Forodwaith

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Forodwaith
J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium location
Information
Typelarge icy region
Other name(s)the Northern Waste,
the Northerland
Locationnorth of Eriador and Wilderland

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Forodwaith was the name both of a large region and the people who lived there. [1] It is the far north region of Middle-earth; it represents a loose mythical view of the Arctic region of Eurasia.

J. R. R. Tolkien British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and academic, who is best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

Fiction Narrative with imaginary elements

Fiction broadly refers to any narrative consisting of imaginary people, events, or descriptions—in other words, a narrative not based strictly on history or fact. It also commonly refers, more narrowly, to written narratives in prose and often specifically novels. In film, it generally corresponds to narrative film in opposition to documentary.

Middle-earth Continent in Tolkiens legendarium

Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of British writer J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. The term is equivalent to the term Midgard of Norse mythology, describing the human-inhabited world, that is, the central continent of the Earth in Tolkien's imagined mythological past.

Contents

In Tolkien's earliest stories connected with Middle-earth, Forodwaith had been a name he created for Vikings. [2]

Vikings Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates

Vikings were Scandinavians, who from the late 8th to late 11th centuries, raided and traded from their Northern European homelands across wide areas of Europe, and explored westwards to Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland. The term is also commonly extended in modern English and other vernaculars to include the inhabitants of Norse home communities during what has become known as the Viking Age, 798–1066 AD. This period of Nordic military, mercantile and demographic expansion constitutes an important element in the early medieval history of Scandinavia, Estonia, the British Isles, France, Kievan Rus' and Sicily.

Middle-earth narrative

The letter F in the Cirth, the runes of Sindarin Certh 3.svg
The letter F in the Cirth, the runes of Sindarin

Geography

Forodwaith was located in the far north of Middle-earth. The Sindarin name Forodwaith translates loosely as Northern Waste and literally as Northern Realm, and was a name for the lands north of the Iron Mountains of the First Age. Little was known of it, except that despite lying scarcely 100 leagues north of the Shire, it was an area prone to long winters and severe cold. This was due to its proximity to the Gap of Ilmen, and Morgoth's evil cold, which emanated, in ancient times, from his place of dwelling, and lingered still into the Third Age.

Sindarin is one of the fictional languages devised by J. R. R. Tolkien for use in his fantasy stories set in Arda, primarily in Middle-earth. Sindarin is one of the many languages spoken by the Elves, called the Eledhrim[ɛˈlɛðrim] or Edhellim[ɛˈðɛllim] in Sindarin. The word Sindarin is itself a Quenya form. The only known Sindarin word for this language is Eglathrin, a word probably only used in the First Age.

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the First Age, or First Age of the Children of Ilúvatar is the heroic period in which most of Tolkien's early legends are set. Versions of these stories were later published in The Silmarillion, and tales from this period lend a deep sense of time and history to the later period in which the action of The Lord of the Rings takes place.

The Shire is a region of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, described in The Lord of the Rings and other works. The Shire refers to an inland area settled exclusively by Hobbits and largely removed from the goings-on in the rest of Middle-earth. It is located in the northwest of the continent, in the large region of Eriador and the Kingdom of Arnor. In the languages invented by Tolkien, its name in Westron was Sûza "Shire" or Sûzat "The Shire", while its name in Sindarin was i Drann.

After the War of Wrath and the breaking of the World, the Iron Mountains were mostly destroyed, and the area of Forodwaith that lay north of Eriador became known as Forochel, together with the great bay and cape that carried the same name. The Bay of Forochel was ice-bound during its long winters. The northernmost Blue Mountains stood on the south-west of the bay.

The War of Wrath, or the Great Battle, is the final war against Morgoth at the end of the First Age. It is a key plot development in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium,

Eriador is a large region in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth. The Shire, a land which became famous in the Third Age and again in modern times, was located in the central west of this region. The region was also called the Lone-lands, a translation of Eriador.

Sea ice Ice formed from frozen seawater

Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface. Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans. Much of the world's sea ice is enclosed within the polar ice packs in the Earth's polar regions: the Arctic ice pack of the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic ice pack of the Southern Ocean. Polar packs undergo a significant yearly cycling in surface extent, a natural process upon which depends the Arctic ecology, including the ocean's ecosystems. Due to the action of winds, currents and temperature fluctuations, sea ice is very dynamic, leading to a wide variety of ice types and features. Sea ice may be contrasted with icebergs, which are chunks of ice shelves or glaciers that calve into the ocean. Depending on location, sea ice expanses may also incorporate icebergs.

Further east, the southern extent of Forodwaith was bounded by the northernmost Misty Mountains, and by the Grey Mountains and Iron Hills. The evil realm of Angmar (ca. T.A.  1300 to 1975) was based in the northernmost Misty Mountains, whence it was able to dominate a significant part of Forodwaith.

