England in Middle-earth

Theme of England and Englishness in Tolkien's Middle-earth

England and Englishness are represented in multiple forms within J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings; it appears, more or less thinly disguised, in the form of the Shire and the lands close to it; in kindly characters such as Treebeard, Faramir, and Théoden; in its industrialised state as Isengard and Mordor; and as Anglo-Saxon England in Rohan. Lastly, and most pervasively, Englishness appears in the words and behaviour of the hobbits, both in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien has often been supposed to have spoken of wishing to create "a mythology for England"; though it seems he never used the actual phrase, various commentators have found it appropriate as a description of much of his approach in creating Middle-earth, and the legendarium that lies behind The Silmarillion. His desire to create a national mythology echoed similar attempts in countries across Europe, especially Elias Lönnrot's creation of the Kalevala in Finland.

## England

[edit]

### An English Shire

[edit]

Further information: The Shire and The Scouring of the Shire

Sketch map of the Shire

England and Englishness appear in Middle-earth, more or less thinly disguised, in the form of the Shire and the lands close to it, including Bree and Tom Bombadil's domain of the Old Forest and the Barrow-downs.[1] In England, a shire is a rural administrative region, a county. Brian Rosebury likens the Shire to Tolkien's childhood home on the border of Worcestershire and Warwickshire in England's West Midlands in the 1890s:[2][3][4]

> Sarehole, with its nearby farms, its mill by the riverside, its willow-trees, its pool with swans, its dell with blackberries, was a serene quasi-rural enclave, an obvious model-to-be for ... Hobbiton and the Shire.[4]

The Shire is described by Tom Shippey as a calque upon England, a systematic construction mapping the origin of the people, its three original tribes, its two legendary founders, its organisation, its surnames, and its placenames.[5] Others have noted easily perceived aspects such as the homely names of public houses like The Green Dragon.[6][7][8] Tolkien stated that he grew up "in 'the Shire' in a pre-mechanical age".[9]

Tom Shippey's analysis of Tolkien's calque of the Shire upon England[5] Element  | The Shire  | England

|
|

Origin of people | The Angle between the Rivers Hoarwell (Mitheithel) and the Loudwater (Bruinen) from the East (across Eriador)  | The Angle between Flensburg Fjord and the Schlei, from the East (across the North Sea), hence the name "England"
Original three tribes | Stoors, Harfoots, Fallohides | Angles, Saxons, Jutes[a]
Legendary founders
named "horse"[b] | Marcho and Blanco | Hengest and Horsa
Length of civil peace | 272 years from Battle of Greenfields
to Battle of Bywater | 270 years from Battle of Sedgemoor
to publication of Lord of the Rings
Organisation | Mayors, moots, Shirriffs[c] | like "an old-fashioned and idealised England"
Surnames | e.g. Banks, Boffin, Bolger, Bracegirdle, Brandybuck, Brockhouse, Chubb, Cotton, Fairbairns, Grubb, Hayward, Hornblower, Noakes, Proudfoot, Took, Underhill, Whitfoot | All are real English surnames. Tolkien comments e.g. that "Bracegirdle" is "used in the text, of course, with reference to the hobbit tendency to be fat and so to strain their belts".[T 1]
Placenames | e.g. "Nobottle"
e.g. "Buckland" | Nobottle, Northamptonshire
Buckland, Oxfordshire

### The vanishing "Little Kingdom"

[edit]

Both the Shire and Bree have comfortable English-style public houses that serve beer. The medieval Cott Inn, Devon, is pictured.

Bree and Bombadil are still, in Shippey's words, in "The Little Kingdom", if not quite in the Shire. Bree is similar to the Shire, with its hobbit residents and the welcoming Prancing Pony inn. Bombadil represents the spirit of place of the Oxfordshire and Berkshire countryside, which Tolkien felt was vanishing.[12][1][T 2]

Shippey analyses how Tolkien's careful account in The Lord of the Rings of the land in the angle between two rivers, the Hoarwell and the Loudwater, matches the Angle between the Flensburg Fjord and the River Schlei, the legendary origin of the Angles, one of the three tribes who founded England.[13]

Lothlórien, too, carries overtones of a perfect, timeless England; Shippey notes how the hobbits feel they have stepped "over a bridge in time" as they cross yet another pair of rivers to enter Lothlórien.[13]

