What happened to Middle-earth?

[Airetalathwen]

(Okay this is for all of you who are sick of the numerous 'who is the coolest elf?' threads! smilies/wink.gif)

When the Valar came from the West and destroyed Numenor and the whole of ME was changed, where did the peoples of ME go to? Esspecially the ones along the coast and such (like Cirdan for example.) Were they destroyed? (Obviously he wasn't.) Or did they travel to somewhere else, because they knew it was coming? I'm sure there must be someone out there who can explain this!!

Also, is the Middle-earth we know today what was once beyond Ered Luin (now called the blue mountains?) That would make sense, but then that leads you to my above question; how then, did all the peoples survive?

Or...was the actual continent of ME unmoved, but the landscaping was so changed that you can't see any reselmblance to the way it was of old??? smilies/confused.gif

Help!

~Airetalathwen

[Merendis]

i tend to think that the landscaping changed more thatn all of middle earth was destroyed. however, i think the most important thing was that Aman was removed from it, i think that was the main purpose

[lathspell]

Indeed the lands changed for whole Beleriand was drowned after the war of wrath. But I remember that Eonwe gave the elves the choice to stay in ME or to come with him back to Aman and stay there. I guess the elves we see in ME in the 3rd age are the elves who refused to go to Aman (except Thranduil's elves which are Moriquendi).

So some years later Eregion was filled with elves and dwarves from Khazad-Dum. The Elven-Rings were made. The Last Aliance kicked the Dark Lord out and Imladris and Lorien were found and 'created' with the elven-rings.