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Middle-earth : Middle EarthMiddle-earth is a fictitious land created by J. R. R. Tolkien where the action of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion takes place. Tolkien wrote extensively about the mythology and history of the land, which form the back-story for these stories. Most of these writings, with the exception of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, were edited and published posthumously by his son Christopher. Notable among them are the multiple volumes of The History of Middle-earth, which describes a larger cosmology which includes Middle-earth as well as Valinor, Númenor, and other lands. Tolkien's mythological tales of Middle-earth are meant to be taken, fictitiously, as an ancient history of the Earth, particularly of Europe, from several thousand years before the lands took their present shape. In fact, three of the works claim to be the life work of Bilbo Baggins. Like Shakespeare's King Lear, they occupy a historical period that could not have actually existed. The term "Middle-earth" was not invented by Tolkien; it occurs many times in Middle English (Middel-erde) and Old English writings (Middangeard). It occurs half a dozen times in Beowulf, and is cognate to Midgard in Old Norse. It is consistently misspelled as 'Middle Earth' by journalists. In fact, 'Middle-earth' has two meanings. One - likely the original one - refers to a continent on this fictional ancient earth, representing what we know as Eurasia and Africa. In addition, this term has been used to refer to the entire universe described by Tolkien, for he failed to provide an adequate term of his own.
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A map of the Northwestern part of Middle-earth after the end of the First Age, courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arda (http://www.glyphweb.com)
The works of Tolkien have been a major influence on role-playing games along with others such as Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, H.P. Lovecraft and Michael Moorcock. Although the most famous game to be inspired partially by the setting was Dungeons & Dragons, there have been two specifically Middle-earth based and licensed games. These are the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game from Decipher Inc.[?] and the Middle Earth Role Play game (MERP) from Iron Crown Enterprises.
The computer game Angband is a free roguelike D&D-style game that features many characters from Tolkien's works.
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