Middle-earth is Our Earth by Independence1776

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Chapter 1: Letters, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Silmarillion

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This is a collection of quotes from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and the History of Middle-Earth series dealing with the fact that Tolkien explicitly set Middle-earth in our world from the very beginning of his Legendarium, not in a constructed or imaginary world as is common in many fantasy novels.

Due to the amount of material, this is not an exhaustive compilation. Furthermore, if a book doesn’t appear, it simply means that in my skimming I didn’t see a reference, not that none exist (though obviously that can also be true).

THE LETTERS OF J.R.R. TOLKIEN

~ Letter 165: “’Middle-earth’, by the way, is not a name of a never-never land without relation to the world we live in (like the Mercury of Eddison). It is just a use of Middle English middel-erde (or erthe), altered from the Old English Middangeard: the name for inhabited lands of Men ‘between the seas’. And though I have not attempted to relate the shape of the mountains and land-masses to what geologists may say or surmise about the nearer past, imaginatively this ‘history’ is supposed to take place in a period of the actual Old World of this planet.”

~ Letter 183: “I am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. The name is the modern form (appearing in the 13th century and still in use) of midden-erd > middle-erd, an ancient name for the oikoumene, the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world, in use specifically oppose to imaginary worlds (as Fairyland) or unseen worlds (as Heaven or Hell). 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, if a little glorified by the enchantment of distance in time.”

~ Letter 183: “Mine is not an ‘imaginary’ world, but an imaginary historical moment on ‘Middle-earth’-- which is our habitation.”

~ Letter 184: “I can only say, for your comfort I hope, that the ‘Sam Gamgee’ of my story is a most heroic character, now widely beloved by many readers, even though his origins are rustic. So that perhaps you will not be displeased by the coincidence of the name of this imaginary character (of supposedly many centuries ago) being the same name as yours.”

~ Letter 211: “All I can say is that, if it were ‘history’, it would be difficult to fit the lands and events (or ‘cultures’) into such evidence as we possess, archeological 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 p. 12 [compiler’s note: the second quote in the LotR section below]). I could have fitted things in with greater verisimilitude, if the story had not become too far developed, before the question ever occurred to me. I doubt if there would have been much gain; and I hope the, evidently long but undefined, gap* in time between the Fall of Barad-dûr and our Days is sufficient for ‘literary credibility’, even for readers acquainted with what is known or surmised of ‘pre-history’.

“*I imagine the gap to be about 6000 years; that is we are at the end of the Fifth Age, if Ages were of about the same length as S.A. and T.A. But they have, I think, quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh.

“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’. However curious, they are alien, and not lovable with the love of blood-kin. Middle-earth is (by the way & if such a note is necessary) not my own invention. It is a modernization or alteration (New English Dictionary ‘a perversion’) of an old word for the inhabited world of Men, the oikoumene: middle because though of vaguely as set amidst the encircling Seas and (in the northern-imagination) between the ice of the North and the fire of the South. O. English middan-geard, mediæval E. midden-erd, middle-erd. Many reviewers seem to assume that Middle-earth is another planet!”

~ Letter 257: When C.S. Lewis and I tossed up, and he was to write on space-travel and I on time-travel, I began an abortive book of time travel of which the end was to be the presence of my hero in the drowning of Atlantis. This was to be called Númenor, the Land in the West. The thread was to be the occurrence time and again in human families (like Durin among the Dwarves) of a father and son called by names that could be interpreted as Bliss-friend and Elf-friend. These no longer understood are found in the end to refer to the Atlantid-Númenórean situation and mean ‘one loyal to the Valar, content with the bliss and prosperity within the limits prescribed’ and ‘one loyal to the friendship with the High-elves’. It started with a father-son affinity between Edwin and Elwin of the present, and was supposed to go back into legendary time by way of an Eädwine and Ælfwine of circa A.D. 918, and Audoin and Alboin of Lombardic legend, and so the traditions of the North Sea concerning the coming of the corn and cultural heroes, ancestors of kingly lines, in boats (and their departure in funeral ships). One such Sheaf, or Shield Sheafing, can actually be made out as one of the remote ancestors of our present Queen. In my tale we were to come at last to Amandil and Elendil leaders of the loyal party in Númenor, when it fell under the domination of Sauron. Elendil ‘Elf-friend’ was the founder of the Exiled kingdoms in Arnor and Gondor.”

~ Letter 294: “[In response to the following comment in a letter Tolkien received] ‘Middle-earth… corresponds to Nordic Europe’

“Not Nordic, please! A word I personally dislike; it is associated, though of French origin, with racialist theories. Geographically Northern is usually better. But examination will show that even this is inapplicable (geographically or spiritually) to ‘Middle-earth’. This is an old word, not invented by me, as reference to a dictionary such as the Shorter Oxford will show. It meant the habitable lands of our world, set amid the surrounding Ocean. The action of the story takes place in the North-west of ‘Middle-earth’, equivalent in latitude to the coastlines of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean. But this is not a purely ‘Nordic’ area in any sense. If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is about the latitude of Florence. The Mouths of the Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy.”

THE LORD OF THE RINGS

The Fellowship of the Ring

~ Prologue, 1 Concerning Hobbits: “Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favorite haunt. [...] Even in ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of ‘the Big Folk’, as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find. [...] They seldom now reach three feet; but they have dwindled, they say, and in ancient days they were taller.”

~ Prologue, I Concerning Hobbits: “Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past, and the shape of all lands has been changed; but the regions in which Hobbits then lived were doubtless the same as those in which they still linger: the North-West of the Old World, east of the Sea.”

