LePetitChoux, where
didyou find that map?
My understanding is that ME is our world only thousands of years ago, so it is a kind of Panagea. Here is a posting I put up on this on another topic yesterday (I have no idea how to do a link):
Quote:
There's a series of maps in the Tolkien Illustrated Encyclopedia (my reference source for anything pre-The Hobbit until I get round to reading The Silmarillion) which shows the development of Arda (the World) through the various Ages to present time (The Fourth Age of the Sun), some 40,000 years after its creation.
Comparing the Third Age of the Sun (the Age in which LotR is set) to the Fourth Age, Middle Earth represents Europe, Asia and Africa. The area in which LotR is set is Europe (the Shire being the UK) with Harad and Far Harad being the Middle East and Africa respectively. The Americas are the Sunlands and Australia is indeed the Dark Lands.
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Which pretty much ties in with your map. But I'd still love to know where it came from (the maps were one of the biggest fascinations for me when I first read LotR).