The East & South of Middle-earth are Terrifying! | LotR Lore
Realms Unravelled
353,853 views
In this video we journey past the borders of the known world using original maps which I have illustrated and animated, based upon Tolkien's own maps, combined with the excelent cartographic work of Karen Wynn Fonstad and refined further using information contained within the Histories of Middle-earth.
Using these maps we will explore the terrifying East and South of Middle-earth: the Sea of Rhûn and Dorwinion, the shores of Cuiviénen beside the vanished Sea of Helcar where the first Elves awoke, Hildórien and the Mountains of the Wind where Men opened their eyes and Morgoth put a darkness in their hearts, the eastern Dwarven kingdoms of the Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks and Stonefoots, and the nameless calamity that drove them from their ancient halls at the close of the Third Age. We travel south into Khand and the realm of the Variags, into Near Harad and Far Harad, to Umbar and the Corsairs and the Black Númenóreans who served Sauron after Númenor sank, to the Mûmakil and the strange stars that Aragorn beheld in his hidden years, and at last beyond the Dark Land and the East Sea to the Walls of the Sun and the mountain Kalormë, the eastern mirror of the Pelóri and Oiolossë, where Oromë rode to the ends of the earth and found a silent beach and a dark and empty sea.
Drawing on The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shaping of Middle-earth and The Book of Lost Tales, this is the story of what Tolkien left off the map, why the East and South were feared above all other lands, and why the greatest horror in his legendarium may not be Sauron or Morgoth at all, but the emptiness that waits where the world runs out.
https://linktr.ee/realmsunravelled
MAPS: I personally illustrated the maps shown in my videos. My pre-first age maps and my maps of the East, which i designed to fit and layer as accuarately as possible with later maps, are as lore friendly as possible (very difficult due to some seemingly contradictory geographical information in the legendarium) and draw much inspiration from the excelent work of Karen Wynn Fonstad. Unfortunately Karen passed away before the Histories of Middle-earth books were all released and so my maps build upon her work and include alterations based upon the information that she did not have access to during her lifetime. I update these maps constantly as I attempt to refine and improve them.
ARTWORK: All artwork featured in this video has been created for the exclusive use of Realms Unravelled is not sourced from third-party artists.
Contact:
For all enquiries including sponsorships and commercial opportunities please contact me at realmsunravelled@gmail.com
20 Comments
1. Saruman journeyed to the east, and we know Gandolf did the same to the south. Gandolf even had a name there: Incánus (north spy).
2. There were settlements of Numenorians in the south. Queen Berúthiel hailed from an inland settlement in the south and married a Gondorian king.
3. There were a group of short, almost dwarf-like men from the east that fought for Sauron at the Pelenor fields.
4. There are cities of stone in the east. Overall, there's a strong indication that men were in higher numbers than the relatively depopulated areas in the West.
5. In a letter, Tolkien once vaguely referred to some distant fortress of Sauron's. This makes a lot of sense as there are long periods where Sauron is mostly absent from the chronicles of the West. It's likely he had other bases of power that are unknown to the writers of the Red Book.
6. The Avari are an elvish group sundered from their brethren in the West. They are found somewhere in the east and would likely be very culturally distinct.
7. It's highly likely that the deep tegra forests of Russia are represented in Arda and begin somewhere east of the Red Hills.
8. It's likely most of the Nazgul hail from parts of Arda beyond the scope of the map. This is confirmed with the only named Nazgul, "Khamûl the Easterling."
9. The collapse of the lamps and destruction of Utumno probably scarred the landscape somewhere out in the east.
10. The Variags of Khand are probably a migration of northern men and not Easterlings as commonly believed. The name is distinctly Scandi and not Turkic.
11. It's possible there are giant sand worms in a distant desert in the east. Bilbo mentions these in the Hobbit, but it could just be Hobbit fantasy. This throwaway line inspired the creation of Dune's sand worms.
However I think to recall that after the encircling of the world as a sphere-like some NEW LANDS rose up in place of the missing of both Aman and Land of the Sun, as kinda making a new balance linking both extremes of the world into a new continent to keep balance on Middle Earth/Endor and the Dark Lands, mostly used for Tolkien as a reference of the North American continent, whereas the southernmost and still eastwards Dark Lands pretty much resembles a mix up of the tropical and temperate-colder Gondwanic regions of our world as South America, Madagascar, Australia and nearby larger islands, and maybe even India when not being already an anexed to Eurasian continent and the Southeastern Asia islands and peninsulas, i.e. the Dark Lands are likely the most thrilling interesting stuff in Tolkien´s legendarium regardless on how little they got developed in all, pretty much the G.R.R. Martin Sothoryos continent in his world of Song of Ice and Fire.
"Trust me - You don't want to know, what lurks there. ^^" :D :D
The East & South of Middle-earth are Terrifying! | LotR Lore
Realms Unravelled
353,853 views
In this video we journey past the borders of the known world using original maps which I have illustrated and animated, based upon Tolkien's own maps, combined with the excelent cartographic work of Karen Wynn Fonstad and refined further using information contained within the Histories of Middle-earth.
Using these maps we will explore the terrifying East and South of Middle-earth: the Sea of Rhûn and Dorwinion, the shores of Cuiviénen beside the vanished Sea of Helcar where the first Elves awoke, Hildórien and the Mountains of the Wind where Men opened their eyes and Morgoth put a darkness in their hearts, the eastern Dwarven kingdoms of the Ironfists, Stiffbeards, Blacklocks and Stonefoots, and the nameless calamity that drove them from their ancient halls at the close of the Third Age. We travel south into Khand and the realm of the Variags, into Near Harad and Far Harad, to Umbar and the Corsairs and the Black Númenóreans who served Sauron after Númenor sank, to the Mûmakil and the strange stars that Aragorn beheld in his hidden years, and at last beyond the Dark Land and the East Sea to the Walls of the Sun and the mountain Kalormë, the eastern mirror of the Pelóri and Oiolossë, where Oromë rode to the ends of the earth and found a silent beach and a dark and empty sea.
Drawing on The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Peoples of Middle-earth, The Shaping of Middle-earth and The Book of Lost Tales, this is the story of what Tolkien left off the map, why the East and South were feared above all other lands, and why the greatest horror in his legendarium may not be Sauron or Morgoth at all, but the emptiness that waits where the world runs out.
https://linktr.ee/realmsunravelled
MAPS: I personally illustrated the maps shown in my videos. My pre-first age maps and my maps of the East, which i designed to fit and layer as accuarately as possible with later maps, are as lore friendly as possible (very difficult due to some seemingly contradictory geographical information in the legendarium) and draw much inspiration from the excelent work of Karen Wynn Fonstad. Unfortunately Karen passed away before the Histories of Middle-earth books were all released and so my maps build upon her work and include alterations based upon the information that she did not have access to during her lifetime. I update these maps constantly as I attempt to refine and improve them.
ARTWORK: All artwork featured in this video has been created for the exclusive use of Realms Unravelled is not sourced from third-party artists.
Contact:
For all enquiries including sponsorships and commercial opportunities please contact me at realmsunravelled@gmail.com