09 Was the northwest of Middle-earth, where the story took place, meant to actually be Europe? (Tolkien and his work)
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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.
09 Was the northwest of Middle-earth, where the story took place, meant to actually be Europe? (Tolkien and his work)
Yes, but a qualified yes. There is no question that Tolkien had
northwestern Europe in mind when he described the terrain, weather,
flora, and landscapes of Middle-earth. This was no doubt partially
because NW Europe was his home and therefore most familiar to him and
partially because of his love for the "Northern tradition". As he
said himself: "The North-west of Europe, where I (and most of my
ancestors) have lived, has my affection, as a man's home should. I
love its atmosphere, and know more of its histories and languages than
I do of other parts; ..." (Letters 376 (#294)). Thus, the environment
of Middle-earth will seem familiar to dwellers of that region of
Europe (see the second letter excerpted in FAQ, Tolkien, 6 (#183)).
However, the geographies simply don't match. This was the result
not so much of a deliberate decision on Tolkien's part to have things
so but rather a side-effect of the history of the composition: the
question did not occur to him until the story was too far advanced and
the map too fixed to allow much alteration:
... if it were 'history', it would be difficult to fit the lands and
events (or 'cultures') into such evidence as we possess, archaeo-
logical 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 [FR, 11]. I could have fitted
things in with greater versimilitude, 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; ...
Letters, 283 (#211)
... As for the shape of the world of the Third Age, I am afraid that
was devised 'dramatically' rather than geologically, or paleonto-
logically. I do sometimes wish that I had made some sort of agree-
ment between the imaginations or theories of the geologists and my
map a little more possible. But that would only have made more
trouble with human history.
Letters, 224 (#169)
The remark that there probably would not "have been much gain" is
characteristic and perhaps indicates Tolkien's own approach, which
would seem to have been to focus on the environmental familiarity at
the "local" level (in the sense that any particular scene might have
come from somewhere in Europe) and to simply overlook the lack of
"global" identity. On the other hand, he made some attempt to address
the difficulty in the quote from the Prologue (FR, 11), where it was
said: "Those days, the Third Age of Middle-earth, are now long past,
and the shape of all lands has been changed...". The conclusion is
that it is a matter for each individual reader as to how important is
the lack of geographical fit and where one comes down on the continuum
between "Middle-earth was northwestern Europe" and "Middle-earth might
as well have been northwestern Europe" (or, as Tolkien might have
said, "Middle-earth 'imaginatively' was northwestern Europe"). [Thus,
recent attempts to force the M-e map to fit the map of the Eurasian
land mass, such as in _Tolkien: The Illustrated Encyclopedia_ by David
Day, should be discounted.]
In one letter he provided indications to help in visualizing the
circumstances of various locales, but this does not help in resolving
the above matter, since again northwestern Europe was used for
comparison rather than equation:
The action of the story takes place in the North-west of 'Middle-
earth', equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the
north shores of the Mediterranean. ... If Hobbiton and Rivendell
are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then
Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence.
The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are at about
the latitude of ancient Troy.
Letters, 375-376 (#294)
Letters, 376 (#294), 239 (#183), 283 (#211), 224 (#169).
Contributors: WDBL, Carl F. Hostetter
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