saruman, and through him his forces of Orcs. In The Two Towers , Tolkien himself described Saruman's Isengard as "only a little copy, a child's model or a slave's flattery ... [of Sauron's] vast fortress, armoury, prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dûr ." The Tolkien scholar Brian Rosebury writes that Tolkien was making the point that whereas good government in free societies like those of Gondor,
6996-436: The meanings of the noun orþanc as "intelligence, understanding, mind; cleverness, skill; skilful work, mechanical art", and as an adjective "ingenious, skilful". The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey suggests that Tolkien may have chosen to read the phrase also as "Orthanc, the Ent's fortress". The name of the tower of Orthanc is unique in that it is explicitly stated to be a bilingual pun in The Two Towers : Tolkien gives
7102-544: The memory of the Earth. Both the Appendices and The Silmarillion mention constellations, stars and planets that correspond to those seen in the northern hemisphere of Earth, including the Sun, the Moon, Orion (and his belt), Ursa Major and Mars . A map annotated by Tolkien places Hobbiton on the same latitude as Oxford , and Minas Tirith at the latitude of Ravenna , Italy. He used Belgrade , Cyprus , and Jerusalem as further reference points. The history of Middle-earth, as described in The Silmarillion , began when
7208-445: The middle-earth sent unto men. This is from the Crist 1 poem by Cynewulf . The name Éarendel was the inspiration for Tolkien's mariner Eärendil , who set sail from the lands of Middle-earth to ask for aid from the angelic powers, the Valar . Tolkien's earliest poem about Eärendil, from 1914, the same year he read the Crist poem, refers to "the mid-world's rim". Tolkien considered middangeard to be "the abiding place of men",
7314-413: The most "fully rendered and realistic-looking" painting is Nasmith's Gandalf Rides to Minas Tirith , with a "wholly convincing city" in the background, majestic as the Wizard gallops towards it in the dawn light. He notes that Nasmith uses his architectural rendering skill to provide a detailed view of the whole city. He quotes Nasmith as writing that he studied what Tolkien said, such as likening Gondor to
7420-413: The next, facing alternately somewhat north or south. Each level was about 100 ft (30 m) higher than the one below it, and each surrounded by a high stone wall coloured in white, with the exception of the wall of the First Circle (the lowest level), which was black, built of the same material used for Orthanc . This outer wall was also the tallest, longest and strongest of the city's seven walls; it
7526-455: The north-west of the continent. This region 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 Middle-earth is peopled not only by Men , but by Elves , Dwarves , Ents , and Hobbits , and by monsters including Dragons, Trolls , and Orcs . Through
7632-511: The paintings of Minas Tirith made by the major Tolkien illustrators Alan Lee , John Howe (both of whom worked as concept designers for Peter Jackson's film trilogy), Jef Murray , and Ted Nasmith . Tuthill writes that it has become "hard to imagine" Middle-earth "without the many sub-creators who have worked within it", noting that the "dreaded effects" of what Tolkien called "silliness and morbidity" of much fantasy art in his time "are nowhere in evidence" in these artists' work. In Tuthill's view,
7738-519: The past." As such, it has not only an immediate story but a history, and the whole thing is an "imagined prehistory" of the Earth as it is now. The Ainur were angelic beings created by the one god of Eä, Eru Ilúvatar . The cosmological myth called the Ainulindalë , or "Music of the Ainur", describes how the Ainur sang for Ilúvatar, who then created Eä to give material form to their music. Many of
7844-490: The physical reality of creation as a whole. In careful geographical terms, Middle-earth is a continent on Arda, excluding regions such as Aman and the isle of Númenor. The alternative wider use is reflected in book titles such as The Complete Guide to Middle-earth , The Road to Middle-earth , The Atlas of Middle-earth , and Christopher Tolkien 's 12-volume series The History of Middle-earth . Tolkien's biographer Humphrey Carpenter states that Tolkien's Middle-earth
7950-428: The physical world in which Man lives out his life and destiny, as opposed to the unseen worlds above and below it, namely Heaven and Hell . He states that it is "my own mother-earth for place ", but in an imaginary past time, not some other planet. He began to use the term "Middle-earth" in the late 1930s, in place of the earlier terms "Great Lands", "Outer Lands", and "Hither Lands". The first published appearance of
