Middle-earth - J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth

Middle-earth - Middle-earth is the setting for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. When asked whether Middle-earth as another world or universe, Tolkien unequivocably stated that "Middle-earth is our world, round and inescapable". His stories are merely set in an imaginary period of the past.

Middle-earth also refers to the mythology in which several of Tolkien's stories are set. He wrote several mythologies throughout the course of his life, beginning with a mythology for England (The Book of Lost tales). Other mythologies included The Silmarillion and The Fall of Numenor (based on Plato's Atlantis).

The map of Middle-earth published in The Lord of the Rings bears no physical resemblance to any actual part of Earth, but it is understood to correspond approximately to most of Europe and part of Asia. When writing The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien developed his geography as an extension of the imaginary geography he had created for the earlier Silmarillion mythology. As his development of Middle-earth progressed, Tolkien gradually drew together three mythical worlds he had created to produce Middle-earth: the world of The Silmarillion, the world of The Fall of Numenor, and the world of The Hobbit, for which The Lord of the Rings was originally intended to be a sequel.

To accomodate this new mythology, Tolkien suggested changes be made to The Hobbit. He also proposed writing a new Silmarillion. His publisher, George Allen & Unwin, released a second edition of The Hobbit which incorporated Tolkien's suggestions, although he was unaware of their plans. With the publication of the second edition of The Hobbit in 1951 and the publication of The Lord of the Rings in 1954 and 1955, the mythology of Middle-earth was established in literary form.

Tolkien was never able to finish writing a new Silmarillion. He added more stories to the Middle-earth mythology during the 1950s and 1960s, even publishing two more Middle-earth books (The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and The Road Goes Ever On), but he was continually distracted from his efforts to compose a Silmarillion text that was consistent with the Middle-earth mythology. He was even forced by legal circumstances in 1965 to revise both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to protect his copyrights, and in doing so altered the Middle-earth mythology significantly.

Four years after Tolkien's death in 1973, his son Christopher published The Silmarillion. But though the book was an immediate best-seller and was well-received, it did not truly reflect J.R.R. Tolkien's intent. The book was only an approximation, based on incomplete research, of what J.R.R. Tolkien might have written. Christopher subsequently published Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth and the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth, through which he repudiated many of his editorial decisions, or released newly discovered notes and texts he had been unaware of during the years 1973-1977.

Among the most important stories of the various Silmarillion cycles is that of Hurin and his children, Turin and his sisters. This story was never published in its fullest, most complete form. Christopher Tolkien announced in 2006 that he would publish The Children of Hurin as a complete story in 2007.

In addition to Christopher's literary research, other papers by J.R.R. Tolkien have been published through the journal Vinyar Tengwar. Mostly of a linguistic nature concerning Middle-earth's languages, these papers have expanded reader knowledge of the facts and details of Middle-earth. The Middle-earth mythology stands as one of the 20th century's greatest literary creations.

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