The Atlas of Middle-earth

  FOURTH AGE OF ARDA

  The Fourth Age

  After the departure of Elrond, the Fourth Age began. Aragorn reclaimed all the lands of Gondor and Arnor as they had been at the greatest extent (excluding only Rohan) and formed the Reunited Kingdom.1 Within the borders of the realm were several peoples who were considered part of the kingdom, yet were allowed complete self-governance: the Hobbits of the Shire, the “Wild Men” of Druadan Forest, the Ents at Isengard, Gimli’s Dwarves of the Glittering Caves, and the Elves from Greenwood with Legolas and Ithilien. The Shire and the Forest of Druadan were even forbidden entry by any folk other than their own.2 Nurn was given to the slaves of Mordor, and peace was made with the Haradrim and the Easterlings.3

  North of the Reunited Kingdom, Mirkwood had been freed. Thranduil added the lands north of the Mountains to his kingdom, and the middle portion was given to the Beornings and the Woodmen. Celeborn claimed the section south of The Narrows, calling it “East Lórien,” but after Celeborn’s departure “in Lórien there lingered sadly only a few of its former people.”4

  THEMATIC MAPS

  Introduction

  TOLKIEN STATED in “On Fairy-Stories” that “Faerie . . . holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all the things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.”1 True to this concept, Tolkien included, in varying degrees, every major component of our Primary World: landforms, minerals, weather and climate, natural vegetation, agriculture, political units, population distribution, races, languages, transportation routes—even house types. He did more than merely describe these individual components, however, which would have been tedious and artificial. Instead, by carefully intermingling each element, he produced the very quality he believed so essential to credibility of an imaginary setting: “the inner consistency of reality.”2 So successful was his imagery that his landscape seems to have become a living world in which we could walk bodily, breathing with Frodo and Sam the fresh fragrant air of Ithilien, if we could but find the way.

  Although part of a unified system, each of the components is worth evaluating in its own right. Landforms provided more than just the stage on which the story was played. These physical features were the visible results of the struggle between good and evil, the Valar and Melkor and Sauron.3 They were the battle wounds of the earth. The hills and mountains, valleys and plains, seemed almost animate in their ability to hinder or help the journeys of the various travellers. From the first Elves blocked in their westward migration by the towering Mountains of Mist, to the Fellowship of the Rings struggling to the knees of Caradhras thousands of years later, mountains daunted those who dared to challenge their supremacy.4

  Climate, and especially weather, were very important in Tolkien’s tales. Snows drove Beren from Dorthonion and the Fellowship from the Redhorn Pass. Thunderstorms frightened the Ores who had captured Túrin, and forced Thorin and Company to take shelter. Fog hid the lands west of the Grinding Ice, lost the Hobbits on the Barrow-downs, and covered the portaging by Sarn Gebir. In a land of prevailing Westerlies, Sauron’s fume-filled east winds bit the eastern Emyn Muil and sent storms travelling in an abnormal direction.5

  Vegetation was essential not only in enhancing the setting, but also in providing yet another medium through which the forces of good and evil, joy and fear, could reach out to the travellers. Although Tolkien included a complete range of flora, from the short, dry grasses of the Downs to the majestically towering mallorns of Lórien, his love and knowledge of trees was evident in the importance he placed on forests. He stated this love clearly through Yavanna: “’All have their worth . . . [but] I hold trees dear.’”6

  The insertion of living beings completed the imagery, and their distribution told a story in itself. With rare exceptions the evil ones seemed able to produce seas of enemies—from Morgoth’s Ores, Balrogs, and dragons, who had grown so numerous that the whole plain of Anfauglith could not contain them,7 to Sauron’s army in the War of the Rings, great enough to send huge forces against Minas Tirith, Lórien, Thranduil’s Realm, Dale, and Erebor, and still be left overwhelming numbers with which to fight at the Black Gate. Against them the forces of good could sometimes gain the mastery by having greater will than the thralls they faced, but they seldom were more numerous than their foes.

