Breaking of the World
 

Hi all,

My question relates to this passage regarding Aragorn's death:

Does anyone know what is meant by "the breaking of the world". My understanding is that when the "unfaithful" Numenorians sailed to the Undying lands, Eru "broke" the world in two, with one piece being Valinor and the other piece containing M-E. But that quote seems to indicate a second breaking will occur. Does Tolkien write anything about this second breaking? When will it occur and why?

I actually think the meaning of this part is "he looked like the Kings of Men looked before the breaking of the world", so it actually is referring to Númenor. However, I think there still might be more to say about it, but I don't feel competent enough to speculate wider about any other breakings. So I'll wait if anyone else contributes to this thread. I just wanted to add my little bit of knowledge when I could.

Well, it's obvious that the events that occurred in The Lord of the Rings are antediluvian, so the second breaking of the world obviously refers to the Biblical Flood.

......just kidding..... :p

Thanks Legate,

After reading it again, I think you're right. For some reason it sounded like he lay there for an age or so and then at last the world was broken again. But I think your interpretation makes much more sense. Thanks!

Well, in the Silmarillion, there are lots of graves that "remained/not remained there until the world was changed" (but this was even before the Breaking of Beleriand), so I think if you have read this, no wonder that the part about Aragorn Elessar implies something similar.

This will sound very unproffessional, seeing as I have no idea where I heard this or a viable quote, but in one of the Lost Tales or something, Mandos makes a prophecy that on the day of the Final Battle Morgoth will find the way to break the Door of Night, will fight on the very plains of Valinor itself against every goodie ever made, versus every baddie ever made, and evil will be conquered forever. Turin Turambar will be the one to slay Morgoth, and Feanor will come back from the dead, aid Yavanna in restoring the Two Trees, and all Men and Elves will live together in harmony forever. (The Dwarves will aid in the restoration of Arda, as will the Ents).

But I think Tolkien scrapped this story eventually anyway, so I agree with Legate that it was referring to the pre-Numenor world, not the post-Gondor world.

Just a thought if Middle Earth is meant to be the past then the continents are in a completly different shape then what they are now how did they get this way. 6000 years is no where near the time continent drift needs to change the land mass significantly. Perhaps the second breaking caused this?

The books are not based on the real world, Tolkein has said so.

That is the most interesting overlay I've ever seen of Middle Earth over Europe and vicinity.

It should be understood that Tolkien said that his legendarium is feigned history of the real world. So it would be more accurate to say that the books are not the real world, but they are certainly based on a non-factual yet still more or less plausible supposed history of the real world.

Thanks!

If Middle Earth is not in based in the 'real' world how come Tolkien said we were probably in the sixth or seventh age?

That's a really cool map of Europe/Middle Earth, however the Shire seems FAR too much to the south. It seems almost at the same latitude as Rohan.

That's a good observation, even allowing for perspective distortion from whatever projection they used for the Europe part of it.

It's still major cool to look at, though...

Yes, the north seems a little bit moved. Nevertheless, it is nice. And after all, who knows if the rotation axis was always diverted? Possibly in the Middle-earth times the North pole was really "on the top".