Did Tolkien even plan to fill in the other sections of Middle-earth?
 

Hey guys. I've been thinking lately on the sections of Middle-earth that remain quite unknown i.e The Southern, Eastern and Northern areas. The West of course is well known but what of the other 3? Did Tolkien ever have plans to detail them for I am quite curious and would have loved to learn more about the outer areas of middle-earth?

And if Tolkien did plan to eventually detail them what cultures, locations, histories, creatures etc would you expect to see?

I would argue that Professor Tolkien never intended to flesh out the details of the geography of Rhûn and Harad or the history and societies of the Easterlings and Haradrim for two reasons:

1) These locations were almost permanently under the Shadow, and information about them was not common knowledge in the West, so it would be inconsistent to have the fictional "authors" of the stories to know about them. We can hazard a guess at how they might have appeared judging by the sketched world-maps in The Shaping of Middle-earth but it's hardly definitive. Saruman had been in the East and Aragorn to both the East and South, and I would hazard a guess that some information might have existed among the scholars of the Dúnedain, but nothing well-known or indeed especially relevant to the major tales of Middle-earth. In Letter 131 Professor Tolkien writes that "the North-West is the only part clearly envisaged in these tales."

2) Leaving the details vague contributed to a sense of mystery which Professor Tolkien found appealing; see Letter 247 where he worries about publishing The Silmarillion because exploring the backstory of The Lord of the Rings might "destroy the magic, unless new unattainable vistas are again revealed." I think confining the details to the North-west is important for the same reason.

I don't think there really was anything important further North in Middle-earth, incidentally. I've often wondered if things like the use of chariots by the Easterlings (a feature of ancient Middle-eastern warfare) and elephant cavalry by the Haradrim (used by a variety of ancient cultures) was meant to reflect significantly on their relationship with the more early-medieval flavour of Gondor, Rohan and the like.

Well, he could have said more about the Men of Forochel and how they lived

Quite possibly.

This is actually a fairly interesting question. On one hand I agree that Tolkien probably never intended to flesh out the rest of ME since he wanted to keep things mysterious. On the other hand I am fairly sure that the people of the West DID know more of the East and South than we are told of, More importantly the would have wanted to FIND OUT more about those regions as time progressed especially post LOTR. The reason is what you alluded to that those regions HAD been so long under the shadow. It is written that the Men of Harad (presumably both Near and Far) sued for peace post ring war, and that Aragorn granted it. This peace was most likely sued in situ (that is the ones who were suing were the leaders of the forces that were already there with the armies as opposed to additional diplomats being sent from home) But it seems likely to me that part of that post war peace would have been renewal and strengthening of diplomatic ties between the West and East/South. The reason would be the same as the one I mentioned for why I think Gondor would have maintained a presence in Nurn, after the widespread destruction of the War of the Ring and the departing of the Elves (which at least some of the wise of the west would realize would decrease the potential forces firmly on the side of "The Light") ANYTHING that decreased the likelihood of another similar conflict being started soon would be at least considered. Leaving the East and South isolated would be risking letting any remnants of the Shadow have free reign to muster up another force rapidly (since, as far as we know, the lands of the South and East had little to no actual fighting on them they are presumably in much of the same condition as they were pre ring war. Mordor may be an infertile barren wasteland, but Harad and a lot of the lands east of Mordor probably aren't. Nurn was Mordor's breadbasket, but it probably wasn't the sole breadbasket for the whole of the shadow's realm. ) The War of the ring seems to have illustrated to the West the folly of isolation between the kingdoms of the West, that close alliances between them was a key to the regions security. The best way to keep the shadow from being able to win the men of the South and East back to its side would be to win them to the West's side.

While Tolkien may not have intended to write about them who knows what he might have done had he lived longer or had been able to devote himself to his writing and had secretarial support. The Hobbit attached itself to the Silmarillion stories by accident and Faramir wandered into the woods of Ithilien unplanned...and as self appointed leader of the Faramir fan club, I am glad he did. What l really love about Tolkien is that the stories do seem to proceed from the world rather than the world being a superficial backdrop to the story- like a photographer's prop opposed to a genuine landscape. With landscape no matter how far you go there are always new vistas.

Indeed. The Sea of Rhun always fascinated me, ever since I first reat it 30 years ago. Its marked on the map as a huge lake with a name, but there's absolutely no information about it,

That and the two blue Wizards are among the things that fascinate me the most. It's strange really :)