Tom Shippey's analysis of Tolkien's river angles[13] Rivers | Place | Peoples | Time

|
|
|

Flensburg Fjord, Schlei | Germany | The forefathers of the English | Long ago, before England was founded
Hoarwell, Loudwater | Eriador | The forefathers of the Hobbits | Long ago, before the Shire was founded
Nimrodel, Silverlode | Lothlórien | The Elves, as they used to be | Long ago, in "the Elder Days ... in a world that was no more"
Mines, ironworks, smoke, and spoil heaps: the Black Country, near Tolkien's childhood home, has been suggested as an influence on his vision of Mordor.[14]

### Industrialised England

[edit]

Further information: Mordor

England appears in its industrialised state as Isengard and Mordor.[1] In particular, it has been suggested that the industrialized area called "the Black Country" near J. R. R. Tolkien's childhood home inspired his vision of Mordor;[14][15] the name "Mordor" meant "Black Land" in Tolkien's invented language of Sindarin, and "Land of Shadow" in Quenya.[T 3] Shippey further links the fallen wizard Saruman and his industrial Isengard to "Tolkien's own childhood image of industrial ugliness ... Sarehole Mill, with its literally bone-grinding owner".[16]

### Anglo-Saxon England

[edit]

A reconstructed Viking Age longhouse similar to Beowulf's Heorot

Further information: Rohan (Middle-earth) and Beowulf in Middle-earth

Anglo-Saxon England appears, modified by the people's extensive use of horses in battle, in the land of Rohan. The names of the Rohirrim, the Riders of Rohan, are straightforwardly Old English, as are the terms they use and their placenames: Théoden means "king" in Old English; Éored means "troop of cavalry" and Éomer is "horse-famous", both related to Éoh, "horse"; Eorlingas means "sons of Eorl"; the name of his throne-hall is Meduseld, which means "mead-hall". The chapter "The King of the Golden Hall" is constructed to match the passage in the Old English poem Beowulf where the hero approaches the court of Heorot and is challenged by different guards along the way, and many of the names used come directly from there.[17][18][19][T 4] The name of the Riders' land, the Mark, is Tolkien's reconstruction of the Germanic word from which the Latinised name "Mercia", applied to the central kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England and the region where Tolkien grew up, derives.[20]

## Englishness

[edit]

### Hobbits

[edit]

Englishness appears in the words and behaviour of the hobbits, throughout both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.[21] Shippey writes that from the first page of The Hobbit, "the Bagginses at least were English by temperament and turn of phrase".[22] Burns states that[21]

> it too lies within the English, in the best of English-kind. It lies in the courage and tenacity Tolkien admired in his fellow countrymen during the First World War; it lies in the English ability to recognize duty and carry resolutely through...

> It is the same with the hobbits, who return and rebuild the Shire. Though it is their complacent and comfort-seeking qualities that stand out most consistently, a warrior's courage or an Elf's sensitivity can arise in hobbits as well.[21]

Burns writes that Bilbo Baggins, the eponymous hero of The Hobbit, has acquired or rediscovered "an Englishman's northern roots. He has gained an Anglo-Saxon self-reliance and a Norseman's sense of will, and all of this is kept from excess by a Celtic sensitivity, by a love of earth, of poetry, and of simple song and cheer."[21] She finds a similar balance in the hobbits of The Lord of the Rings, Pippin, Merry, and Sam. Frodo's balance, though, has been destroyed by a quest beyond his strength; he still embodies some of the elements of Englishness, but lacking the simple cheerfulness of the other hobbits because of his other character traits, his Celtic sorrow and Nordic doom.[21]

### 'English' characters

[edit]

