Skip to main content

tolkiens legendarium - What are the Undying Lands?


I've heard a lot about the Undying Lands but I don't fully understand how they're different from Middle-earth and why only certain people/races are allowed to go there.


Can someone explain?



Answer



This is a pretty broad question (in the realms of Tolkien it's roughly equivalent of asking "What's Africa?") but here goes...


The Undying Lands (or Aman, or the Blessed Lands, or Valinor) is a continent that was to the west of the Middle Earth we see in the Lord of the Rings. It was home to the Valar, Maiar and most of the Elves throughout the First and Second Ages.



As part of their reward for aiding the Elves in the War of Wrath against Morgoth, the Numenorians were gifted an island from which Aman could be observed from its highest peak - Numenor. This set-up worked well until the Numenorians became prideful and firstly conquered and captured Sauron, bringing him back to Numenor, and then, under Sauron's urging, attempted to land on Aman with a fleet.


This prompted the Valar to appeal to Eru to act to preserve the sanctity of the Undying Lands. Eru removed the Undying Lands from the earth - converting the earth to a sphere in the process (it was previously flat in Tolkien's mythology). Eru also sank Numenor, killing the majority of them save for the Faithful - Elendil and his sons who then founded Gondor.


From that point through the Third and Fourth Ages Elves were allowed to continue travelling "home" to Aman, or "heading west" as it is referred to in the Lord of the Rings a few times. The Straight Road was left open for them, and only them, to travel (see my answer here for more details, as well as on the exceptions).


If you wish to know more, I would definitely recommend the Silmarillion for the history of Middle Earth prior to the end of the Third Age, which was when the Lord of the Rings was set.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more