About the map of Middle-Earth

[Bruce MacCulloch]

Well, I seriously doubt that Tolkien was referring to that

Actually, Professor Tolkien said himself that he was referring to this.

'Middle-earth', by the way, is not a name of a never-never land without relation to the world we live in (like the Mercury of Eddison). It is just a use of Middle English middel-erde (or erthe), altered from Old English Middangeard: the name for the inhabited lands of Men 'between the seas'.

Letters, no 165

Middangeard is the Old English equivalent of the Midgard of Wagner and the Eddas.

[ February 24, 2002: Message edited by: Bruce MacCulloch ]