Kindly characters such as Treebeard, Faramir, and Théoden exemplify Englishness with their actions and mannerisms. Treebeard's distinctive booming bass voice with his "hrum, hroom" mannerism is indeed said by Tolkien's biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, to be based directly on that of Tolkien's close friend, fellow Oxford University professor and Inkling, C. S. Lewis.[23] Marjorie Burns sees "a Robin Hood touch" in the green-clad Faramir and his men hunting the enemy in Ithilien, while in Fangorn forest, she feels that Treebeard's speech "has a comfortable English ring".[1] Théoden's name is a direct transliteration of Old English þēoden, meaning "king, prince";[24][25] he welcomes Merry, a Hobbit from the Shire, with warmth and friendship.[26] Garry O'Connor adds that there is a striking resemblance between the wizard Gandalf, the English actor Ian McKellen who plays Gandalf in Peter Jackson's Middle-earth films, and, based on Humphrey Carpenter's biographical account, of another Englishman, Tolkien himself:[27][28]

> He has a strange voice, deep but without resonance, entirely English but with some quality in it that I cannot define, as if he had come from another age or civilization. Yet for much of the time he does not speak clearly. Words come out in eager rushes ... He speaks in complex sentences ...[29]

### Shakespearean plot elements

[edit]

Further information: Shakespeare's influence on Tolkien

Shippey suggests that Tolkien cautiously respected the English playwright William Shakespeare, and that he appears to have felt some kind of fellow-feeling with him, given that they were both from the county of Warwickshire in the English midlands, where Tolkien had passed his happiest childhood years.[30] Some of the plot elements in The Lord of the Rings resemble Shakespeare's, notably in Macbeth. Tolkien's use of walking trees, the Huorns, to destroy the Orc-horde at the Battle of Helm's Deep carries a definite echo of the coming of Birnam Wood to Dunsinane Hill, though Tolkien admits the mythic nature of the event where Shakespeare denies it.[30] Glorfindel's prophecy that the Lord of the Nazgûl would not die at the hand of any man directly reflects the Macbeth prophecy; commentators have found Tolkien's solution – he is killed by a woman and a hobbit in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields – more satisfying than Shakespeare's (a man brought into the world by Caesarean section, so not exactly "born").[30]

Tom Shippey's analysis of Shakespearean prophecy in The Lord of the Rings and Macbeth[30] Plot element | Work | Prophecy | Events | Explanation

|
|
|
|

A forest seems to move | The Lord of the Rings | (unexpected) | Walking trees (Huorns) destroy Orc-horde at Battle of Helm's Deep | Mythic
Macbeth | Birnam Wood shall come to Dunsinane Hill | Macduff's men cut branches, carry them to Dunsinane | Ordinary
A villain seems to be protected | The Lord of the Rings | Not by the hand of Man will he fall | A woman, Éowyn, and a Hobbit, Merry, kill the Lord of the Nazgûl; Merry's sword was made exactly for this purpose[T 5] | Mythic
Macbeth | None of woman born shall harm Macbeth | Macduff, delivered by Caesarean section so not strictly "born", kills Macbeth | Ordinary

## A mythology for England

[edit]

Main article: A mythology for England

Tolkien has often been supposed to have spoken of wishing to create "a mythology for England". It seems he never used the actual phrase, but commentators have found his biographer Humphrey Carpenter's phrase[31] appropriate as a description of much of his approach in creating Middle-earth, and the legendarium that lies behind The Silmarillion.[32][33] Tolkien's desire to create a national mythology[T 6] echoed similar attempts in countries across Europe, especially Elias Lönnrot's creation of the Kalevala in Finland, which Tolkien read and admired.[34][35] Other attempts had been made in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Scotland, and Wales in the 18th and 19th centuries.[36] The mythology was initially intended as a home for his invented languages such as those that became Quenya and Sindarin, but he discovered as he worked on it that he wanted to make a properly English epic, spanning England's geography, language, and mythology.[37]

Tolkien recognised that any actual English mythology, which he presumed, by analogy with Norse mythology and the clues that remain, to have existed until Anglo-Saxon times, had been extinguished. Tolkien decided to reconstruct such a mythology, accompanied to some extent by an imagined prehistory or pseudohistory of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes before they migrated to England.[33][38] Tolkien therefore looked to Norse and other mythologies for guidance.[39][40] He found hints in Beowulf[37] and other Old English sources. These gave him his ettens (as in the Ettenmoors) and ents, his elves, and his orcs; his "warg" is a cross between Old Norse vargr and Old English wearh.[41] He took his woses or wood-woses (the Drúedain) from the seeming plural wodwos in the Middle English Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, line 721; that comes in turn from Old English wudu-wasa, a singular noun.[42] Shippey comments that

