Location of Minhiriath in Middle-earth

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Minhiriath is a region of Middle-earth. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2000x1887, 161 KB) Map shows location of w:Minhiriath in J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional world of Middle-earth marked in red. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2000x1887, 161 KB) Map shows location of w:Minhiriath in J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional world of Middle-earth marked in red. ... A map of the Northwestern part of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age, courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arda. ... John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) was an English philologist, writer and university professor who is best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. ... A map of the Northwestern part of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age, courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arda. ...

Minhiriath (Sindarin for 'Between Rivers' and thus an Elvish form of Mesopotamia) was located in Eriador, a name for all the lands between the Hithaeglir and the Ered Luin. Minhiriath had no clear border in the north, but to the south, and east and west it was bounded by river and sea : the Brandywine, the Greyflood and Belegaer, 'The Great Sea'. Sindarin is an artificial language (or conlang) developed by J. R. R. Tolkien. ... Elvish languages are constructed languages used typically by elves in a fantasy setting. ... Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and Southwest Iran. ... A map of Eriador at the end of the Third Age, courtesy of the Encyclopedia of Arda. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fantasy world of Middle-earth, the Misty Mountains (also known by its Sindarin name of Hithaeglir - misspelled as Hithaiglin on the original Lord of the Rings map - and as the Mountains of Mist) are a long mountain range, running north to south, between Eriador... The Ered Luin or Blue Mountains, also known as Ered Lindon, is the mountain range at the far west of Eriador, in J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional world of Middle-earth. ... Location of Baranduin river in Middle-earth In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Baranduin or Brandywine River is a river of Middle-earth. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Middle-earth, the river Gwathló or Greyflood is a river in middle Eriador. ... In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Belegaer, the Great Sea or the Sundering Seas, is the sea of Arda that is west of Middle-earth. ...

The original inhabitants of Minhiriath (Minhiriathrim) were descended from the same Atani as the ancestors of the Númenóreans, but because they spoke mutually unintelligible languages, the Númenóreans did not class the Minhiriathrim as Middle Men. The race of Men in J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth books, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, refers to humanity and does not denote gender. ... Númenor is a fictional location from J. R. R. Tolkiens universe of Middle-earth and is intended to be his version of Atlantis. ... In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Middle Men was a term used by the Númenóreans for Men of Middle-earth who were related to the Edain, the ancestors of the Númenóreans themselves. ...

When the large-scale deforestation of their land began under the Númenórean 'Ship Kings' after the 7th century Second Age, the minhiriathrim became openly hostile, and were persecuted. Only those who "fled from Minhiriath into the dark woods of the great Cape of Eryn Vorn" survived. Most, if not all of these forest-dwellers subsequently "welcomed Sauron and hoped for his victory over the Men of the Sea", but they were to be disappointed - and permanently trapped - by Sauron's burning of much of the rest of the surviving forest, and final defeat, in S.A. 1701. In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Eryn Vorn is a wooded cape in Eriador. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Eye of Sauron. ...

From S.A. 3320, Minhiriath became nominally part of the newly established Kingdom of Arnor, at which time it formed the upper part of, In the fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien, Arnor, or the Northern Kingdom, was a kingdom of the Dúnedain in the land of Eriador in Middle-earth. ...

..a land that was far and wide on either bank a desert, treeless but untilled.

('Of Galadriel & Celeborn' from "Unfinished Tales")

From T.A. 861, Minhiriath was inherited by one of Arnor's three successor states, Cardolan, but the "ravaging" of Cardolan by evil forces in T.A. 1409 no doubt caused extensive depopulation of the whole country. Even worse was the advent of the Great Plague in T.A. 1636, after which Minhiriath was "almost entirely deserted". After S.A. 1975, even though "a few secretive hunter-folk lived in the woods" throughout the Third Age (probably a reference which includes Eryn Vorn), Minhiriath was claimed by no kingdom at all. Cardolan is a fictional country from J. R. R. Tolkiens universe of Middle-earth. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Middle-earth, the Great Plague was a disastrous pestilence. ... The Third Age is a fictional time period from J. R. R. Tolkiens universe of Middle-earth. ...

Although "still in places well-wooded" by the time of the War of the Ring, the once continuously forested Minhiriath bore the permanent scars of over 5000 years of felling, burning and war. Combatants Free peoples: Gondor, Rohan, Dale, Esgaroth, Erebor, The Shire, Lothlórien, the Woodland Realm and the Fangorn forest Evil forces: Under Sauron: Mordor, Rhûn, Morgul, Harad, Umbar, Khand Under Saruman: Isengard, Dunland Commanders Gandalf (died but later resurrected) Aragorn Théoden† Éomer Denethor† Dáin II† Brand† Galadriel...

The same is not necessarily the case for its human population, however: when talking of Eriador (and particularly the lands south and west of Bree) to an innkeeper at the end of the War of the Ring, for example, Gandalf confidently predicts that, For other uses, see Gandalf (disambiguation). ...

..the waste in time will be waste no longer, and there will be people and fields where once there was wilderness.

("The Journey Home", The Lord of the Rings)