Welcome Gandalf's first reading of the inscription on the West-gate of Moria. One word was meant: mellon, “friend”.
The Lord of the Rings, Book II, ch. 4. · Write your own name in this script
The Gate New to Middle-earth? Start with the people and places the tales are built on — each entry in plain language, with its source named.
Browse people Glossary Reading paths
The Tower For loremasters Every paragraph carries its canon layer and its chapter. What is missing is named as openly as what is there.
Coverage Method Family trees
Opened at random Three entries, as if the book fell open — one figure, one place, one thing.
Open again Character Fingon
High King of the Noldor; rescuer of Maedhros
Fingon was the eldest son of Fingolfin and became the second High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth.
Place Rivendell
The Last Homely House East of the Sea
Rivendell, called Imladris in Sindarin, is a hidden Elven refuge in a deep valley of Eriador, founded by Elrond after the fall of Eregion in the Second Age.
Work Sauron Defeated
Volume 9 of The History of Middle-earth (1992), edited by Christopher Tolkien
Sauron Defeated is volume 9 of The History of Middle-earth.
Coming up The Rings of Power, season 3 11 November 2026
Eight episodes; episode companions are planned within 48 hours of each night.
11 Nov RoP S3 21 Nov TS Seminar 3 Jan Tolkien 3.1. 25 Mar Reading Day 25.3. 20 May Tolkien Tage Geldern 22 Jul Tolkien Thing 15 Sept Silmarillion 50 22 Sept Hobbit Day 22.9. All dates & iCal feed Daily riddle · “Who am I?” Clue 1 of 5: In those years I traveled and worked across many different lands.
Solution Aragorn
From the reading room Beowulf, the first page (“Hwæt”) The only manuscript of the poem, written around the year 1000 and scorched by fire in 1731. Tolkien called Beowulf one of his most valued sources. The Beowulf manuscript, folio 134r British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A XV. At the foot of this page stands the line “eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas” — the word Tolkien turned into orc. “eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas” — Beowulf, line 112 Giants, elves and orc-corpses: the three words Tolkien drew ents, elves and orcs from — here in the eleventh-century manuscript. Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane — illustration for Macbeth, 1912 Soldiers with branches instead of a marching wood: Tolkien’s schoolboy disappointment at this resolution is, he said himself, the reason the Ents really march. Bodleian Library, Oxford The Bodleian holds Tolkien's papers today, among them manuscripts and drawings. The Codex Argenteus — the Silver Bible, Uppsala Wulfila’s sixth-century Gothic Bible, the chief monument of the language Tolkien discovered for himself as a schoolboy. The names of the Northmen of Rhovanion are built the Gothic way. The Codex Regius of the Poetic Edda, folio 17r The thirteenth-century Icelandic manuscript that preserves the Völuspá and its list of dwarves — the names of Thorin’s companions, and the name Gandalf, are in it. The Eagle and Child, Oxford The Inklings, the writers' circle including Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, met in this pub on St Giles’ for years. “Éala Éarendel engla beorhtast” — Exeter Book, folio 9v The two lines of the Old English Crist that Tolkien read in 1913 and never let go: the beginning of the legendarium, in the tenth-century manuscript. Edgbaston Waterworks, Birmingham The waterworks tower stands beside Perrott’s Folly; the pair is sometimes taken as a prompt for tower motifs — though that is not attested. Exeter College, Oxford Tolkien studied here from 1911 — first Classics, then English Language and Literature from 1913. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the first page The only manuscript of the poem, c. 1400. Tolkien edited the text with E. V. Gordon in 1925, gave the W. P. Ker lecture on it in 1953 and translated it into verse. Kalevala, title page of the first edition, 1835 Elias Lönnrot’s collection of Finnish folk poetry. Tolkien read it as a schoolboy in Kirby’s translation and learned Finnish to read it in the original. Atlantis according to Athanasius Kircher, 1678 Kircher’s map of the sunken island between Spain and America. Tolkien’s Númenor is, as he wrote himself, his own variety of the Atlantis legend — and the great wave a recurring dream. Kullervo’s