> As for creating a "Mythology for England", one certain fact is that the Old English notions of Elves, Orcs, Ents, Ettens and Woses have through Tolkien been re-released into the popular imagination to join the much more familiar Dwarves ..., Trolls, ... and the wholly-invented Hobbits."[40]

Verlyn Flieger comments that

> If Tolkien's legendarium as we have it now is a mythology for England, it is a song about great power and promise in the throes of decline, racked by dissensions, split by factions, perpetually threatened by war, and perpetually at war with itself. It seems closer to Orwell's 1984 than to the furry-footed escapist fantasy that detractors of The Lord of the Rings characterize that work as being."[43]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Shippey comments that both nations have forgotten their origins.[10]
2. ^ Old English: hengest, stallion; hors, horse; *marh, horse, cf "mare"; blanca, white horse in Beowulf[5]
3. ^ Sheriff, Shirriff is derived from Old English scir-gerefa "Shire-reeve", an officer of the shire.[11]

## References

[edit]

### Primary

[edit]

1. ^ Tolkien 1967
2. ^ Carpenter 2023, #19 to Stanley Unwin, 16 December 1937
3. ^ Carpenter 2023, #297 to Mr. Rang, draft, August 1967
4. ^ Tolkien 1954, book 3 ch. 6 "The King of the Golden Hall"
5. ^ Tolkien 1955, book 5, ch. 6 "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields": "No other blade, not though mightier hands had wielded it, would have dealt that foe a wound so bitter, cleaving the undead flesh, breaking the spell that knit his unseen sinews to his will."
6. ^ Carpenter 2023, #131 to Milton Waldman (at Collins), late 1951

### Secondary

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Burns 2005, pp. 26–29.
2. ^ "1964 BBC Interview. Interview with JRR Tolkien conducted by Denys Gueroult". Tolkien Gateway. 26 November 1964. "To have just at the age when imagination is opening out, suddenly find yourself in a quiet Warwickshire village, I think it engenders a particular love of what you might call central Midlands English countryside."
3. ^ Lyons, Matthew (22 September 2017). "Find the inspiration for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in the British countryside". BBC Countryfile. Retrieved 22 October 2023. "If the Hobbit holes are in Gloucestershire, the spiritual home of the Shire is to the north-east, in the Warwickshire countryside of Tolkien's childhood as the 19th century folded into the 20th. Tolkien located it specifically in 1897, the year of Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, when he was just five."
4. ^ a b Rosebury 2003, p. 134.
5. ^ a b c Shippey 2005, pp. 115–118.
6. ^ Duriez 1992, pp. 121ff.
7. ^ Tyler 1976, p. 201.
8. ^ Rateliff 2009, pp. 11ff.
9. ^ Carpenter 2023, #213 to Deborah Webster, 25 October 1958
10. ^ Shippey 2005, p. 116.
11. ^ "sheriff (n.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
12. ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 111–112, 123.
13. ^ a b c Shippey 2001, pp. 196–199.
14. ^ a b Jeffries, Stuart (19 September 2014). "Mordor, he wrote: how the Black Country inspired Tolkien's badlands". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 August 2020.
15. ^ Baratta 2011, pp. 31–45.
16. ^ Shippey 2005, p. 194.
17. ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 139–145.
18. ^ Burns 2005, p. 143.
19. ^ Solopova 2009, p. 21.
20. ^ Shippey 2001, pp. 91–92.
21. ^ a b c d e Burns 2005, pp. 28–29.
22. ^ Shippey 2005, p. 132.
23. ^ Carpenter 1977, p. 198.
24. ^ Wynne 2006, p. 643.
25. ^ Bosworth & Toller 1898, þeóden.
26. ^ Chance 1980, pp. 119–122.
27. ^ O'Connor 2019.
28. ^ O'Connor, Garry (26 November 2019). "How Ian McKellen Almost Didn't Play Gandalf". LitHub. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
29. ^ Carpenter 1977, Part One: A visit. page 13.
30. ^ a b c d Shippey 2005, pp. 205–209.
31. ^ Carpenter 1977, p. 67.
32. ^ Butler 2013, p. 114.
33. ^ a b Drout 2004, pp. 229–247.
34. ^ Chance 1980, pp. 1–3.
35. ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 345–351.
36. ^ Fimi 2010, pp. 50–62 "Fairies, folklore, and the 'mythology for England'".
37. ^ a b Hostetter & Smith 1996, Article 42.
38. ^ Cook, Simon J. (2014). "J.R.R. Tolkien's Lost English Mythology". RoundedGlobe. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
39. ^ Kuusela 2014.
40. ^ a b Shippey 2005, pp. 350–351.
41. ^ Shippey 2005, p. 74 footnote.
42. ^ Shippey 2005, pp. 74 footnote, 149.
43. ^ Flieger 2005, pp. 139–142.

