

The name earendel (which may mean the 'morning-star' but in some contexts was a name for Christ) was the inspiration for Tolkien's mariner Eärendil. Hail Earendel, brightest of angels / above the middle-earth sent unto men. Tolkien was also inspired by this fragment: See Midgard and Norse mythology for the older use. Tolkien for discussion of his inspirations and sources). Middangeard occurs six times in Beowulf, which Tolkien translated and on which he was arguably the world's foremost authority. The word Mediterranean comes from two Latin stems, medi-, amidst, and terra, (earth/land), meaning "the sea placed at the middle of the Earth / amidst the lands". It is Germanic for what the Greeks called the οικουμένη ( oikoumenē) or "the abiding place of men", the physical world as opposed to the unseen worlds ( The Letters of J. Rather, it comes from Middle English middel-erde, itself a folk-etymology for the Old English word middangeard ( geard not meaning Earth, but rather enclosure or place, thus yard, with the Old Norse word miðgarðr being a cognate). We're looking at starting a wiki for these common ones.The term "Middle-earth" was not invented by Tolkien. Try searching before posting a new thread: odds are we've already covered some of the "classic" questions ("Who is Tom Bombadil?", "What happened to the Blue Wizards?", "Why couldn't the Eagles just take the Ring?" etc). Please make use of r/TolkienBooks and r/TolkienArt for these. Posts/comments centring entirely on promotion will be removed. You can share your content, but in a discussion-based format. Links are allowed, so long as they contribute to the discussion. No posts that are simply links or title-only. (Some more obscure topics we will allow.) There are other spaces on Reddit to discuss the movies, games, fanfiction, etc. This sub is intended primarily for serious posts, although humour in discussion is still welcome.ĭon’t discuss topics that stray too far away from having the centre of attention on Tolkien and his works. Stick to the topic instead of commenting on others. No insults, and no aggressive or passive-aggressive comments. For the full descriptions of the rules, follow this link.Īlways keep in mind that we are all human beings, so treat others how you would like to be treated. Multi-reddit of ALL Tolkien Themed Subreddits!īelow are our general rules.Wondering what books there are to read? See /u/ebneter's great postįull list of All Past Reading Discussions and Other Posts of Note Please see our frequently asked questions.

Welcome to r/tolkienfans! This subreddit is a space for the Tolkien nerds of reddit to debate and discuss the whole Tolkien mythos.
