08 Did the events in _The Lord of the Rings_ take place on another planet or what?
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This article is from the Tolkien FAQ, by William D.B. Loos loos@hudce.harvard.edu with numerous contributions by others.
08 Did the events in _The Lord of the Rings_ take place on another planet or what?
No. Tolkien's intention was that was that Middle-earth was our
own world, though his way of stating this idea was somewhat unusual:
he spoke of having created events which took place in an *imaginary
time* of a real place. He made this fully explicit only in Letters,
but there were two very strong indications in the published _Lord of
the Rings_, though both were outside the narrative.
The first was in the Prologue. It is there stated: "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." (FR, 11). Since no
other reference is made to this matter either in the Prologue or in
the main narrative, it makes little impression on most readers, but
is clear enough once pointed out.
The second was in Appendix D, which presents lore on calendars in
Middle-earth. The discussion begins as follows:
The Calendar in the Shire differed in several features from ours.
The year no doubt was of the same length (*), 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.
(*) 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds.
(RK, 385 (App D))
The quote is clear enough in and of itself, but that the year length
specified in the footnote is the precise length of our own year must
surely remove all doubt.
There follow excerpts from three letters wherein the matter is
further discussed.
'Middle-earth', by the way, is not a name of a never-never land
without relation to the world we live in .... 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, imagina-
tively this 'history' is supposed to take place in a period of the
actual Old World of this planet.
Letters, 220 (#165)
I am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary
world. ... 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, even if a little
glorified by the enchantment of distance in time.
Letters, 239 (#183)
... I hope the, evidently long but undefined, gap(*) in time between
the Fall of Barad-dur and our Days is sufficient for 'literary cred-
ibility', even for readers acquainted with what is known or surmised
of 'pre-history'.
I have, I suppose, constructed an imaginary *time*, but kept my
feet on my own mother-earth for *place*. I prefer that to the con-
temporary mode of seeking remote globes in 'space'. However curious,
they are alien, and not lovable with the love of blood-kin. Middle-
earth is ... not my own invention. It is a modernization or
alteration ... of an old word for the inhabited world of Men, the
_oikoumene_ : middle because thought of vaguely as set amidst the
encircling Seas and (in the northern-imagination) between ice of the
North and the fire of the South. O. English _middan-geard_ ,
mediaeval E. _midden-erd_, _middle-erd_ . Many reviewers seem to
assume that Middle-earth is another planet!
Letters, 283 (#211)
The footnote in the first sentence of the last-quoted excerpt offers
a fascinating insight:
(*) I imagine the gap to be about 6000 years: that is we are now
at the end of the Fifth Age, if the 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.
Letters, 283 (#211)
A final note is that not only is the place our own world but also the
people inhabiting it are ourselves, morally as well as physically:
... I have not made any of the peoples on the 'right' side, Hobbits,
Rohirrim, Men of Dale or of Gondor, any better than men have been or
are, or can be. Mine is not an 'imaginary' world, but an imaginary
historical moment on 'Middle-earth' -- which is our habitaion.
Letters, 244 (#183)
RK, 385 (Appendix D);
Letters, 220 (#165), 239, 244 (#183), 283 (#211).
Contributors: WDBL, Carl F. Hostetter, Bill Taylor
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