## Sources

[edit]

* Baratta, Chris (15 November 2011). Environmentalism in the Realm of Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-3542-8.
* Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898). An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Prague: Charles University.
* Burns, Marjorie (2005). Perilous Realms: Celtic and Norse in Tolkien's Middle-earth. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-3806-7.
* Butler, Catherine (2013). "Tolkien and Worldbuilding". In Hunt, Peter (ed.). J. R. R. Tolkien: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 106–120\. ISBN 978-1-137-26399-5.
* Carpenter, Humphrey (1977). J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 978-0-04-928037-3.
* Carpenter, Humphrey, ed. (2023) [1981]. The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded Edition. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-35-865298-4.
* Chance, Jane (1980) [1979]. Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England'. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-29034-7.
* Drout, Michael D. C. (2004). "A Mythology for Anglo-Saxon England". In Chance, Jane (ed.). Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: a Reader. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 229–247\. ISBN 978-0-8131-2301-1.
* Duriez, Colin (1992). The J.R.R. Tolkien Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to His Life, Writings, and World of Middle-earth. Baker Book House. ISBN 978-0-8010-3014-7.
* Fimi, Dimitra (2010) [2008]. Tolkien, Race, and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-21951-9. OCLC 222251097.
* Flieger, Verlyn (2005). "7. An Unfinished Symphony". Interrupted Music: The Making Of Tolkien's Mythology. Kent State University Press. pp. 139–142\. ISBN 978-0-87338-824-5.
* Hostetter, Carl F.; Smith, Arden R. (1996). "A Mythology for England". Mythlore. 21 (2). Article 42.
* Kuusela, Tommy (May 2014). "In Search of a National Epic: The use of Old Norse myths in Tolkien's vision of Middle-earth". Approaching Religion. 4 (1): 25–36\. doi:10.30664/ar.67534.
* Solopova, Elizabeth (2009). Languages, Myths and History: An Introduction to the Linguistic and Literary Background of J. R. R. Tolkien's Fiction. New York City: North Landing Books. ISBN 978-0-9816607-1-4.
* O'Connor, Garry (2019). Ian McKellen: a biography. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-250-22388-3. OCLC 1113218800.
* Rateliff, John D. (2009). "'A Kind of Elvish Craft': Tolkien as Literary Craftsman". Tolkien Studies. 6. West Virginia University Press: 11ff. doi:10.1353/tks.0.0048. S2CID 170947885.
* Rosebury, Brian (2003). Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon. Palgrave. ISBN 978-1-4039-1263-3.
* Shippey, Tom (2001). J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-261-10401-3.
*   * Shippey, Tom (2005) [1982]. The Road to Middle-Earth: How J. R. R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology (Third ed.). HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-261-10275-0.
* Tolkien, J. R. R. (1954). The Two Towers. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 1042159111.
* Tolkien, J. R. R. (1955). The Return of the King. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. OCLC 519647821.
* Tolkien, J. R. R. (1967). "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings". Academia.edu. Retrieved 14 September 2021. Also published in A Tolkien Compass (1975) and The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion (2005).
* Tyler, J. E. A. (1976). The Tolkien Companion. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-19633-5.
* Wynne, Patrick H. (2006). "Theoden". In Drout, Michael D. C. (ed.). The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia (first ed.). Routledge. p. 643\. ISBN 978-0-415-96942-0.

