Geography of Middle Earth

[Oroaranion]

Wow, first of all, i think it's been a good few years since i last posted, i feel quite out of shape!

to business - i have just finshed my 3rd reading of the Silmarillion, plus having read Lord of the Rings a good 6 times and The Hobbit 3 my mind began to bring up old questions...

the geography of Middle Earth seems somewhat vague to me. i know that the lands of Ossiriand and Beleriand were taken under the seas after the Valar deposed of Morgoth. however; there are vague mentions to be found in the Quenta Silmarillion of 'LotR' places: Eriador, Anduin, and the Misty Mountains are suposed to have been travelled by the Nandor.

what i would like to know is, does JRR give us any indication anywhere of just how far into the East of Middle Earth in the First Age such places might be? they are clearly over the Ered Luin, and im guessing further east than Cuivienen as that is not mentioned in LotR.

any help is much appreciated!

[Inziladun]

The LOTR locations mentioned in The Silmarillion would be in the same places as the Third Age inhabitants knew them. If one could pan to the east on the map shown in The Silmarillion, one should easily be able to correlate the locations of the places you name with their appearance on the LOTR maps, using the Ered Luin as a reference point.
I lack any of the books at the moment, but I believe Cuivienen was already vanished by the time of the War of Wrath.

Also, welcome back!

[Tuor in Gondolin]

Karen Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-Earth has some
interesting conjectures. About Cuivienen , she has a
rather giant Inland Sea Of Helcar extending from about
where 2nd, 3rd age Mordor is far to the east with Cuivienen on
the eastern shore, in distance about 2x again the distance from
the western edge of Beleriand to the Ered Luin.

And in the Encyclopedia of Arda:
This map of Cuiviénen is adapted from Map IV from The Shaping of Middle-earth (volume 4 of The History of Middle-earth). It is unclear how much of the detail of that early map Tolkien meant to stand, but it is the only source we have that shows Cuiviénen in any detail. Certain elements of the map shown here have been modified to bring it into line with the published Silmarillion - see Note 1 for details.
Called the Water of Awakening, the land on the shores of the inland sea of Helcar where the first Elves awoke during the Years of the Trees; it lay far in the east of Middle-earth.


The map referred to above didn't come out (sorry).

[Beregond]

Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle Earth is indeed an excellent book! I highly recommend it! Even if some maps are based on conjecture, they are well drawn and explained. The maps of the entire earth are particularly eye-opening the first time you see them! Since you're asking this question, Oroaranion, I think you'd like the book - just wanted to throw that in after you mentioned it, Tuor. :)

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Yep, I can only second (third), and therefore seal the recommendation of Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas. Some things, like the position of Cuiviénen, are based on guessing from large part (because there is not much better evidence), however, they are counting with all probability and with all possible evidence brought by Tolkien, thus, quite acceptable and making sense. And indeed, it looks like Cuiviénen was on the eastern shore of this inland sea of Helcar; remnants of this sea are both lake Rhun and Núrnen in the Third Age (Rhun possibly being very close to the original eastern shore of Helcar, thus, very close to the place of the Elves' awakening).