8056-469: The plain of Isengard, and ended in four sharp peaks. Its only entrance was at the top of a high stair, and above that was a small window and balcony. It housed one of the palantírs of the South Kingdom, and was guarded by a warden. In the Third Age the land around Isengard (Calenardhon) became depopulated, and the last warden of Orthanc was recalled to Minas Tirith . Isengard remained guarded by
8162-498: The power to control or influence those wearing the other Rings of Power. In ancient Germanic mythology , the world of Men is known by several names. The Old English middangeard descends from an earlier Germanic word and so has cognates such as the Old Norse Miðgarðr from Norse mythology , transliterated to modern English as Midgard . The original meaning of the second element, from proto-Germanic gardaz ,
8268-460: The rear of the wide court behind the Gate a towering bastion of stone, its edge sharp as a ship-keel facing east. Up it rose, even to the level of the topmost circle, and there was crowned by a battlement; so that those in the Citadel might look from its peak sheer down upon the Gate seven hundred feet below. The entrance to the Citadel also looked eastward, but was delved in the heart of the rock; thence
8374-646: The rest of the physical world), which itself was part of the wider creation he called Eä. Aman and Middle-earth are separated from each other by the Great Sea Belegaer , though they make contact in the far north at the Grinding Ice or Helcaraxë. The western continent, Aman, was the home of the Valar , and the Elves called the Eldar . On the eastern side of Middle-earth was the Eastern Sea. Most of
8480-562: The road / And flung his cobweb cloak on me..." C. S. Lewis 's 1938–1945 Space Trilogy calls the home planet "Middle-earth" and specifically references Tolkien's unpublished legendarium; both men were members of the Inklings literary discussion group. Within the overall context of his legendarium , Tolkien's Middle-earth was part of his created world of Arda (which includes the Undying Lands of Aman and Eressëa , removed from
8586-630: The rulers of Gondor, the Kings and the Stewards, the tower stood 300 ft (91 m) tall, so that its pinnacle was some one thousand feet (300 m) above the plain. The main doors of the tower faced east, onto the Court of the Fountain. Inside was the Tower Hall, the great throne room where the Kings (or Stewards) held court. The Seeing-stone of Minas Tirith , used by Denethor in The Return of
8692-593: The same Common Eldarin ancestral tongue, but over thousands of years it diverged into different languages. The two main Elven languages were Quenya , spoken by the Light Elves, and Sindarin , spoken by the Dark Elves. Physically the Elves resemble humans; indeed, they can marry and have children with them, as shown by the few Half-elven in the legendarium. The Elves are agile and quick footed, being able to walk
8798-525: The seas'." There are allusions to a similarly- or identically-named world in the work of other writers both before and after him. William Morris 's 1870 translation of the Volsung Saga calls the world "Midgard". Margaret Widdemer 's 1918 poem "The Gray Magician" contains the lines: "I was living very merrily on Middle Earth / As merry as a maid may be / Till the Gray Magician came down along
8904-408: The seventh level. Atop this is the 300-foot high Tower of Ecthelion, which contains the throne room . Scholars, following various leads in Tolkien's fantasy and letters, have attempted to identify Minas Tirith with several different historical or mythical cities, including Troy , Rome , Ravenna , and Constantinople . In Peter Jackson 's film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings , Minas Tirith
9010-522: The story takes place in the North-west of 'Middle-earth', equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean. ... If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford , then Minas Tirith , 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence . The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are at about
9116-493: The subject of a variety of film adaptations. There were many early failed attempts to bring the fictional universe to life on screen, some even rejected by the author himself, who was skeptical of the prospects of an adaptation. While animated and live-action shorts were made of Tolkien's books in 1967 and 1971, the first commercial depiction of The Hobbit onscreen was the Rankin/Bass animated TV special in 1977 . In 1978