* v
* t
* e

Middle-earth

* J. R. R. Tolkien
* Bibliography
* Canon
* Legendarium
* Outline

Works|

| In Tolkien's
lifetime|

* The Hobbit (1937)
* The Lord of the Rings (1954-55)
* The Fellowship of the Ring
* "The Shadow of the Past"
* "The Council of Elrond"
* The Two Towers
* The Return of the King
* "The Scouring of the Shire"
* "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen"
* The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962)

|

Posthumous|

* The Silmarillion (1977)
* "Ainulindalë"
* Unfinished Tales (1980)
* The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
* Bilbo's Last Song (1990)
* The three "Great Tales"
* The Children of Húrin (2007)
* Beren and Lúthien (2017)
* The Fall of Gondolin (2018)
* The Fall of Númenor (2022)

History of
composition|

| History of
Middle-earth|

* [1–2] The Book of Lost Tales (1983–84)
* Ælfwine
* [3] The Lays of Beleriand (1985)
* [4] The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)
* [5] The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
* The Etymologies
* Lhammas
* [6–9] The History of The Lord of the Rings (1988–92)
* The Notion Club Papers
* [10] Morgoth's Ring (1993)
* [11] The War of the Jewels (1994)
* [12] The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)

|

Others|

* John D. Rateliff
* The History of The Hobbit (2007)
* Carl F. Hostetter
* The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)

Fictional
universe|

| Peoples,
monsters|

* Ainur
* Maiar
* Balrogs
* Wizards
* Valar
* Dragons
* Ancalagon
* Smaug
* Dwarves
* Eagles
* Elves
* Half-elven
* Noldor
* Sundering
* Ents
* Hobbits
* Men
* Beornings
* Drúedain
* Dúnedain
* Orcs
* Trolls

|

Characters|

* First and Second Ages
* Celebrimbor
* Eärendil and Elwing
* Elendil
* Fëanor
* Fingolfin
* Finwë and Míriel
* Gil-galad
* Húrin
* Isildur
* Lúthien and Beren
* Melian
* Morgoth
* Thingol
* Tuor and Idril
* Túrin Turambar
* Ungoliant
* Third Age
* Elrond
* Galadriel
* Gandalf
* Glorfindel
* Goldberry
* Gollum
* Saruman
* Sauron
* Tom Bombadil

Places|

* First and Second Ages
* Beleriand
* Númenor
* Valinor
* Third Age
* Bree
* Esgaroth
* Gondor
* Harad
* Isengard
* Lonely Mountain
* Lothlórien
* Mirkwood
* Mordor
* Moria
* Rivendell
* Rohan
* The Shire
* Bag End

Objects|

* Mithril
* Palantír
* Red Book of Westmarch
* Rings of Power
* One Ring
* Silmarils
* Two Trees of Valinor
* List of weapons and armour

Analysis|

| Elements|

* Artwork
* Family trees
* Heraldry
* Languages
* Adûnaic
* Black Speech
* Elvish
* Quenya
* Sindarin
* Khuzdul
* Valarin
* Westron
* Maps
* Tolkien's poetry
* Scripts
* Cirth
* Sarati
* Tengwar

|

Themes|

* Anachronism
* Ancestry as guide to character
* Architecture
* Christianity
* Cosmology
* Round World dilemma
* Death and immortality
* Decline and fall
* Dreams and visions
* Economy
* England
* Environmentalism
* Evil
* First World War
* Forests
* Frame stories
* Hell
* Heroism
* Light
* Luck and fate
* Magic
* Mental illness
* Modernism
* Moral dilemma
* Music
* Naming of weapons
* Northern courage
* Old Straight Road
* Paganism
* Plants
* Psychological journeys
* Quests
* Sound and language
* Time
* Trees

Literary|

* Tolkien's impact on fantasy
* Influences
* Beowulf
* Celtic
* Classical world
* Finnish language and literature
* Medieval
* Modern
* William Morris
* Norse
* Philology
* Shakespeare
* Prose style
* Ambiguity
* A mythology for England

Geographic|

* The Atlas of Middle-earth
* Journeys of Frodo
* A Map of Middle-earth

Adaptations,
legacy|

| Artists|

* Pauline Baynes
* Cor Blok
* Anke Eißmann
* Brothers Hildebrandt
* Jenny Dolfen
* Mary Fairburn
* Donato Giancola
* John Howe
* Tove Jansson
* Alexander Korotich
* Alan Lee
* Tom Loback
* Margrethe II of Denmark
* Ted Nasmith

|

Composers|

* Bo Hansson
* Johan de Meij
* Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings
* Howard Shore
* Music of The Lord of the Rings film series
* Music of The Hobbit film series
* Music of The Rings of Power TV series
* Blind Guardian
* Nightfall in Middle-Earth

