Tolkien Gateway - User contributions [en]

Tolkien Gateway:Copyrights

2006-07-17T23:55:17Z

163.21.25.5:

All content available at this website is available under the [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html GNU Free Documentation License].
37596591469192707620717

Forums:Infoboxes

2006-07-17T23:45:33Z

163.21.25.5:

<div style="background: #eee; border: 1px solid #aaa; padding: 5px">'''[[Main Page|Tolkien Gateway]] > [[Forum:Council|Council]] > {{PAGENAME}}'''</div> [[Category:Council]]


I've begun the endless task of creating infoboxes. The first primitive example is located at [[Frodo Baggins]]. The idea is to have a different infobox for every [[Races|Race]]. For example an Earthy/greenish theme for [[Hobbits]], evil characters such as [[Sauron]] and [[Morgoth]] could have a more black and red theme. The infoboxes wouldn't be limited to characters either, weapons, locations, etc. could all utilize them. The first step, well at least among the first steps, is deciding on all the details we want the infoboxes to contain. As previously noted I've thrown up an example at [[Frodo Baggins]] but this is far from complete. If you have any suggestions for colors, details of the infoboxes, etc. feel free to post here. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 03:07, 4 April 2006 (EDT)

:I think that there should be different colors of infoboxes between, for instance, the [[Teleri]], the [[Vanyar]], and the [[Noldor]]. They are different, though all elves, and colors would be easy to pick (blue for the Teleri, gold for the Vanyar, sky blue(?) for the Noldor]]. Also, how do you get to the templates to copy them onto the articles?--[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 17:26, 5 May 2006 (EDT)

::[[:Category:Infobox_templates|Here]] are some of our current infobox templates. I think we definitely need different colors for the different [[Elves]]. I've thrown together a quick [[Template:Teleri infobox]], to insert it into the page you might want to view the code at the top of [[Frodo Baggins]] to see how to use an infobox template in an article. Feel free to change the colors on the template as well. Let me know if you need any help.

:::What are the shortcuts? The only one I know is for the [[Lay of Leithian]].--[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 19:32, 5 May 2006 (EDT)

:::How are you doing on the infoboxes? --[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 12:04, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

::::Slacking as always, so much to do so little time. If you give me any specific ones you need I'll be glad to throw something together. --[[User:Hyarion|Hyarion]] 12:12, 8 June 2006 (EDT)

:::::Well, you have already made the Teleri (which I'm not sure what to type for it). Preferably [[Noldor]] and [[Edain]]. I really don't ''need'' any; I was just wondering how you were doing with them. --[[User:Narfil Palùrfalas|Narfil Palùrfalas]] 12:46, 8 June 2006 (EDT)
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Tolkien Gateway talk:Community Portal

2006-07-17T23:22:30Z

163.21.25.5:

All previous discussions have been moved to the [[Forum:Council|Council forum]]. All future general Tolkien Gateway discussions should be had in said forum. This discussion page is specifically for topics relating to the [[Tolkien Gateway:Community Portal|Community Portal project page]].
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Middle-earth

2006-07-17T23:09:03Z

163.21.25.5: /* Geography */

[[Image:John Howe - The Map of Middle-earth.jpg|thumb|300px|''The Map of Middle-earth'' by [[John Howe]].]]
'''Middle-earth''' is the name used for the inhabitable parts of [[Arda]] (ancient Earth) where the (canonical) stories in [[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien's]] legendarium take place. "Middle-earth" is a literal translation of the Old English term ''middangeard'', referring to this world, the habitable lands of men. Tolkien translated 'Middle Earth' as ''Endor'' (or sometimes Endóre) and ''Ennor'' in the [[Elvish]] languages [[Quenya]] and [[Sindarin]], respectively. Mythologically, the north of Endor became the Eurasian land-mass after the primitive Earth was transformed into the round world of today.

Middle-earth's setting is in a fictional period in Earth's own past. Tolkien insisted that Middle-earth is Earth in several of [[The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien|his letters]], in one of them (no. 211) estimating the end of the [[Third Age]] to about 6,000 years before his own time. The action of the books is largely confined to the north-west of the Endor continent, implicitly corresponding to modern-day Europe. [[The History of Middle-earth]] is divided into several Ages: ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' deal exclusively with events towards the end of the [[Third Age]] and conclude at the dawn of the [[Fourth Age]], while ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' deals mainly with the [[First Age]]. The world ([[Arda]]) was originally flat but was made round near the end of the [[Second Age]] by [[Eru Ilúvatar]], the Creator.

