Úvanwaith,[1] the Noman-lands, were a desolate region[2] southeast of the Dead Marshes and northwest of the Desolation of the Morannon.[3][4]
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.[3]
On March 2 and March 3 in the year 3019 of the late Third Age, Gollum led Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee through Úvanwaith.[1][5][6][7]
Etymology[]
Úvanwaith is a name in Sindarin meaning "Nomanlands" that consists of the word úvan ("noone, nobody"),[8] from ú- ("un, bad-; no, not, negative; impossible")[9] and man ("what, who"),[10] and gwaith ("people; region").[11][12]
In other versions[]
On the first map that J.R.R. Tolkien drew while he wrote The Lord of the Rings, Úvanwaith[1] was 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; Úvanwaith[1] doesn’t appear on that map, nor in the other published maps.
Inspiration[]
Hammond and Scull suggest that the name "Noman-lands" 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.[2][7][13][14]
In adaptations[]
In the video game 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[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The History of Middle-earth, Vol. VII: The Treason of Isengard, pgs. 281, 283, 320
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, "Unfinished index for The Lord of the Rings", pg. 334 (entry "Noman-lands")
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Lord of the Rings, Vol. II: The Two Towers, Book Four, ch. II: "The Passage of the Marshes"
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, Vol. I: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, ch. VIII: "Farewell to Lórien"
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, "The Great Years"
- ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. VIII: The War of the Ring, Part Two: "The Ring Goes East", II: "The Passage of the Marshes", Note on the Chronology, final chronology, pg. 120
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion, pg. 455
- ↑ "uvan" on eldamo.org
- ↑ "ú-" on eldamo.org
- ↑ "man" on eldamo.org
- ↑ "gwaith" on eldamo.org
- ↑ "Úvanwaith" on eldamo.org
- ↑ The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 226
- ↑ The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 165