~ Prologue, 2 Concerning Pipe-weed: “There is another astonishing thing about Hobbits of old that must be mentioned, an astonishing habit: they imbibed or inhaled, through pipes of clay or wood, the smoke of the burning leaves of an herb, which they called pipe-weed or leaf, a variety probably of Nicotiana. A great deal of mystery surrounds the origin of this peculiar custom, or ‘art’ as the Hobbits preferred to call it. All that could be discovered in antiquity was put together by Meriadoc Brandybuck (later Master of Buckland), and since he and the tobacco of the Southfarthing play a part in the history that follows [...].”

~ Strider: “The Sickle* was swinging bright above the shoulder of Bree-hill.

“*The Hobbits’ name for the Plough or Great Bear.”

The Return of the King

~ The Battle of the Pelennor Fields: “Shapeless they [the mantle and hauberk of the Witch-king] lay now on the ground, torn and tumbled; and a cry went up into the shuddering air, and faded to a shrill wailing, passing with the wind, a voice bodiless and thin that died, and was swallowed up, and was never heard again in that age of this world.”

~ Appendix D, The Calendars: “The Calendar in the Shire differed in several features from ours. The year no doubt was of the same length (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 the memory of the Earth.”

~ Appendix D, The Calendars: “It seems clear that the Eldar in Middle-earth, who had, as Samwise remarked, more time at their disposal, reckoned in long periods, and the Quenya word yén, often translated ‘year’, really means 144 of our years.”

~ Appendix D, The Calendars: “How any remaining inaccuracy [in the Eldarin calendar] was dealt with is uncertain. If the year was then of the same length as now, the yén would have been more than a day too long. That there was an inaccuracy is shown by a note in the Calendars of the Red Book to the effect that in the ‘Reckoning of Rivendell’ the last year of every third yén was shortened by three days: the doubling of the three enderi due in that year was omitted; ‘but that has not happened in our time’. Of the adjustment of any remaining inaccuracy there is no record.”

~ Appendix D, The Calendars: “In Númenor calculations started with S.A. 1. The Deficit caused by deducting 1 day from the last year of a century was not adjusted until the year of a millennium, leaving a millennial deficit of 4 hours, 46 minutes, 40 seconds.”

~ Appendix D, The Calendars: “In the above notes, as in the narrative, I [Tolkien as ‘translator’] have used our modern names for both months and weekdays, though of course neither the Eldar nor the Dúnedain nor the Hobbits actually did so. Translation of the Westron names seemed to be essential to avoid confusion, while the seasonal implications of our names are more or less the same, at any rate in the Shire. It appears, however, that Mid-Year’s Day was intended to correspond as nearly as possible to the summer solstice. In that case the Shire dates were actually in advance of ours by some ten days, and our New Year’s Day corresponded more or less to the Shire January 9.”

~ Appendix D, The Calendars: “The months and days, therefore, throughout The Lord of the Rings refer to the Shire Calendar. The only points in which the differences between this and our calendar are important to the story at the crucial period, the end of 3018 and the beginning of 3019 (S.R. 1418, 1419), are these: October 1418 has only 30 days, January 1 is the second day of 1419, and February has 30 days; so that March 25, the date of the downfall of the Barad-dûr, would correspond to our March 27, if our years began at the same seasonal point.”

~ Appendix E, Writing and Spelling, 1 A Pronunciation of Words and Names: “In transcribing the ancient scripts I have tried to represent the original sounds (so far as they can be determined) with fair accuracy, and at the same time to produce words and names that do not look uncouth in modern letters.”

~ Appendix E, Writing and Spelling, 1 A Pronunciation of Words and Names, Consonants, H: “The Quenya combination ht has the sound of cht, as in German echt, acht: e.g. in the name Telumehtar ‘Orion’.”

~ Appendix F, I The Languages and Peoples of the Third Age: “The language represented in this history by English was the Westron or ‘Common Speech’ of the West-lands of Middle-earth in the Third Age.”

~ Appendix F, II On Translation: “In presenting the matter of the Red Book, as a history for people of today to read, the whole of the linguistic setting has been translated as far as possible into terms of our own times. Only the languages alien to the Common Speech have been left in their original form; but these appear mainly in the names of persons and places.”

~ Appendix F, II On Translation: “It may be observed that in this book as in The Hobbit the form dwarves is used, although the dictionaries tell us the plural of dwarf is dwarfs. It should be dwarrows (or dwerrows), if singular and plural had each gone its own way down the years, as have man and men, or goose and geese. But we no longer speak of a dwarf as often as we do of a man, or even a goose, and memories have not been fresh enough among Men to keep hold of a special plural for a race now abandoned to folk-tales, where at least a shadow of the truth is preserved, or at last to nonsense-stories in which they have become mere figures of fun.”

~ Appendix F, II On Translation: “This old word [Elf, Elves] was indeed the only one available, and was once fitted to apply to such memories of this people as Men preserved, or to the making of Men’s minds not wholly dissimilar. But it has been diminished [...]. Their dominion passed long ago, and they dwell now beyond the circles of the world, and do not return.”

THE HOBBIT

~ An Unexpected Party: “I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off.”

~ An Unexpected Party: “By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world, when there was less noise and more green, and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was standing at his front door smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed) – Gandalf came by.”

THE SILMARILLION

~ Quenta Silmarillion, Of Beren and Lúthien: “Among the tales of sorrow and of ruin that come down to us from the darkness of those days there are yet some in which amid weeping there is joy and under the shadow of death light that endures. And of these histories most fair still in the ears of the Elves is the tale of Beren and Lúthien. Of their lives was made the Lay of Leithian, Release from Bondage, which is the longest save one of the songs concerning the world of old; but here is the tale told in fewer words and without song.”