In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth, the Misty Mountains are a mountain range, and one of the most important features of Middle-earth's geography. The mountain-chain is less well known by its alternative names. One of these is Hithaeglir ; this was misspelled as Hithaiglin on the original main map of The Lord of the Rings. Other alternative names are the Mountains of Mist or the Towers of Mist. The range stretched continuously for some 900 miles across the continent of Middle-earth.

The Iron Hills are a fictional range of mountains in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. They are remnants of the Iron Mountains of the First Age and are located east of the Lonely Mountain in the northeastern part of Wilderland and the northwest of Rhûn. The Iron Hills are a realm of Dwarves. In Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, an army of Dwarves from the Iron Hills under Dáin II Ironfoot comes to the aid of Thorin Oakenshield in the Battle of Five Armies.

Angmar fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkiens continent of Middle-earth

Angmar is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's continent of Middle-earth, at the north end of the Misty Mountains. It was used by the Lord of the Ringwraiths as a base from which to attack the kingdoms of the Dúnedain in the North, all of which were eventually destroyed. Angmar itself was subsequently destroyed by combined armies of men and elves shortly thereafter.

The Lossoth

The Men of Forodwaith were a strange folk apparently unrelated to the Edain. During the Third Age their descendants were known as the Snowmen of Forochel or Lossoth. [1] In Unfinished Tales it was stated that they could glide on ice by tying bones to their feet. The Lossoth made their houses of snow, and possessed "carts without wheels", probably sleighs. They believed that inhospitable weather was caused by the Witch-king of Angmar, and feared his supposed ability to cause storms so greatly that when at first King Arvedui arrived seeking help, they remained aloof. They dwelled mainly on the Cape of Forochel, whose location made them inaccessible to their foes, "but they often camped on the south shores of the bay at the feet of the Mountains." [1]

In J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the terms Man and Men refer to humankind – in contrast to Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and other humanoid races – and does not denote gender. Hobbits were a branch of the lineage of Men.

In the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Edain were men (humans) who made their way into Beleriand in the First Age, and were friendly to the Elves.

<i>Unfinished Tales</i> book

Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980. Many of the tales within are retold in The Silmarillion, albeit in modified forms; the work also contains a summary of the events of The Lord of the Rings told from a less personal perspective.

Fauna

The only known creatures of Forodwaith were white wolves, and the unspecified animals whose meat and bones the Lossoth used. Many white wolves invaded Eriador in the Fell Winter of T.A.  2911-12.

The Last King of Arthedain

Arvedui, last King of Arthedain, fled to the Ice-bay of Forochel after his realm was destroyed by Angmar. This occurred in early T.A.  1974, before winter had ended. The King approached the Lossoth and attempted to barter with them for supplies with jewels, in which the Lossoth had no interest. Fearing the wrath of Angmar, the Lossoth were at first unwilling to help. Eventually, the decision to aid the King was made in part out of fear of violence, and partly out of pity for the ragged and emaciated condition of the King's fellowship. The Lossoth provided the men with some food, and constructed snow huts for them to wait out the winter.

When word reached Círdan that Arvedui had fled from his kingdom, he dispatched a vessel to Forochel to seek him. In March the ship reached the Ice Bay of Forochel, yet could not reach the shore as the ice floes were still thick and only just beginning to break and thaw. Now friendly to Arvedui, the Lossoth transported him and his men to the waiting ship on their sledges. Awed and afraid of the vessel, the like of which none of them had seen before, the Lossoth warned the King not to try to sail south in such frigid conditions. Against their advice Arvedui boarded the ship, which became surrounded by ice. Eventually the ship's hull was crushed, and he was drowned in the ice-bay, together with the palantíri of the North.

However, the ring of Barahir, which Arvedui had carried, survived. He left it with the chief of the Lossoth in thanks for their aid, and the Dúnedain later paid to recover it.

Interpretations

A portion of Forochel is depicted in the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Introduced in April 2008, a new zone around The Ice-Bay of Forochel was added, while the Epic quest line follows the last days of Arvedui, Last King of Arthedain. [3] The game developers depict the Lossoth skating and pushing sledges on ice in accordance with J.R.R. Tolkien's notations. However, new elements were introduced in the depiction of the Lossoth, namely, their ability to tame and ride to war on mammoths. In addition, many aspects of their language, culture, and appearance are derived from or inspired by that of the Finnish, Sami, and Inuit people.

One of the Ringwraiths featured in the film The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is referred to as "the Ringwraith of Forod", [4] possibly a reference to the region.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Houghton Mifflin., 1988 edition, Appendix A. 321-322.
  2. ↑ Christopher Tolkien (1984, editor), The Book of Lost Tales Part 2, George Allen & Unwin, ch. VI p.330 note 24, index p. 363; ISBN   0-04-823265-3
  3. ↑ "LOTRO.com, Book 13: Crafting the Content of Forochel" . Retrieved 2009-01-27.
  4. ↑ https://www.wetanz.com/shop/figures/the-ringwraith-of-forod
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