User:Jc37/Sandbox/Middle-earth speculation

Collection of various speculations about Middle-earth, culled from various articles around Wikipedia. Divided into three section: (1) OK stuff (needs references saying who said this); (2) Speculative stuff (too speculative in that no reliable sources will be found, or just plain wrong); (3) Uncertain stuff (sounds plausible and reliable sources might be found, but no-one has found them yet).

Verified speculation (can be referenced)
Tolkien said that he thought the time between the end of the Third Age and the 20th century A.D. was about 6000 years, and that in A.D. 1958 it should have been around the end of the Fifth Age if the Fourth and Fifth Ages were about the same length as the Second and Third Ages. He said, however, in a letter written in 1958 that he believed the Ages had quickened and that it was about the end of the Sixth Age/beginning of the Seventh.

Since then, Tolkien wrote that the ages have quickened, and he estimated that the 20th century was in the Sixth or Seventh age

...what the author conceived to be the lands of the real Earth, inhabited by humanity but placed in a fictional past, prior to history but after the fall of his version of Atlantis.

Determining the epoch of a Fifth Age is important for those who apply the Tolkien calendar to present dates. For example, issue 42 of Mallorn, the journal of The Tolkien Society (August 2004), carried a lengthy article analyzing all the available data and concluding that the Years of the Sun began on March 25, 10160 BC, the Second Age on December 26, 9564 BC, the Third Age on December 24, 6123 BC, and the Fourth Age on March 18, 3102 BC.

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.

Middle-earth's setting is in a fictional period in Earth's own past. Tolkien insisted that Middle-earth is (part of) our Earth in several of 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.

Tolkien stated that The Shire's geographic location was at roughly the latitude of Oxford, while Minas Tirith in Gondor was at the latitude of Florence, and Pelargir (at the mouths of the Anduin) at the latitude of Troy.

Tolkien also said that the Haradrim loosely corresponded to the Berbers (though "Haradrim" refers to a group of many races, not just the one).

Tolkien stated that the geography of Middle-earth was intended to align with that of our real Earth in several particulars. (Letters #294)

Uncertain speculation (reference may exist)
Tolkien stated that many of the "magic cults" and orders that exist today can trace their origins back to the Blue Wizards teaching local peoples of the east the magical arts.

Tolkien has often mentioned that after the War of the Ring the ages went on and it is now likely the beginning of the Seventh Age.

Unsuitable, excessive speculation
As other ages began with the cataclysmic fall of tyrants, many Tolkien fans believe that Tolkien considered the Seventh Age to begin with the fall of Nazi Germany, and thus base Seventh Age dates on 1945. Likewise it is believed that the birth of Jesus Christ may have been the start of the Sixth Age, as Tolkien was a devout Catholic and there are veiled references to Christ's upcoming birth in philosophical essays such as Atrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth. A possible start date for the Fifth Age may then be based around Abraham or Moses.

While Tolkien originally described Middle-earth as a fictional early history of the real Earth he later adjusted this slightly to describe it as a mythical time within the history of our world. This 'mythical' distinction served to remove the stories of Middle-earth from any specific time period where they might contradict known details of actual history.

, a bridge that connects fantasy to reality.

As such, the Fourth Age marks the bridge from the fantastic fictional pre-history of earth to the real history.

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.

Mythologically, the north of Endor became the Eurasian land-mass after the primitive Earth was transformed into the round world of today.

The Endor continent became approximately equivalent to the Eurasian land-mass, but Tolkien's fictional geography does not provide any exact 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.

Tolkien stated many times that Arda was our world in a fictional ancient time, so we can interpret the known regions of Middle-earth as Europe, perhaps specifically the Mediterranean (Mediterraneus is Latin for "Middle-earth").

However, the entire continent of Middle-earth extends beyond the regions known to Gondor, far into the uncharted East and South, and Middle-earth probably encompassed all of what later became Eurasia.

Expanding upon this idea some suggest that 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 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. Of course, this in no way implies the strict correlation and identification of modern peoples with the ones in Middle-earth.

As seen in the Ambarkanta, it occupies a position on Arda much like Antarctica and Australia do compared to Eurasia, if Antarctica and Australia were one landmass.

Before Africa was visited by people from Europe, it was known as the "Dark Land". It is possible that Tolkien could have been inspired by this; also, he was born in South Africa, though he grew up in England.

Near Harad and Far Harad probably corresponded to North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, respectively.

...ranging from Saracen-like peoples to numerous barbarian hordes from open grasslands that would later become the Russian steppe

The lands of the east between the coast and the Red Mountains probably corresponded to east Asia and the Orient, specifically China and Japan.

...which could correspond to Australia.

The Lands of the Sun may have become the Americas, or also could have been removed to where Aman was or simply destroyed as they were desolate.