Middle-earth's setting
is in a fictional period in Earth's own past. Tolkien insisted that Middle-earth
is Earth in several of his letters, in one of them estimating the end of the
Third Age to about 6,000 years before his own time. The history of Middle-earth
is divided into several Ages: The Hobbit and the main text of The Lord of the
Rings deal exclusively with events towards the end of the Third Age and conclude
at the dawn of the Fourth Age, while The Silmarillion deals mainly with the
First Age. The world (Arda) was originally flat but was made round near the
end of the Second Age by Eru Ilúvatar, the Creator. The term "Middle-earth"
was not invented by Tolkien. Rather, it existed in Old English as middangeard
and in Middle English as midden-erd or middel-erd; in Old Norse it was called
Midgard. Middangeard (Mittilagart) occurs half-a-dozen times in Beowulf, which
Tolkien translated and on which he was arguably the world's foremost authority.
The name earendel (which may mean the 'morning-star' but in some contexts was
a name for Christ) was the inspiration for Tolkien's mariner Eärendil.
Cynewulf, an Anglo-Saxon poet who lived in Northumbria or Mercia, flourished circa 750. Four poems can be definitely ascribed to him on the basis of runic 'signatures' in the text of the poems, making him one of only twelve Anglo-Saxon poets (most almost certainly spurious) named in medieval sources. Unlike Alfred, Bede, or Cædmon, no contemporary biographical information about Cynewulf survives.
In ancient Germanic and Old Norse mythology, the universe was believed to consist of nine physical worlds joined together. The world of Men, the Middle-earth, lay in the centre of this universe. The lands of Elves, Gods, and Giants lay across an encircling sea. The land of the Dead lay beneath the Middle-earth. A rainbow bridge, Bifrost Bridge, extended from Middle-earth to Asgard across the sea. An outer sea encircled the seven other worlds (Vanaheim, Asgard, Alfheim, SvartAlfheim, Muspellheim, Nidavellir, and Jotunheim). Tolkien stated that the geography of Middle Earth was intended to align with that of our real Earth in several particulars.
In addition to the longer sagas of the discovery of Wineland, and the scattered references in other Icelandic historical literature, already adduced, the country finds mention in still another class of Icelandic records. These records are the chronological lists of notable events, in and out of Iceland, which are known as the Icelandic Annals. It has been conjectured that the archetype of these Annals was compiled either by the learned Ari, the father of Icelandic historiography, or in the century in which he lived. The nature of the information indicates that the knowledge of the discovery had not altogether faded from the memories of the Icelanders settled in Greenland.
Expanding upon this idea some suggest that if the map of Middle Earth is projected on our real Earth, and some of the most obvious climatological, botanical, and zoological similarities are aligned, the Hobbits' Shire might lie in the temperate climate of England, Gondor might lie in the Mediterranean Italy and Greece, Mordor in the arid Turkey and Middle East, South Gondor and Near Harad in the deserts of Northern Africa, Rhovanion in the forests of Germany and the steppes of Western and Southern Russia, and the Ice Bay of Forochel in the fjords of Norway.
Norn; any of the three Fates or goddesses of destiny; identified with Anglo-Saxon Wyrd; similar to Greek Moirae and Roman Parcae . Urd, Urth-goddess of fate; past. Verdandi, Verthandi-goddess of fate; present. Skuld- goddess of fate; future. Skuld is mentioned in Scandinavian mythology and Norse mythology. Skuld was a princess who married Heoroweard and encouraged him to kill Hrólf Kraki. By a piece from the Chronicon Lethrense, she was the daughter of Adils the Swedish king (called Eadgils in Beowulf). Hereoweard was made jarl of the Swedes, succeeded by Rörek.
The Norns (Old Norse: norn, plural: nornir) of Norse mythology are three dísirs by the names of Urd (the past), Verdandi (the being) and Skuld (what is to come). (Skuld was also the name of a Valkyrie.) The older Norn was replaced by Lowland Scots which in turn is being replaced by Scottish English. For almost 1,000 years, the language of the Orcadian people was a variant of Old Norse known as "Norrœna" or "Norn". It is not known exactly when Norn became extinct. There was interpretation within the Western Church.