Much of the knowledge of Middle-earth is based on writings that Tolkien did not finish for publication during his lifetime. In these cases, this article is based on the version of the Middle-earth legendarium that is considered [[Canon|canonical]] by most [[Tolkien fandom|Tolkien fans]].

== The name ==
The term "Middle-earth" was not invented by Tolkien, rather it existed in Old English as ''middanġeard'', in Middle English as ''midden-erd'' or ''middel-erd''; in Old Norse it was called ''Midgard''. It is English for what the Greeks called the οικουμένη (''oikoumenē'') or "the abiding place of men", the physical world as opposed to the unseen worlds (''[[The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien]]'', 151).

''Middangeard'' occurs half-a-dozen times in [[Beowulf]], which Tolkien translated and on which he was arguably the world's foremost authority. (See also [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] for discussion of his inspirations and sources). See Midgard and Norse mythology for the older use.

Tolkien was also inspired by this fragment:

:''Eala earendel engla beorhtast / ofer middangeard monnum sended.''
:''Hail Earendel, brightest of angels / above the middle-earth sent unto men.''

in the Crist poem of Cynewulf. The name ''earendel'' (which may mean the 'morning-star' but in some contexts was a name for Christ) was the inspiration for Tolkien's mariner [[Eärendil]].

The name was consciously used by Tolkien to place ''[[The Hobbit]]'', ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', and related writings.

Tolkien began to use the term "Middle-earth" in the early 1930s in place of the earlier terms "Great Lands", "Outer Lands", and "Hither Lands" to describe the same region in his stories. "Middle-earth" is specifically intended to describe the lands east of the Great Sea ([[Belegaer]]), thus excluding [[Aman]], but including [[Harad]] and other mortal lands not visited in Tolkien's stories. Many people apply the name to the entirety of Tolkien's world or exclusively to the lands described in ''[[The Hobbit]]'', ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', and ''[[The Silmarillion]]''.

In ancient Germanic and Old Norse mythology, the universe was believed to consist of nine physical worlds joined together. The world of Men, the Middle-earth, lay in the centre of this universe. The lands of Elves, Gods, and Giants lay across an encircling sea. The land of the Dead lay beneath the Middle-earth. A rainbow bridge, Bifrost Bridge, extended from Middle-earth to Asgaard across the sea. An outer sea encircled the seven other worlds (Vanaheim, Asgaard, Alfheim, SvartAlfheim, Muspellheim, Nidavellir, and Jotunheim). In this conception, a "world" was more equivalent to a racial homeland than a physically separate world.

== The world ==
''Main article: [[Arda]]''

Tolkien stated that the geography of Middle Earth was intended to align with that of our real Earth in several particulars. (''The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien'' #294) Expanding upon this idea some suggest that [http://people.wiesbaden.netsurf.de/~lalaith/Tolkien/Grid.html if the map of Middle Earth is projected on our real Earth], and some of the most obvious climatological, botanical, and zoological similarities are aligned, the [[Hobbits]]' [[Shire]] might lie in the temperate climate of England, [[Gondor]] might lie in the Mediterranean Italy and Greece, [[Mordor]] in the arid Turkey and Middle East, South Gondor and Near [[Harad]] in the deserts of Northern Africa, [[Rhovanion]] in the forests of Germany and the steppes of Western and Southern Russia, and the Ice Bay of [[Forochel]] in the fjords of Norway.

''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' are presented as Tolkien's retelling of events depicted in the [[Red Book of Westmarch]], which was written by [[Bilbo Baggins]], [[Frodo Baggins]], and other Hobbits, and corrected and annotated by one or more Gondorian scholars. Like Shakespeare's ''King Lear'' or Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories, the tales occupy a historical period that could not have actually existed. Dates for the length of the year and the phases of the moon, along with descriptions of constellations, firmly fix the world as Earth, no longer than several thousand years ago. Years after publication, Tolkien 'postulated' in a letter that the action of the books takes place roughly 6,000 years ago, though he was not certain.

Tolkien wrote extensively about the linguistics, mythology and history of the world, which provide back-story for these stories. Many of these writings were edited and published posthumously by his son [[Christopher Tolkien|Christopher]].

Notable among them is ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', which provides a Bible-like creation story and description of the cosmology which includes Middle-earth. ''The Silmarillion'' is the primary source of information about [[Valinor]], [[Númenor]], and other lands. Also notable are ''[[Unfinished Tales]]'' and the multiple volumes of ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]'', which includes many incomplete stories and essays as well as numerous drafts of Tolkien's Middle Earth mythology, from the earliest forms down through the last writings of his life.

