Well met ! From Redrobes

[Redrobes]

What is your quest ?...
What is your favourite colour ?...
How are you dealing with the Aman issue ?...

Aaaarrgghhh....

I shall seek the wisdom of our resident ME guru and get back to you on that one...

[monks]

Hehe- monks from ME-DEM here.
Aman was removed from Middle Earth at the Cataclysm. ME-DEM are building the M-E post Cataclysm (3rd Age).
M-E was intended by Tolkien to be Earth with an alternate timeline/ history, hence why it can be mapped as an Earth sized globe.
One is to view the pre-Cataclysm M-E as flat much like pre-
Renaissance men thought Earth was flat.

My personal view is that Elves and Men exist with different projections in their heads: that is Elves see the world as still being flat (and whatever else), whereas Men see it as being spherical (in spherical projection). This would/could account for the ability of Elves to see extremely long distances because they don't 'see'/ experience the curvature of the Earth: I remember an objection to Legolas being able to see Minas Tirith or something....hence why Elves are able to take the 'Straight Road' to the Undying Lands. This fundamentally different experience of the world would also account for why Elves can 'fade away'.

monks

[Midgardsormr]

M-E was intended by Tolkien to be Earth with an alternate timeline/ history, hence why it can be mapped as an Earth sized globe.

That's quite a statement! Do you happen to have a reference? I'm quite a Tolkien-phile myself, and I do not recall running into anywhere that Tolkien stated or even implied that Middle Earth was intended to be an alternate version of Earth.

Granted, I left off reading the History of Middle Earth after The Lays of Beleriand, so there's quite a bit of material I haven't seen, and what I did read was quite a few years ago.

Your interpretation of the world being flat the elves and round for men is intriguing. I will have to think on that for a while, though I'd hate to overthink it--too much explanation spoils the wonder for me.

[Redrobes]

I should've warned you he's crazy

[RobA]

This is the reference on "Where on earth was ME"? I had read before:
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/200...-middle-earth/

the ‘mortal lands’ of Middle-earth, which according to Tolkien himself is part of our own Earth, but in a previous, mythical era

-Rob A>

[monks]

Yes, I've seen that link RobA- very cool.
Midgardsormr- read Tolkien's Letters (for starters)! He even gives us approximate georeferenced equivalents for Hobbiton and Minas Tirith. We chose Sarehole in Birmingham as The Bywater Mill I believe. the War of the Ring is said to exist about 5-6000 years ago in our history.Tolkein says that he somewhat regretted not being more historically accurate regards geology, geography.
People have tried to set M-E as literally 5-6000 years ago and warp the map to fit Europe (which was Tolkien's belated wish had he had another lifetime to start over) as in the link, but there' s too much ice around. Britain was covered in ice and that probably leaves the little old Shire under a 1000m of ice cap unfortunately- if taken literally.

Tolkien also wrote about time travel (yegads!) in the Notion Club Papers- an exercise in working out how he was going to deal with the Atlantis Myth: Fall of Numenor. I could go on and on...hehe

monks

[Midgardsormr]

Thanks; I'll be sure to keep an eye out for those in the future.

[Redrobes]

Merry Christmas everyone - ill be off now for a day or two.