What Happens Outside of Middle-Earth in The Lord of the Rings?

Though many view Middle-earth as J.R.R. Tolkien’s world, the reality is only one little fragment of a vast universe the Oxford professor created over his lifetime. “The Silmarillion” delves deeply into the building of that realm of time-bound space. Tolkien referred to the created universe as a whole as Eä, a word. Even in that universe, Middle-earth is only a small dirt patch inside a bigger domain known as Arda. “‘The Realm,’ name of the Earth as the Kingdom of Manwë,” the index of “The Silmarillion” says about Arda.

Manwë is among a group of angelic protectors known as the Valar, essentially counterpoints to spiritual enemies like Sauron and Morgoth. Originally being outside of time and space, the Valar initially encounters Arda for the first time following its creation by Ilúvatar, the God-like Creator in the Christian author’s universe. The book treats the world as a physical phenomenon. Iron, stone, silver, and gold are light-filled, and vibrantly expanded upon. Especially water is underlined as unique.

Arda is shown in ways. For example, “Arda Unmarred” is the Garden-of-Eden-esque rendition of the Earth right following its birth. It comprises one continent (including Middle-earth) until conflict and turmoil, thus known as “Arda Marred,” divides it. “Arda Healed” is the reference to the end of days of predicted healing of the earth. Outside of Arda, you find the Sun, Moon, and stars—all three of which have different origin tales and uses in Tolkien’s legendarium.

Aman, Dark Land, And The Land Of The Sun

Although Eä is the cosmos and Arda (more especially Arda Marred) comprises the greater globe J.R.R. Tolkien fans know and love, there are numerous particularly identifiable land masses and bodies of water outside of Middle-earth, around the continent where Tolkien’s main narrative action takes place.

Aman is the most famous among these. Fans are more likely to identify the continent by its more well-known monikers of the Blessed Realm, the “Undying Lands,” or Valinor – a term that has even found its way to Mars. Technically, Valinor is the western continent’s area inhabited by Ainur and Elves. Located straight west of Middle-earth over a vast sea, the continent as a whole is known as the Blessed Realm and Undying Lands.
Though they aren’t the only geographical masses in Arda, Aman, and Middle-earth are the two continents that most show up in Tolkien’s works. Especially earlier ones, some of his more backed-out maps even show a continent to the east. Tolkien notes in “The Shaping of Middle-earth,” “And beyond the Eastern Sea lies the Eastern Land, of which we know little, and call it the Land of the Sun.” Apart from its alpine characteristics, the author also mentioned that the region lacks much information on the gigantic mountains known as the Walls of the Sun. Additionally less well-known to the southeast of Middle-earth is the Dark Land continent.

The Rest Of Middle-Earth

Though there is little to know of continents like the Dark Land or the Eastern Land, J. R. Tolkien constructed other territories on and surrounding the Middle-earth continent itself with more depth, including the kingdoms of Rhûn, Khand, and Harad.

Many Men and Dwarven tribes call the eastern portion of the continent, Rhûn home. Although Rhûn troops serve in Sauron’s army in “The Lord of the Rings,” their country is a mystery Tolkien did not explore much. Still, Season 2’s “The Rings of Power” from Amazon Studios will explore certain unresolved issues in the Rhûn area. And if you go back long enough, the races of Elves and Men first awaken and start straying into the West from these far-off Eastern parts of the continent.
Another place bordering the traditional Middle-earth map is Khand. This area has feelings like those of surrounding Rhûn and sits to the southeast of Mordor. Though hardly known about their civilization, the Men of Khand also fight for Sauron’s army during the War of the Ring.

Additionally, there is Harad, which means “south.” Unsurprisingly, this is the area straight below and at the bottom of the famous Middle-earth map. This space is again, presented as a combination of different human worlds. The natives are some of the inhabitants, while others are either settled or under Númenóreans’ rule ancestors of the Men who moved to Gondor. “The Silmarillion” asserts that the men residing on the island of Númenor roam the wide spaces of Middle-earth, and settle. “But the King’s Men sailed afar to southward, and the lordships and strongholds that they made have left many rumors in the legends of Men,” said the book.

There’s also Water, Lots Of Water

On the north, south, and east, Middle-earth could be land-locked. Its western edge, however, is one continuous run of coastland. Belegaer, sometimes known as the Sundering Seas, is the vast body of water here. The Second Age island of Númenor resides in the sea and the place where the Elves make their holy journeys to the Undying Lands.

Though they do not immediately touch Middle-earth, other seas encircle it as well. For instance, the Sea of Ringil splits Middle-earth from the Dark Land to the south. The self-defining East Sea spans Middle-earth and the Land of the Sun. Then there lies the Encircling Sea, known by the Elves as the Ekkaia. Around all of Arda is this body of water. “The Silmarillion” presents this far-off watery barrier thusly: “How wide is that sea none know but the Valar; and beyond it are the Walls of the Night.”

Water is also intimately associated with two separate geographical regions: one near to and the other part of Middle-earth. The former is Númenor, the Atlantis-like island of Men that finally drags under the waves of Middle-earth. The latter is Beleriand, the northwestmost part of Middle-earth buried under the Sundering Seas at the end of the First Age (just before the narrative of “The Rings of Power” opens.)

The Middle-Earth Map Revised Over Time

Middle-earth undergoes radical changes both historically and during Tolkien’s lifetime. Early in his creative process, for example, J.R. Tolkien saw Middle-earth as a flat planet floating on water fashioned like a ship. That concept changed throughout time to become the canon form, whereby the earth begins as a single land mass shattered and splits into several continents.

Middle-earth is either near the real Earth or closely reflects Earth itself, depending on the version of the tale you’re reading (Tolkien penned innumerable variations, many of which were gathered and posthumously published by his son, Christopher). The professor did note in a letter in 1956, “The toponymy of The Shire…is a ‘parody’ of that of rural England, in much the same sense as are their inhabitants: they go together and are meant to.” Though typically he stayed to the idea that his fictitious universe stood on its own. At times he has made comparable real-world parallels to other Middle-earth locations. For example, Tolkien remarked in a 1958 letter, “In many ways [the Númenóreans] resembled ‘Egyptians’ – the love of, and power to construct, the gigantic and massive.” And in their tremendous curiosity in tombs and ancestors.

When Númenor sank under the sea at the end of the Second Age, the globe surrounding Middle-earth underwent the most alteration. When it occurs, “The Silmarillion” notes that the Undying Lands are “bent” into a circular form with new lands—which could have been Tolkien hinting at North and South American continents—from the circles of the earth. At that point, the planet becomes a contained realm for mortals to wander, cut off from the Blessed Realm only the Elves in knowledge may still approach.