  Battles were not the only way in which people were important, however. Middle-earth seemed tremendously underpopulated in the western lands, and this increased the sense of loneliness and isolation the travellers must have had while struggling through rugged terrain, far from friends, without allies against the evil beings who pursued them. How satisfying it was to reach a haven where one could have some semblance of familiar comforts. As Frodo and Sam found at Henneth Annûn, how good it seemed after “days spent in the lonely wild . . . to drink pale yellow wine . . . eat bread and butter, salted meats, and dried fruits, and good red cheese, with clean hands and clean knives and plates.”8

  The following maps attempt, in a much more mundane way, to trace individually the patterns of five important elements that Tolkien included in his world: landforms, climate, vegetation, population, and Tolkien’s beloved languages. In viewing the maps the reader should keep in mind that in spite of numerous passages providing information, not every region was equally covered by Tolkien. For those that were discussed in his stories, the map could be no more accurate than the cartographer’s interpretation of the data. On these maps more than anywhere else in this atlas, it was essential to accept Middle-earth’s normal patterns and processes as synonymous with those of our Primary World unless powers of the Secondary World (be they good or evil) were affecting change.

  Landforms

  THE DETAILED REFERENCES and evaluations for the major landform features have been given with the various regional maps of Valinor, Númenor, Beleriand, and the other known lands of Middle-earth.1 The accompanying map is merely a composite diagram. Tolkien’s maps included all the mountain ranges except the Pelóri and the Iron Mountains, as well as hills. There were many undulating areas, however, and even some rather rugged terrain not included due to cartographic difficulties in showing such low relief. Broadly speaking, it was assumed that the closer land was to mountains, the more rugged it became; and truly flat lands were found only where there were marshes or alluvial plains.

  Mountains

  The two greatest mountain ranges were never mapped by Tolkien: the Pelóri and the Iron Mountains (Ered Engrin). Each of these has been illustrated as extremely high and broad. The Pelóri were described by Tolkien as having a sheer fault-like seaward escarpment and more gentle western slopes, lending maximum protection against the outer world.2 The Iron Mountains were shown similarly, but with south-facing cliffs.

  The central highlands south of the Iron Mountains and north of Beleriand seemed to be plateaus, yet were edged by mountains.3 The Echoriath and the Ered Gorgoroth on the southern face of Dorthonion were the highest of these. Of the mountains that were mapped east of Beleriand, the Misty and White Mountains were shown as the highest, for they were snowcapped and seemed to have created the greatest barriers to both climate and travels through the ages.4 The Mountains of Mordor, though they had only three passes (Cirith Gorgor, Cirith Ungol, and the Morgul Pass) were evidently not snowcapped, and thus, were lower.5

  Hills and Plateaus

  Foothills were probably found adjacent to all the mountain ranges, but where travellers passed through them verification was given. In the rolling hills of Lindon west of the Blue Mountains, Finrod discovered Mortal Men.6 Tuor passed through “tumbled hills” at the feet of the Echoriath.7 West of the Misty Mountains rugged lands extended from the Ettenmoors south through Dunland. The Trollshaws were very tortuous.8 Near Rivendell there seemed almost a plateau, for the moors rose in “one vast slope,”9 yet were scored by deep ravines. South of Rivendell the lands were more eroded. This topography extended through Dunland, and probably all the way to th
e Gap of Rohan.10 North of the White Mountains the beacon-hills huddled close to the northern cliffs; while hills south of the range extended far south of the main range, even forming the rugged coast near Dol Amroth.

  The only plateau other than those in Beleriand and near Rivendell was the lava plateau of Gorgoroth in northwestern Mordor.11 As with the moors near Rivendell, the initial impression of smoothness was deceptive: Gorgoroth’s “wide and featureless flats were in fact all broken and tumbled.”12

  Eroding away from the various mountains and from other more broadly folded areas, sedimentary rock layers produced alternating ridges and lowlands. The most obvious hills were those known as downs, and were found in Númenor, in Eriador, and around the Wold. The hogback climbed by the Hobbits in North Ithilien was produced by the same erosional process, but was more steeply pitching than the downs.13 Two ridges in Beleriand may also have been erosional: the outcrop extending from the moors near amon Rûdh to the falls of the Esgalduin, and Andram, the Long Wall.14 Both were south-facing, and thus were not eroding away from the Central Highlands.