9222-514: The symbol of a White Hand on a black field, and on their helmets an S-rune ( [REDACTED] ) to signify Saruman . A carved and painted White Hand of stone is set on a black pillar outside the gates of Isengard. Treebeard , leader of the Ents , seeing that the Orcs would destroy his forest of Fangorn, leads an army of Ents and Huorns to Isengard, destroys it, and floods it, leaving Saruman isolated in
9328-440: The time of The Hobbit , most of them lived in the Shire , a region of the northwest of Middle-earth, having migrated there from further east. The Ents were treelike shepherds of trees, their name coming from an Old English word for giant. Orcs and Trolls (made of stone) were evil creatures bred by Morgoth . They were not original creations but rather "mockeries" of the Children of Ilúvatar and Ents, since only Ilúvatar has
9434-532: The time of a final, all-out siege from the East; however, Minas Tirith survived the siege whereas Constantinople did not . Swycaffer adds that Constantinople was famed for the strength of its defences, with its concentric walls. Tolkien stated that within the Court of the Fountain at the heart of Minas Tirith stood the White Tree, the symbol of Gondor. It was dry and dead throughout the centuries that Gondor
9540-541: The tower of Orthanc. The hobbits Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took , as the new "doorwardens", receive Théoden King of Rohan, Aragorn and the wizard Gandalf at the wrecked gates. Gandalf speaks with Saruman and breaks his staff. Grima Wormtongue throws the Orthanc palantír, a stone of seeing, at the party; both Pippin and Aragorn later use it, seeing and deceiving Sauron as to the Fellowship's intentions. Saruman
9646-563: The two meanings as "Mount Fang" in Elvish ( Sindarin ), and "Cunning Mind" in the "language of the Mark of Old", Rohirric . However, "Orthanc" genuinely means "Cunning Mind" in the language Tolkien had used to represent Rohirric, Old English : he had pretended that he had translated Rohirric into Old English, and the related Westron into modern English. The unlikely coincidence of homonyms and synonyms makes Tolkien's claim about Rohirric look like
9752-1053: The unified kingdom of Elendil), yet each proved to be stronger than their sister-kingdoms (the Western Roman Empire and Arnor, respectively). Both realms were threatened by powerful eastern and southern enemies: the Byzantines by the Sassanid Persians and the Muslim armies of the Arabs and the Turks, as well as the Langobards and Goths; Gondor by the Easterlings, the Haradrim, and the hordes of Sauron. Both realms, as commentators including Librán-Moreno and Jefferson P. Swycaffer have observed, were in decline at
9858-643: The west side of the world should sing a mass beneath it". Lisa Anne Mende, in Mythlore , contrasts the happy eucatastrophes which rescue Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings – the last-minute arrivals of the Riders of Rohan, and then of Aragorn in the enemy's ships – with the unmitigated disasters of the Fall of Gondolin and the other Elvish cities of Beleriand in The Silmarillion . She notes Tolkien's Christianity, which influenced Middle-earth , and describes
9964-428: The word "Middle-earth" in Tolkien's works is in the prologue to The Lord of the Rings : "Hobbits had, in fact, lived quietly in Middle-earth for many long years before other folk even became aware of them". The term Middle-earth has come to be applied as a short-hand for the entirety of Tolkien's legendarium, instead of the technically more appropriate, but lesser known terms "Arda" for the physical world and " Eä " for
10070-578: Was "enclosure", cognate with English "yard"; middangeard was assimilated by folk etymology to "middle earth". Middle-earth was at the centre of nine worlds in Norse mythology, and of three worlds (with heaven above, hell below) in some later Christian versions . Tolkien's first encounter with the term middangeard , as he stated in a letter, was in an Old English fragment he studied in 1913–1914: Éala éarendel engla beorhtast / ofer middangeard monnum sended. Hail Earendel, brightest of angels / above
10176-663: Was Glaurung the Golden, bred by Morgoth in Angband , and called "The Great Worm", "The Worm of Morgoth", and "The Father of Dragons". Middle-earth contains sapient animals including the Eagles , Huan the Great Hound from Valinor and the wolf-like Wargs . In general the origins and nature of these animals are unclear. Giant spiders such as Shelob descended from Ungoliant , of unknown origin. Other sapient species include