Settings|

* Donald Swann
* The Road Goes Ever On
* Poems and Songs of Middle Earth
* The Tolkien Ensemble
* An Evening in Rivendell
* A Night in Rivendell
* At Dawn in Rivendell
* Leaving Rivendell

Other media|

* Impact
* Middle-earth Enterprises
* Works inspired by Tolkien
* Fan fiction
* Film
* Calendars
* Video games
* Things named after Tolkien and his works

Literary
criticism|

* The Complete Guide to Middle-earth
* A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien
* Interrupted Music
* Master of Middle-Earth
* Picturing Tolkien
* A Question of Time
* J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century
* The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide
* J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia
* The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion
* Perilous Realms
* The Road to Middle-Earth
* Splintered Light
* Tolkien and the Invention of Myth
* Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England'
* Tolkien: A Look Behind The Lord of the Rings
* A Tolkien Compass
* Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth
* Tolkien, Race and Cultural History
* Tolkien's Legendarium
* Tolkien and the Great War
* The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien
* The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary

* v
* t
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The Lord of the Rings

* J. R. R. Tolkien
* Constructing The Lord of the Rings

About|

* Volumes
* The Fellowship of the Ring
* The Two Towers
* The Return of the King
* Stories
* "The Shadow of the Past"
* "The Council of Elrond"
* "The Scouring of the Shire"
* "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen"
* Translating
* list
* Swedish
* Reception
* Impact
* Literary
* Fandom
* Fan fiction
* Oxonmoot
* Tolkienmoot
* Works inspired
* Tolkien's impact on fantasy

Elements|

| Languages|

* Black Speech
* Elvish
* Quenya
* Sindarin
* Khuzdul
* Westron

|

Poetry|

* A Elbereth Gilthoniel
* Namárië
* Song of Eärendil
* The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late
* The Road Goes Ever On
* A Walking Song

Other|

* Artwork
* Family trees
* Heraldry
* Maps
* Proverbs
* Scripts
* Cirth
* Tengwar

Analysis|

| Themes|

* Addiction to power
* Ancestry as guide to character
* Architecture
* Company of the Ring
* Death and immortality
* Decline and fall
* Divination
* Dreams and visions
* Economy
* England
* Environmentalism
* Evil
* Feudal allegiance
* Forests
* Hell
* Heroism
* Luck and fate
* Magic
* Mental illness
* Moral dilemma
* Music
* Naming of weapons
* Northern courage
* Paganism
* Plants
* Prophecy
* Psychological journeys
* Quests
* Race
* Sexuality
* Sound and language
* Time
* Trees
* Women

|

Influences|

* Antiquarianism
* Beowulf
* Celtic
* Christianity
* Classical world
* Edwardian adventure stories
* First World War
* Norse
* Medieval
* Modern sources
* Modernism
* William Morris
* A mythology for England
* Philology
* Shakespeare

Techniques|

* Anachronism
* Character pairing
* Editorial framing
* Frame stories
* Pseudotranslation
* Impression of depth
* Narrative structure
* Interlacing
* Storytelling
* Prose style
* Ambiguity
* Epic Pooh

Peoples|

| Maiar|

* Balrogs
* Sauron
* Wizards
* Gandalf
* Radagast
* Saruman

|

Free
peoples|

* Dwarves
* Balin
* Gimli
* Elves
* Galadriel
* Glorfindel
* Half-elven
* Arwen
* Elrond
* Legolas
* Thranduil
* Ents
* Treebeard
* Hobbits
* Bilbo
* Frodo
* Merry
* Pippin
* Sam
* Men
* Beornings
* Drúedain
* Dúnedain
* Aragorn
* of Gondor
* Boromir
* Denethor
* Faramir
* of Rohan
* Éomer
* Éowyn
* Théoden
* Wormtongue