  Plains and Undulating Lowlands

  Flat lowlands develop where there is a weak rock stratum or where nearby mountains provide alluvial materials that wash over the lands near their feet. Tolkien specifically described several plains areas: Ard-galen and Lothlann at the feet of the Iron Mountains; north of the Andram at the Twilight Meres; the plains of Rohan and Rhovanion; Dagorlad, the hard plain of battle; and Lithlad, the ash plain.15 Unless coastal cliffs appeared on Tolkien’s maps (such as those in Nevrast, Númenor, and near Dol Amroth)16 the shores were considered to be flat coastal plain.

  Away from these specifically mentioned plains the land was probably more undulating, for it would have been subject to more stream-cutting action, rather than receiving alluvial fill. In some areas of the north, however, especially in northern Wilderland, the land appeared to have been covered by continental glaciation and may have had depositional hills as well as erosional ones.17 Much of the travel was in these rolling lands. The gentle topography should have sped the travellers along; yet even in these less rugged areas, other factors could slow or speed their progress.

  LANDFORMS Upper: FIRST AGE Inset: SECOND AGE Lower: THIRD AGE

  Climate

  BROAD CLIMATIC REGIONS can be defined based upon both annual and seasonal temperatures and precipitation.1 The reader may more easily envision the classes on the climate map of Middle-earth by comparing them with examples in our own world.

  Humid Climates

  Mild winter, mild summer England, North Central Europe, Western Oregon

  Mild winter, hot dry summer Mediterranean Sea area, Southern California

  Mild winter, warm summer; to severe winter, cool summer Eastern Europe, Arkansas to Wisconsin

  Dry Climates

  Arid Semi-arid Arabia, Western Arizona, Nevada Iran, Great Plains (e.g., Eastern Colorado)

  Polar Climates

  Tundra North coasts of USSR, Alaska, Canada

  Ice cap Central Greenland

  Valinor was not subject to the physical controls as was Middle-earth.2 Even without the ethereal powers, however, the latitude of the areas near Tirion (which was near the Girdle of Arda3) would probably have been warm year round. In the north the coast of Araman was cold and Oiomüre was subject to heavy fog from the contact between the warm seawater and the Grinding Ice.4

  The Known Lands of Middle-earth were probably about the latitude of Europe, for Europe lies in a belt of prevailing westerly winds, as did Middle-earth. Tolkien mentioned west winds numerous times: in Nevrast, in the Shire, on the Barrow-downs, in the Trollshaws, at Lonely Mountain, in Gondor, and even in Mordor after the Battle of the Pelennor.5 Thus, the mild yet relatively cool Marine West Coast climate of England and North Central Europe has been shown in northern Númenor, Beleriand, and most of Eriador. Beleriand, including Nevrast, had mild winters before Morgoth’s power increased.6 The Central Highlands were colder, not only due to their higher elevations but also because they received the full brunt of Morgoth’s icy north winds during the winter. Himring was the “Ever-cold,” and through the Pass of Aglon “a bitter wind blew.”7 Hithlum “was cool and winter there was cold.”8 The highlands also blocked southerly winds, reducing rainfall, so both Ard-galen and Lothlann were grasslands.9

  During the Second and Third Ages, after the submergence of Beleriand, the effect of the marine winds probably shifted farther into Eriador. The Blue Mountains would have captured some of the moisture, feeding the forests on their western slopes; yet the gap at the Gulf of Lune and the long coast on the southwest of Eriador could have counteracted the mountain effect, giving the Shire the climate of England. Only 100 leagues north, however, around the Ice Bay of Forochel, Morgoth’s cold lingered and was worsened at one time by frosts of Angmar.10 This was apparently true in all the Northern Wastes, so nearing the cold area the winters were no doubt more severe. East of the Misty Mountains the moderating marine influence was lost. As Aragorn said during the boat trip south: “[We] are far from the sea. Here the world is cold until the sudden spring.”11 Even in Rohan there was snow cover from November to March in the Long Winter,12 although it was normally mild, as Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli found it in late February.13

  Mountains often produce steppe, or even desert, climates on their leeward sides; yet this was not the case of either the Misty or White Mountains. The grasslands of Rohan could have resulted from this rain-shadow effect, but east of the Misty Mountains lay widespread forests—perhaps due to less evaporation in the cooler air of the north.