10282-628: Was cast and then carved from micro-crystalline wax by Wētā Workshop to resemble obsidian , black volcanic glass; it was made at 1/35 scale, standing some 15 feet (4.6 m) high. The model of the walled circular area of Isengard was more than 65 feet (20 m) wide. In post-production , the long shots of the Orthanc model were combined, using chroma keying , with panoramic views of the Mount Earnslaw / Pikirakatahi region and Mount Aspiring National Park near Queenstown and Glenorchy , New Zealand . Middle-earth Middle-earth
10388-517: Was created specifically as "the Habitation" ( Imbar or Ambar ) for the Children of Ilúvatar ( Elves and Men ). It is envisaged in a flat Earth cosmology, with the stars, and later also the sun and moon, revolving around it. Tolkien's sketches show a disc-like face for the world which looked up to the stars. However, Tolkien's legendarium addresses the spherical Earth paradigm by depicting
10494-545: Was given something of the look of a city of the Byzantine empire , while its seven-tiered shape was suggested by the tidal island and abbey of Mont Saint-Michel in France. Tolkien illustrators including Alan Lee , John Howe , Jef Murray , and Ted Nasmith have all produced realistic paintings of the city. For partly in the primeval shaping of the hill, partly by the mighty craft and labour of old, there stood up from
10600-473: Was known as Middle-earth MUD , run by using LPMUD . After the Middle-earth MUD ended in 1992, it was followed by Elendor and MUME . Minas Tirith Minas Tirith is the capital of Gondor in J. R. R. Tolkien 's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings . It is a seven-walled fortress city built on the spur of a mountain, rising some 700 feet to a high terrace, housing the Citadel, at
10706-558: Was ruled by the Stewards; Aragorn brought a young living sapling of the White Tree into the city on his return as King, symbolising the rebirth of the monarchy. Tolkien's biographer John Garth writes that the White Tree has been likened to the Dry Tree of the 14th century Travels of Sir John Mandeville . The tale runs that the Dry Tree has been dry since the crucifixion of Christ , but that it will flower afresh when "a prince of
10812-513: Was the Roman Empire." Tolkien intended to create a mythology for England , so that while the Third Age is ostensibly many thousands of years ago, much of the setting is medieval . She comments that Tolkien's account echoes the decline and fall of Rome , but "with a happy ending", as it "somehow withstood the onslaught of armies from the east, and ... was restored to glory." She finds multiple likenesses between Minas Tirith and Rome. In
10918-672: Was the capital of Gondor at the end of the Third Age of Middle-earth . It lay at the eastern end of the White Mountains, built around a shoulder of Mount Mindolluin. The city is sometimes called "the White Tower", a synecdoche for the city's most prominent building in its Citadel, the seat of the city's administration. The head of government is the Lord of the City, a role fulfilled by the Stewards of Gondor. Other officials included
11024-648: Was vulnerable only to earthquakes capable of rending the ground where it stood. The Great Gate of Minas Tirith, constructed of iron and steel and guarded by stone towers and bastions, was the main gate in the first or outer wall of the city. In front of the Great Gate was a large paved area called the Gateway. The main roads to Minas Tirith met here: the North-way that became the Great West Road to Rohan ;
11130-477: Was weakened both by time and by intermingling with lesser peoples. The Dwarves are a race of humanoids who are shorter than Men but larger than Hobbits. The Dwarves were created by the Vala Aulë, before the Firstborn awoke due to his impatience for the arrival of the children of Ilúvatar to teach and to cherish. When confronted and shamed for his presumption by Ilúvatar, Eru took pity on Aulë and gave his creation
11236-478: Was writing: As for the shape of the world of the Third Age , I am afraid that was devised 'dramatically' rather than geologically , or paleontologically . I am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. ... The theatre of my tale is this earth, the one in which we now live, but the historical period is imaginary. The essentials of that abiding place are all there (at any rate for inhabitants of N.W. Europe), so naturally it feels familiar, even if
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