==Geography==
[[Image:Middle-earth map.PNG|thumb|Map of Middle-earth]]
J.R.R. Tolkien never defined the geography for the entire world associated with ''[[The Hobbit]]'' and ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. In ''[[The Shaping of Middle-earth]]'', volume IV of ''[[The History of Middle-earth]]'', Christopher Tolkien published several remarkable maps of a "flat Earth" which his father had devised for the first Silmarillion mythology. These maps were cannibalized by Karen Wynn Fonstad to project possible compatible but entirely non-canonical "whole world maps" reflecting a world consistent with the historical ages depicted in ''The Silmarillion'', ''The Hobbit'', and ''The Lord of the Rings''.

The only maps ever prepared by Christopher Tolkien and/or J.R.R. Tolkien for the world encompassing ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' were published as foldouts or illustrations in ''The Hobbit'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', and ''The Silmarillion''. Early conceptions of the maps provided in ''The Silmarillion'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' were included in several volumes, including "The First Silmarillion Map" in ''The Shaping of Middle-earth'', "The First Map of the Lord of the Rings" in ''[[The Treason of Isengard]]'', "The Second Map (West)" and "The Second Map (East)" in ''[[The War of the Ring]]'', and "The Second Map of Middle-earth west of the Blue Mountains" (also known as "The Second Silmarillion Map") in ''[[The War of the Jewels]]''.

None of these maps are consistent with the several "flat Earth" maps, and the extraordinary "flat Earth" concept only survived into the Middle-earth mythology (established in print by the 1950 and later editions of ''The Hobbit'' and all editions of ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''[[The Adventures of Tom Bombadil]]'', ''[[The Road Goes Ever On]]'', and ''The Silmarillion'') as a narrative structure which was not illustrated in any capacity by either J.R.R. Tolkien.

Any discussion of the geography of Arda (prior to the changes which resulted in the enlargement of Arda to become what Tolkien identified as the Solar System) can only be speculative and fraught with conflicts and contradictions.

The Endor continent, which in the "flat Earth" phase of Middle-earth's mythological history was only one of several which were later either reshaped or taken away from the world (identified by Tolkien as "Ambar" in several texts, but also identified as "Imbar", the Habitation, in later post-LoTR texts), was originally conceived of (by Tolkien, in the earlier ''Silmarillion'' mythologies) as conforming to a largely symmetrical scheme which was marred by Melkor. The symmetry was defined by two large sub-continents, one in the north and one in the south, with each of them boasting two long chains of mountains in the eastward and westward regions. The mountain chains were given names based on colours (White Mountains, Blue Mountains, Grey Mountains, and Red Mountains).

The various conflicts with Melkor resulted in the shapes of the lands being distorted. Originally, there was a single inland body of water, in the midst of which was set the island of [[Almaren]] where the Valar lived. When Melkor destroyed the lamps of the Valar which gave light to the world, two vast seas were created, but Almaren and its lake were destroyed. The northern sea became the [[Sea of Helcar]] (Helkar). The lands west of the Blue Mountains became [[Beleriand]] (meaning, "the land of the Valar"). Melkor raised the [[Misty Mountains]] to impede the progress of the Vala Orome as he hunted Melkor's beasts during the period of darkness prior to the awakening of the Elves.

The violent struggles during the [[War of Wrath]] between the Host of the Valar and the armies of Melkor at the end of the First Age brought about the destruction of Beleriand. It is also possible that during this time the inland sea of Helcar was drained.

From the time of the destruction of the two lamps until the time of the Downfall of Númenor, Ambar was supposed to be a "flat world", in that its habitable land-masses were all arranged on one side of the world, the shape of which Tolkien did not specify. It is generally assumed that he envisioned a disk-like face for the world which looked up to the stars. A western continent, Aman, was the home of the Valar (and the Eldar). The middle lands, Endor, are generally identified with "Middle-earth". The eastern continent was not inhabited.

When Melkor poisoned the Two Trees of the Valar and fled from Aman back to Endor, the Valar created the Sun and the Moon, which were separate bodies (from Ambar) but still parts of Arda (the Realm of the Children of Iluvatar). The Middle-earth mythology presupposes that Arda became a system of separate bodies traversing the universe at that time. A few years after publishing ''The Lord of the Rings'', in a note associated with the unique narrative story "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" (which is said to occur in Beleriand during the [[War of the Jewels]]), Tolkien equated Arda with the Solar System; because Arda by this point consisted of more than one heavenly body.

