Arda Kompendium

Arda

The Kingdom; the Earth

termcosmologyardaearthkingdom

Definition

Arda — in Quenya, “the Kingdom” — is the name of the Earth, the abode in the world Eä of the Children of Ilúvatar. “Arda” is the realm of the Valar and of Elves, Men, Dwarves, and (in their heritage) all free things; the Ainulindalë’s word of making set “the World” in being, and “Arda” is the world’s proper name among its speakers.

The Nature of Arda

  • Flat and round.

In the Elder tradition Arda is a flat disc bounded by the Walls of the Night and the encircling seas, with the Valar’s realm of Aman in the West and the land of Men (Middle-earth) in the centre-east. In the Akallabêth version, when Númenor fell, the world was made round — Aman was removed from the circles of the world and Arda became the globe we know; only the Elves of the straight road could pass from the earth to the Elvenhome.

  • Arda Marred. The world as made is not the world as intended: the discords of Melkor entered its very substance (“and the marring of the world was wrought”), and “Arda Marred” is the technical term for the imperfect, sorrow-laden world of the Ages. Its healing — Arda Healed — is the promised end of the The Dagor Dagorath, when the world is re-made after the last battle.
  • The kingdoms of the Valar. Within Arda the Valar shaped in the far West the blessed realm of Aman with the city of Valmar; its high seat Taniquetil overlooks all. The northern wastes held Melkor’s fortresses Utumno and Angband; the later ages see the island-realm of Númenor raised and drowned in the Sea west of Middle-earth.

The Ages of Arda

The histories divide the time of Arda into Ages: The Years of the Valar (the growth of the world, the Two Trees) and the Years of the Trees;

  • The First Age, the age of the Silmarils and the wars of Beleriand;
  • The Second Age (the rise and fall of Númenor, the forging of the Rings);
  • The Third Age and after (of this vault, but implicit in the “Arda Healed” promise).

In the Texts

The conception of Arda is set in the Ainulindalë and the Ambarkanta (the “shape of the world” essay in The Shaping of Middle-earth), and its transformation at the Akallabêth is central to the Drowning narrative. Christopher Tolkien’s commentaries trace how Tolkien moved from a flat-world mythos to a round-world history, and the adjustments forced on the astronomy.

Verknüpfte Seiten

EäThe Undying LandsMelkorThe Dagor DagorathUtumnoAngbandNúmenorMiddle-earthValinorThe Music of the AinurHildórienThe Two LampsConcordance — A to ZThe Changing of the WorldThe Walls of the WorldThe Round WorldThe Nameless ThingsThe Ages of ArdaArda HealedEru IlúvatarAmanThe Nature of Middle-earthAmbarkantaThe AmbarkantaMyths TransformedThe Shaping of Middle-earth
Werke: die Quellen sind seitenübergreifend die Bücher von J.R.R. und Christopher Tolkien (Silmarillion, Hobbit, Herr der Ringe, Unfinished Tales, History of Middle-earth, Nature of Middle-earth u. a.) — eigene Zusammenfassung. Siehe die Concordance und den README der Quelle für die Einzelbelege.
Nach oben ↑