Theory: When Tolkien thought of the world he created, he wasn't trying to invent a whole new world, he just wanted to invent the forgotten past of the same world in wich we are living now. So all the things that happened in his works would have happened in the real world so long ago in history that none can remember it.
NOTE: when I told these things to people, some thought that I believe that these things actually happened. I don't
, I just think it was what Tokien intended to make.Before analysing the evidence open your mind and try to think the way someone of thousands of years ago would have thought.
EVIDENCE
Middle Earth: in the center (Europe?) of the continent happened most of the action. In the south (Africa?), lived the Haradrim, who were people of dark skin (Tokien himself said so). And in the far east there was Rhun, inhabitated by the mysterious Easterlings. Asian eyes could have seemed mysterious to primitive Europeans.
Nobody had ever explroed deep into the Southern of Eastern lands, so there was no way to know how large they really were.
From the Tolkien Gateway. Were these the Asian civilizations?We know also that it was a wide and vast land with many kingdoms, and strange and unexplored places.
Valinor: past the ocean to the west was Valinor, or the Undying lands, where no mortal had ever gone (America?)
Numenor: my theory on numenor is that it's fall is a legend, but its existance was true: in maps it was located between Middle Earth and Valinor. This maps could have been wrong, and most of my theory will be based on maps being not 100% accurate (see ahead) for logical reasons: it was a long time ago and people did not have the elements to make accurate maps. So Numenor could have been the UK or Greenland. Both are located in between, but north of both continents, so poor mapping was the reason it was never found again as Numenor.
People in Middle Earth: in the south there was the Kingdom of Gondor. The people of Gondor had dark hair and dark eyes, like southern Europeans. North of Gondor was Rohan, whose people had blonde hair, like Northern Europeans. And, as I have already mentioned before, in Harad (south) there were dark skinned people, like Africa, and in Rhun there were mysterious people (that could have been Asians to eyes of ancient Europeans)
By the end of the third age, elves travelled to the west never to return, most dwarves had been killed, all dragons and other monsters were killed. Orcs and trolls die during the fall of Sauron. All these things leave humans alone in the world, just like they are now.
From the Tolkien gatewayDark Land, also referred to as Dark Country is a mysterious continent south of Middle-earth. No Elves or Dwarves live here, but there could be wild Men here. The Númenóreans probably visited it on their long journeys, although it is not known if they established dwellings there.
As seen in the Ambarkanta, it occupies a position on Arda much like Antarctica and Australia do compared to Eurasia, if Antarctica and Australia were one land-mass.
Before Africa was visited by people from Europe, it was known as the "Dark Land". It is possible that Tolkien could have been inspired by this
Other facts:
In the north of Middle Earth it was cold, just like in the real world.
In the known Harad there were deserts, just like in Northern Africa.
There was a ring of stone surrounded the Trees of Valinor. There is a ring of stones in Stonehenge, England, that was built in ancient times and we still don't know what it was for.
Arda was round, and there was one Moon and one Sun.
If you compare Middle Earth with Europe using maps, you will find that many details such as rivers or mountains are similar.
If I can think of more things I will add them.
Edited by tomy, 12 July 2008 - 04:28 PM.