  The only arid lands specifically mentioned were the Noman-lands near the Black Gate.14 The aridity may have been due to noxious fumes rather than to lack of precipitation.15 Still, dry summers are the rule around the Mediterranean Sea, and steppe and desert lands lie both south and east of the Mediterranean; so it was possible that Tolkien envisioned the same pattern around the Bay of Belfalas. The bitterness of the Sea of Nurnen and the description of Dagorlad as a stony plain (possibly a pediment,16 which can occur only in arid climates) reinforce the probability of Mordor’s being climatically arid as well as chemically denuded.

  Mid-latitude climates are the battlefield between cold polar and warm tropical air masses, producing a belt of cyclones that move from west to east across the lands. With these go the familiar fronts: Cold Fronts, with associated thunderstorms and driving rain; Warm Fronts, with gentle warm summer rains; and Occluded Fronts, with all-day winter drizzles. These were the most familiar of Tolkien’s devices, with weather closely associated with the story-telling. He utilized the normal weather, adding supernatural strength and timing. Whole climates were even superimposed by the Secondary World powers—good powers living in unusually warm, gentle climates (notably in Valinor and Lórien17); and the evil powers of Morgoth, Sauron, and Angmar producing cold, bitter climates.18 In this way Tolkien once again demonstrated his mastery of utilizing the natural to emphasize the supernatural.

  CLIMATE Upper: FIRST AGE Inset: SECOND AGE Lower: THIRD AGE

  Vegetation

  TOLKIEN MAPPED THE MAJOR VEGETATIVE FEATURES, but the accompanying map has attempted to delineate the previously unmapped vegetative regions as well. It has been assumed that if any traveller crossed through an area and no specific features were mentioned, there was probably a mixture of, for example, fields or meadows with scattered trees. The vegetation of the First Age was probably what naturally occurred without interference. That of the Third Age resulted from having been overgrazed, cut-over, burned, blasted by war and bitter winds, and generally abused through millennia.

  Forests and Woodlands

  Originally, a primeval forest covered large areas of Middle-earth. Treebeard said it had once extended “from here [Fangorn] to the Mountains of Lune, and this was just the East End.”1 The forests also grew west of the Blue Mountains and east of the Great River. There were great variations of tree-species within this broad expanse of forest.2 Southern Mirkwood w
as “clad in a forest of dark fir;”3 yet near Thranduil’s caverns were solid stands of oak and beech.4 Fangorn and the Old Forest, though “dark and tangled,”5 were apparently less dense than Taur-im-Duinath, the Forest between the Rivers in south Beleriand, which was so wild that even the Elves rarely attempted to penetrate its eaves.6 Doriath’s trees were so distinct that it was broken into at least three parts: Nivrim, oaks; Neldoreth, beeches; and Region, a denser and more mixed forest.7 It was significant that the trees opposite the doors of Menegroth and those at Thranduil’s caverns were beeches, for pure stands appeared as green cathedrals, with the boles forming smooth gray pillars above a carpet of grass.8 This description was very similar to the setting of Lórien, and mallorns were very like the less magical beeches, although mallorn leaves were larger.9 Indeed, malinornélion (as Treebeard referred to Lórien) translated as “gold beech tree.”10

  Almost absent from Middle-earth were the coniferous forests that occupy vast areas of Alaska, Canada, and northern Asia.11 Apparently the only coniferous forest other than southern Mirkwood was that on the northern and western edges of Dorthonion.12 Coniferous trees were scattered elsewhere in appropriate locations, such as high in the valley of Rivendell and east of the Goblins’ tunnels where Thorin and Company were surrounded by wolves.13

  There were broadleaf or mixed broadleaf/coniferous woodlands also scattered through the lands, yet not mapped. Some of these were quite extensive. They lay in mountain valleys, notably: west of the Blue Mountains in Ossiriand, south and east of the Ered Wethrin of Hithlum on both sides of the Misty Mountains, and west of the Ephel Dúath in Ithilien.14 Hilly areas also retained woods: Taur-en-Faroth above Nargothrond,15 the Chetwood east of Bree,16 and the Trollshaws.17 The woods east of the Blue Mountains may have been remnants of the primeval stand, for by the end of the Second Age most of the original forest had been cleared.18 Although much of this cut-over land had been abandoned as the population decreased, the forests had not been reestablished.