Curse — Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1899 The hapless hero of the Kalevala, whose tale Tolkien himself called the germ of his legends — Túrin Turambar bears his features. The Red Book of Hergest, columns 240–241 The Welsh manuscript of c. 1400 that preserves the Mabinogion. Sindarin, Tolkien wrote, was built to resemble Welsh — and the Red Book of Westmarch does not bear its name by chance. Merton College, Oxford Tolkien was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature here from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Moseley Bog, Birmingham The wooded ground lay behind Tolkien's childhood home; he named the area as a model for the landscape of the Shire. The Birmingham Oratory The Oratory church where Father Francis Morgan served — the priest who raised the orphaned Tolkien brothers. Tolkien called The Lord of the Rings “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work”. University Museum, Oxford The museum sits minutes from Tolkien's places of work; its cast-iron hall is part of the Oxford of his years. Pembroke College, Oxford Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon here from 1925 to 1945 — the years of “The Hobbit”. Perrott’s Folly, Birmingham The tower stood near Tolkien's home in Edgbaston; together with the neighbouring waterworks tower it is cited as a prompt for the Two Towers. Siegfried kills Fafner — Arthur Rackham, 1911 Rackham’s illustration for Wagner’s Ring. That Tolkien’s Ring came from Wagner’s is often claimed — Tolkien himself: “Both rings were round, and there the resemblance ceases.” The Sigurd carving at Ramsund — drawing by Oscar Montelius, 1877 The rock in Södermanland (c. 1030) tells the Sigurd legend in pictures: Sigurd stabs the dragon Fáfnir from below, roasts his heart, understands the birds. Túrin kills Glaurung the same way. The Forging of the Sampo — Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1893 Ilmarinen forges the wondrous object of the Kalevala. Whether the Sampo prompted the Silmaril is a scholarly conjecture — not something Tolkien said. Sarehole Mill, Birmingham The mill stood beside Tolkien's childhood home in Hall Green; he later named the area as a model for the Shire. The Battle of the Somme, 1916 Men of the 11th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, in a captured trench near Ovillers, July 1916. Tolkien was there the same summer as signals officer with the Lancashire Fusiliers. Thiepval Memorial, Somme The memorial names the missing of the 1916 Somme battles — the months in which Tolkien's battalion served. J. R. R. Tolkien in uniform, 1916 Taken in 1916, the year he served on the Somme. This photograph is in the public domain; later portraits are protected and are not shown here. J. R. R. Tolkien, ca. 1925 Taken in 1925 or early 1926, the year of his Oxford appointment. A studio photograph commissioned by his students; the photographer is unknown and the image is in the public domain. The Wanderer — Exeter Book The first page of the Old English poem of the homeless warrior. Its question “Where is the horse, where the rider?” returns in Rohan. Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford The shared grave of John Ronald and Edith Tolkien bears the names Beren and Lúthien. All days of the year · convert a date Events follow the Tale of Years (Appendix B); the Shire date follows Appendix D.
Paths Curated reading paths instead of an A–Z desert — every stage is an entry, hover to see who it is.
All 12 paths
How you can tell how certain something is Every statement carries a siglum — it names the source, not a verdict. The shapes tell the layers apart, not the colours.
published in Tolkien's lifetime
Material Tolkien published himself — the most reliable layer for what Middle-earth is.
The Hobbit · The Lord of the Rings · Appendices · shorter pieces he published
posthumously edited
Tolkien's material, published after his death by an editor who selected and shaped it.
The Silmarillion · Unfinished Tales
HoMe draft
A working state in the History of Middle-earth — often revised or contradicted later.
The History of Middle-earth I–XII
adaptation
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Films · series · radio plays · games
Every statement names its work and chapter — page numbers differ between editions, chapters do not. Method & canon
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