Noman-lands

From Tolkien Gateway

The Noman-lands were a desolate region[1] southeast of the Dead Marshes and northwest of the Desolation of the Morannon.[2][3]

Southeast of the Dead Marshes lay arid moors with dead peats and wide flats of dry cracked mud that were followed by barren and pitiless long shallow rising slopes.[2]

Frodo and Sam, led by Gollum passed through the Noman-lands on 2 March and 3 March, T.A. 3019.[4][5][6]

Other versions of the legendarium[edit | edit source]

On the first map that J.R.R. Tolkien drew while he wrote The Lord of the Rings, the Noman-lands were located southwest of the Dead Marshes and northwest of Dagorlad which was just northeast of the Morannon. However on the Map of Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor, the Dead Marshes appear further to the southwest and Dagorlad further to the north; Noman-lands don't appear on that map, nor in the other published maps.

Inspiration[edit | edit source]

Hammond and Scull suggest that the name was derived from no man's land, a name for the ground that lies between the trenches of one army and the trenches of the enemy army, which J.R.R. Tolkien was familiar with, because he participated in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.[1][6][7][8]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, "Unfinished index for The Lord of the Rings", in Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, entry Noman-lands, p. 334
  2. 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, "The Passage of the Marshes"
  3. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "Farewell to Lórien", "for they [the Emyn Muil] look out over the Dead Marshes and the Noman-lands to Cirith Gorgor and the black gates of Mordor"
  4. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Great Years", entry for the 2nd and 3rd of March of the year 3019 of the Third Age
  5. J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Ring, "Part Two: The Ring Goes East", "II. The Passage of the Marshes", Note on the Chronology, final chronology, p. 120
  6. 6.0 6.1 Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. 455
  7. J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 226, (dated 31 December 1960)
  8. J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 165, (undated, written June 1955)