Editing Middle Earth (section)

== General clarification ==
[[File:Middle-earth.jpg|thumb|300px|The known regions of Middle-Earth]]Middle-Earth is not the name of The World of the Tolkien's mythos, the term for that would technically be '''Arda'''. Middle-Earth refers to the general landmass where the events of the books take place (hilariously enough, another name for Middle-Earth used by the elves was [[Star Wars|Endor]], possibly a subtle reference by George Lucas). At the same time Arda is not an alien planet or alternate universe but rather a lost era of our world with Middle Earth being roughly where Europe was (and yes, that does mean that there are analogous to the Americas, Africa and Asia in Lord of the Rings). This is in its own way quite sad when you think about it since it would mean that after the events of the books where our heroes sail off to Valinor all the cultures of Gondor, Rohan, Dale/Laketown and so forth that our heroes have fought to save in various ways gradually falter and fail totally, leaving only cave men. An major driving element of the mythos is that the magic of the world is gradually winding down. However, the books do say that the line of Finwë (the ancestor of Elrond and Aragorn) will always endure, so their descendants would still be alive today. 

Arda used to be a flat world until the later 2nd Age with the destruction of Númenor and "the bending of the roads". Said event also turned a flying sailing ship into Venus.