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[[File:The Lord of the Rings Online - Noman-lands.jpg|thumb|250px|The Noman-lands in ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'']]
The '''Noman-lands''' were a desolate region<ref name=UI>{{HM|UI}}, entry ''Noman-lands'', p. 334</ref> southeast of the [[Dead Marshes]] and northwest of the [[Desolation of the Morannon]].<ref name=Marshes>{{TT|Marshes}}</ref><ref>{{FR|Farewell}}, "for they [the Emyn Muil] look out over the Dead Marshes and the Noman-lands to Cirith Gorgor and the black gates of Mordor"</ref>

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.<ref name=Marshes/>

[[Frodo Baggins|Frodo]] and [[Samwise Gamgee|Sam]], led by [[Gollum]] passed through the Noman-lands on [[2 March]] and [[3 March]], {{TA|3019}}.<ref>{{App|Great}}, entry for the 2nd and 3rd of March of the year 3019 of the Third Age</ref><ref name="ChronNotes">{{WR|2|II}}, Note on the Chronology, final chronology, p. 120</ref><ref name=RC>{{HM|RC}}, p. 455</ref> On their journey to the [[Black Gate]], upon reaching the living lands and entering the desolate ones that stretched out in front of the Gate, the [[Host of the West]] could see the "[[Dead Marshes|marshes]] and the desert that stretched north and west to the [[Emyn Muil]]".<ref>{{RK|Gate}}, p. 886</ref> This desert was almost certainly the Noman-lands.<ref group=note>The "desert" mentioned in this passage matches the description of the Noman-lands, and is included as "the desert" in the Index entry for ''No Man's Land'' in ''[[The War of the Ring]]'', although it is not mentioned by name in the passage itself.</ref>

== Other versions of the legendarium ==

The Noman-lands appear on the [[The First Map of The Lord of the Rings|first map]] that [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] drew while he wrote ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' and on [[Christopher Tolkien]]'s [[The 1943 Map of The Lord of the Rings|1943 map]]. On these maps they are located southwest of the Dead Marshes and northwest of [[Dagorlad]] which was just northeast of the [[Morannon]].<ref name="Map"/> Although these early conceptions place the Noman-lands between Sarn Gebir (Emyn Muil) and the Gates of [[Mordor]], this does not align with later conceptions and maps, in which the geography is rearranged and the Dead Marshes are moved southwest, so that they lie in the region between the Emyn Muil and the gates previously occupied by the Noman-lands. This geography appears on the ''[[Map of Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor]]'', and the Noman-lands do not appear there or in any other published maps.<ref name="Map"/><ref name="WRchanges">{{WR|2|II}}, pp. 111-12</ref>

Frodo's journey through the Noman-lands is not included in the earliest manuscript for ''[[The Two Towers]]'', where only the dreadful passage through the marshes is mentioned. However, the later, expanded passages, including those in the published version, also reference the Noman-lands, and two days<ref group=note>March 2-3 Night and March 3-4 Night were the two days added; these both bear the entry "Frodo journeys in the Noman-lands".</ref> were added to the [[Tale of Years]] and account for the time spent on this journey.<ref name="WRchanges"/><ref name="ChronNotes"/>

===Early names===
In a draft of the chapter ''Farewell to Lórien'', the Noman-lands were called '''''Uvanwaith'''''.<ref>{{TI|XIV}}, p.283</ref> This name is not glossed, but has been conjectured to be derived from the negative prefix [[ú-]]; ''waith'', the lenited form of [[gweith]] (which can refer to "people", or "region"); and the middle component, although more difficult to identify, has been suggested by Roman Rausch to be [[anw]] "male", or a lenited form of [[man (word)|man]] "someone".<ref>{{webcite|author=|articleurl=https://www.elfdict.com/w/uvanwaith|articlename=''uvanwaith''|dated=|website=[https://www.elfdict.com/ Parf Edhellen: an elvish dictionary]|accessed=22 December 2025}}</ref> Other variants of this region's name appearing in earlier drafts include "Nomenlands", "Nomen's Land", "Noman-land(s)" and "No Man's Land".<ref>{{WR}}, Index entry for "Nomenlands"</ref> In the first edition of ''The Lord of the Rings'', the region is referred to as the "Nomen's land", rather than the Noman-lands of later editions.<ref name="Map">{{TI|Map|No}}, pp. 320-321</ref>

== Inspiration ==
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.<ref name=UI/><ref name=RC/><ref>{{L|226}}</ref><ref>{{L|165}}</ref>

==Portrayal in adaptations==
'''2016: ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'':'''
:The Noman-lands is an area in "the Wastes" region, located east of the [[Dead Marshes]] and west of [[Dagorlad]].

{{References|note}}

[[Category:Mordor]]
[[Category:Rhovanion]]
[[Category:Fields, plains and deserts]]

[[fi:Ei-kenenkään maa]]