According to the accounts in both ''The Silmarillion'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', when [[Ar-Pharazôn]] invaded Aman to seize immortality from the Valar, they laid down their guardianship of the world and ''[[Ilúvatar]]'' intervened, destroying Númenor, removing Aman "from the circles of the world", and reshaping Ambar into the round world of today. ''[[Akallabêth]]'' says that the Númenóreans who survived the Downfall sailed as far west as they could in search of their ancient home, but their travels only brought them around the world back to their starting points. Hence, before the end of the Second Age, the transition from "flat Earth" to "round Earth" had been completed.

The Endor continent became approximately equivalent to the Eurasian land-mass, but Tolkien had proceeded too far with his fictional geography to provide any realistic correlations between the narrative of ''The Lord of the Rings'' and Europe or near-by lands. It is therefore assumed that the reader understands the world underwent a subsequent undocumented transformation (which some people speculate Tolkien would have equated with the Biblical deluge) sometime after the end of the Third Age.
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Sirion

2006-07-17T22:56:52Z

163.21.25.5: /* Crossing Points */

'''Sirion''' was a river of [[Middle-earth]] in the [[First Age]], the principal river of [[Beleriand]]. During most of its course it was the border between East and West Beleriand. [[Karen Wynn Fonstad]] estimates its length as 390 miles in her [[The Atlas of Middle-earth|Atlas of Middle-earth]].

== Source ==
The Sirion's source was at [[Eithel Sirion]] on the eastern side of the [[Ered Wethrin]], which lay in between [[Ard-galen]] (later Anfauglith) and [[Mithrim]] and [[Hithlum]]. It was guarded by the tower of Barad Eithel.

== Course ==
Sirion flowed southwards along the border of the Ered Wethrin, passing through the Fen of Serech before entering the narrow steep-sided valley between the Ered Wethrin and the [[Echoriath]] named the '''Pass of Sirion'''. Sirion then continued south into Beleriand, with the [[Forest of Brethil]] to the west, and [[Dimbar]] and then [[Doriath]] to the east. After leaving Doriath at Aelin-uial (the Fens of Sirion) it plunged below ground in the Falls of Sirion at [[Andram]] (the Long Wall), where the ground fell steeply. Three leagues southwards the Sirion exited the underground caves at the '''Gates of Sirion'''. It then flowed southwards through '''Nan-Tathren''' until it reached the [[Bay of Balar]], part of [[Belegaer]], at the [[Mouths of Sirion]].

== Tributaries ==
In order from north to south, the principal tributaries of the Sirion were the Rivil, flowing from Dorthonion until it met Sirion in the Fen of Serech; the Mindeb, which had its source in [[Nan Dungortheb]] and the [[Ered Gorgoroth]], the [[Teiglin]], the [[Esgalduin]] of Doriath; the [[Aros]] flowing south from Dorthonion (and also containing the waters of the [[Celon]] from the [[Hills of Himring]] and [[Himlad]]) which met at Aelin-uial, and the [[Narog]], which joined Sirion in Nan-Tathren.

== Crossing Points ==
The main crossing points mentioned in the Silmarillion were [[Brithiach]] where the road from Himlad which crossed the Esgalduin at [[Iant Iaur]] crossed Sirion, and the Ferries of Doriath.
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== Settlements ==
Barad Eithel, at the source of the Sirion in the Ered Wethrin, was a chief fortress of [[Fingolfin]] and his son [[Fingon]], probably guarding a pass into their realm of Mithrim. Further south, in the Pass of Sirion, lay Tol Sirion (see below). After the Coming of Men, the [[Edain]] of the [[House of Haleth]] made their home in the Forest of Brethil, and the [[Sindar]] ruled by [[Thingol]] lay secure within the Girdle of [[Melian]] in their realm of Doriath. At the outflow of Sirion into Belegaer, after the destruction of [[Eglarest]] and [[Brithombar]], the Havens of Sirion were built by [[Círdan]] and his people.

== Islands ==
The most important island in Sirion was Tol Sirion. The original [[Minas Tirith]] was built here by [[Finrod Felagund]] in the strategic location controlling the Pass of Sirion where it entered Beleriand between the Ered Wethrin and the Echoriath. Shortly after [[Dagor Bragollach]] it was captured by Sauron and the island became known as Tol-in-Gaurhoth.

[[Category:Rivers]]