The World of J. R. R. Tolkien is growing...

In looking across the net for some Dark News to post on this site I came across un update to the online game The Lord of the Rings Online, Shadows of Angmar.

Only hinted at in the Appendices of the Lord of the Rings or the Silmarillion or even in the extended lore of Middle-earth edited by Tolkien's son, Christopher Tolkien, there was not been much written about the North Kingdom of Angmar. In order to expanded the game and fill in the largely empty lands outside of Tolkien's books, LOTR Online has begun to fill in what has up until now was only hinted at by Tolkien. They have recently just created a new Dark Tower once occupied the The Witchking of Angmar.

When the Lord of the Nazgûl first came to Angmar and established his new realm as Witch-king, he built the great city of Carn Dûm and thence sallied forth to conquer Arnor. Unbeknownst to all but the Wise, however, he also built a fortress amid the wastes of Angmar, which he called Barad Gúlaran. There, he continued his studies in the dark arts he had learned from the Dark Lord Sauron.

This place obviously is new in Middle-earth. More then any other franchise, the LOTR Online is creating new places in Tolkien's world at an alarming rate, due mainly to the games expansive scope and size. This begs the question... is this a good thing?

Almost from the moment he released his vision of Middle-earth on paper, Tolkien's world has been added to and filled in with paintings, illustrations, animation, film, and games. We here at Mordor, The Land of Shadow.com we find this both wonderful and terrible..

Wonderful, because Tolkien's vision was so clear and beautiful that it immediately inspired other artists to visualize and add on to this incredibly potent and detailed world. I would have to place myself in this category, because though most of the content on this site comes directly from the words of Tolkien, there is much that we have expended upon and filled in around what Tolkien left blank. Especially concerning the darkerside of Middle-earth. So when I saw this new tower created for the LOTRO game, I was both excited and troubled. Excited because it was yet another Dark Domain that we could add here at Mordor, but also troubled because it sometimes feels like Tolkien's world is growing out of control. My hope it that it's in homage and with great care that his world is growing, but I sometimes fear that it's simply being fed by the desire to capitalize on the appetite that Tolkien fans have for more.. something I think would make Professor Tolkien roll in his grave.

Here at The Land of Shadow.com have made a real effort to differentiate between what is Tolkien's creation and was is our own or part of the expanded lore of Middle-earth. Using Tolkien's signature symbol, we have placed this on pages that use only Tolkien's words or is part of what we call the Tolkien Canon. If any other content other then Tolkien's written word appears on a page, then that page does not get the Canon Signature. We hope this helps those who like ourselves, who have concerns about respecting the Tolkien Canon. We hope that in this small way we can help preserve the work and mean of Tolkien's written word.

In addition we take great care with any of the new material we create so thai it fits as seamlessly as possible into the words set down by Tolkien. Our golden rule is to never contradict the writings of Tolkien, but simply to fill in the blank spaces that he left open to interpretation. We try to maintain the integrity, tone and beautiful lyric quality of Tolkien's world.

So... I'm sure many of you have these same thoughts... especially those of you who have created your own artistic interpretation of Tolkien's world... I think on one hand he might be very troubled by this expansion of his world, but I also like to think that he would be so happy to know that his original creation has affected the live of millions and so has lit a creative flame in them to ad their own meaning to this wonderful world of Middle-earth!

Ring lord -The Dark Lord of Mordor...
The Land of Shadow.com