How Long Does it Take to Get to Valinor? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Puddleglum · 11-20-2010, 01:11 AM

Interestingly, I just ran across something I had forgotten in HoME volume 4 "The Shaping of Middle Earth". In the section "The Ambarkanta" (The shape of the world), there is a diagram drawn by Tolkien (Diagram III) which shows the world after it was made round.

The diagram includes a line, tangential to the surface of the round world, labeled "The Straight Path."

And on that line, at a distance from the tangent point of about 1-1/2 radii, is a dot labeled "Valinor"!

So, if the round world (post downfall) is equivalent to our modern Earth in size, then Valinor would be about 6000 miles out.

Of course, this is just one diagram and Tolkien's ideas may have changed - but at least it suggests the theory may have more documentary basis (in Tolkien's writings) than I had originally thought.

11-20-2010, 01:11 AM	#18
Puddleglum Wight Join Date: Aug 2010 Posts: 145	Interestingly, I just ran across something I had forgotten in HoME volume 4 "The Shaping of Middle Earth". In the section "The Ambarkanta" (The shape of the world), there is a diagram drawn by Tolkien (Diagram III) which shows the world after it was made round. The diagram includes a line, tangential to the surface of the round world, labeled "The Straight Path." And on that line, at a distance from the tangent point of about 1-1/2 radii, is a dot labeled "Valinor"! So, if the round world (post downfall) is equivalent to our modern Earth in size, then Valinor would be about 6000 miles out. Of course, this is just one diagram and Tolkien's ideas may have changed - but at least it suggests the theory may have more documentary basis (in Tolkien's writings) than I had originally thought.