Monsters|

* Barrow-wight
* Gollum
* Nazgûl
* Witch-king of Angmar
* Old Man Willow
* Orcs
* Shelob
* Trolls
* Wargs
* Watcher in the Water

Other|

* Eagles
* Goldberry
* Tom Bombadil

World|

| Geography|

* Middle-earth
* Eriador
* Bree
* Old Forest
* Rivendell
* The Shire
* Bag End
* Gondor
* Harad
* Lothlórien
* Mirkwood
* Moria
* Mordor
* Rohan
* Isengard
* Undying Lands

|

Battles|

* Helm's Deep
* Pelennor Fields
* Morannon

Things|

* Mithril
* Oliphaunts
* Palantírs
* Phial of Galadriel
* Rings of Power
* One Ring
* List of weapons and armour

Related
works|

* The Hobbit
* The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
* Errantry
* Fastitocalon
* The Sea-Bell
* Donald Swann
* The Road Goes Ever On
* Bilbo's Last Song
* The Silmarillion
* Unfinished Tales
* The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
* The History of Middle-earth
* The Children of Húrin
* The History of The Hobbit
* Beren and Lúthien
* The Fall of Gondolin
* The Nature of Middle-earth

Adaptations and derivative works

Books|

* Bored of the Rings (1969)
* The Last Ringbearer (1999)
* Muddle Earth (2003)

Illustrations|

* A Map of Middle-earth
* Pauline Baynes
* Barbara Remington
* John Howe
* Alan Lee
* Margrethe II of Denmark
* Ted Nasmith

Theatre|

* Fellowship! (2005)
* The Lord of the Rings (2006)

Music|

* Bo Hansson
* Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings (1972)
* Johan de Meij
* Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings (1988)
* Led Zeppelin
* "Ramble On" (1969)
* "Misty Mountain Hop" (1971)
* "The Battle of Evermore" (1971)

Radio|

* The Lord of the Rings (BBC, 1955)
* The Lord of the Rings (NPR, 1979)
* Hordes of the Things (1980)
* The Lord of the Rings (BBC, 1981)
* Der Herr der Ringe (1992)

Film|

| Animated|

* The Lord of the Rings (Bakshi, 1978)
* The Return of the King (Rankin/Bass, 1980)
* The War of the Rohirrim (Kamiyama, 2024)

|

Peter Jackson
series|

* The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
* The Two Towers (2002)
* The Return of the King (2003)

Music|

* "Concerning Hobbits"
* "Into the West"
* "May It Be"

Approach|

* Production
* Hobbiton Movie Set
* Peter Jackson's interpretation
* Picturing Tolkien
* Tolkien on Film

Other|

* Sagan om ringen (1971)
* Khraniteli (1991)
* Hobitit (1993)
* The Rings of Power (2022)
* music

Fan-made|

* The Hunt for Gollum (2009)
* Born of Hope (2009)

Video games|

* Journey to Rivendell
* Game One
* Game Two: Shadows of Mordor
* War in Middle Earth
* Vol. I (1990)
* Vol. I (SNES)
* Riders of Rohan
* Elendor
* Vol. II: The Two Towers
* The Fellowship of the Ring
* The Two Towers
* The Return of the King
* War of the Ring
* The Third Age
* Game Boy Advance
* The Battle for Middle-earth
* Tactics
* The Battle for Middle-earth II
* The Rise of the Witch-king
* Conquest
* Aragorn's Quest
* War in the North
* Lego The Lord of the Rings
* Guardians of Middle-earth
* Shadow of Mordor
* Shadow of War
* Gollum
* Return to Moria

| The Lord of the Rings Online|

* Mines of Moria
* Siege of Mirkwood
* Rise of Isengard
* Riders of Rohan
* Helm's Deep
* Mordor
* Minas Morgul
* War of Three Peaks
* Fate of Gundabad
* Before the Shadow

|

Tabletop role-
playing games|

* Middle-earth Role Playing
* The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game
* The One Ring Roleplaying Game
* Adventures in Middle-earth

Board games|

* Middle Earth
* War of the Ring
* Gondor: The Siege of Minas Tirith
* Sauron
* Lord of the Rings
* War of the Ring

Card games|

* Middle-earth Collectible Card Game
* The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game
* The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

Other games|

* Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
* Lego The Lord of the Rings

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