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] 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 "marshes and the desert that stretched north and west to the Emyn Muil".[7] This desert was almost certainly the Noman-lands.[note 1]
Other versions of the legendarium
The Noman-lands appear on the first map that J.R.R. Tolkien drew while he wrote The Lord of the Rings and on Christopher Tolkien's 1943 map. On these maps they are located southwest of the Dead Marshes and northwest of Dagorlad which was just northeast of the Morannon.[8] 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.[8][9]
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[note 2] were added to the Tale of Years and account for the time spent on this journey.[9][5]
Early names
In a draft of the chapter Farewell to Lórien, the Noman-lands were called Uvanwaith.[10] 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 "someone".[11] Other variants of this region's name appearing in earlier drafts include "Nomenlands", "Nomen's Land", "Noman-land(s)" and "No Man's Land".[12] 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.[8]
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.[1][6][13][14]
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.
Notes
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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".
References
- ↑ 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
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers, "The Passage of the Marshes"
- ↑ 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"
- ↑ 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
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 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
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull (eds), The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, p. 455
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, "The Black Gate Opens", p. 886
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Treason of Isengard, "XV. The First Map of The Lord of the Rings", pp. 320-321
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Ring, "Part Two: The Ring Goes East", "II. The Passage of the Marshes", pp. 111-12
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Treason of Isengard, "XIV. Farewell to Lórien", p.283
- ↑ "uvanwaith", Parf Edhellen: an elvish dictionary, accessed 22 December 2025
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The War of the Ring, , Index entry for "Nomenlands"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 226, (dated 31 December 1960)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 165, (undated, written June 1955)