Talk:Middle-earth

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Middle-earth is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.

Middle-earth has been listed as one of the Language and literature good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on August 10, 2004.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
July 11, 2004	Featured article candidate	Promoted
September 3, 2006	Featured article review	Demoted
March 3, 2021	Good article nominee	Listed

Current status: Former featured article, current good article

Middle-earth Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Middle-earth, which aims to build an encyclopedic guide to J. R. R. Tolkien, his legendarium, and related topics. Please visit the project talk page for suggestions and ideas on how you can improve this and other articles.Middle-earthWikipedia:WikiProject Middle-earthTemplate:WikiProject Middle-earthTolkien
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Term: Middle Earth

When I queried this page as to who had originally implemented the term 'Middle Earth', I read that it was credited to J.R.R. Tolkien author of Lord of the Rings. However I have found four previous usages of the term all coming from a book that Tolkien has said influenced his trilogy.

 That book is 'The Worm Ouroboros' from 1922 by E.R. Eddison.

On pages 52-53 "and a a cocks' head it had, with rosy comb and wattles, but a face like no fowl's face of middle-earth". Later on page 205 (para 4) "At length when winter was gone in middle-earth, and the spring far spent". A third mention is found on page 356 "And that was a note not like a bird's of middle-earth" with a fourth on page 361 "What man of middle-earth is this that troubles our quiet"?

 That there are four usages of the term 'middle-earth', Eddison uses it

as a theme for the venue of his narrative, Tolkien picking up on this adopted it for his use in Lord of The Rings.

 I put it to this page's author then to amend the accreditation from J.R.R.

Tolkien to E.R. Eddison. Cmaxj50 (talk) 20:25, 13 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think this page says Tolkien coined the term. See Etymology/In other works.--Jack Upland (talk) 05:27, 14 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

When I posted my query on my browser 'Who originally coined the phrase 'Middle Earth', Wikipedia headlined the reply page with, "

J. R. R. Tolkien

J. R. R. Tolkien originally coined the phrase 'Middle-earth'. It was then this response regarding E.R Eddison. 2604:3D08:5D89:6400:C8BE:CFA9:CE21:FDCB (talk) 08:23, 14 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That response will have been from your browser, probably generated by AI, based partly on Wikipedia but incorporating any other assumptions that it found lying around the internet. It is not a Wikipedia response, regardless of where it tries to lay the blame. -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 08:33, 14 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Agree with both Jack Upland and Verbarson. The article does not, as anyone can verify, make the claim that Tolkien invented the term: quite the opposite. He was familiar with the writings of William Morris and his friend C.S. Lewis, and with the Norse Midgard and the Middle English middle-erde/middle-erthe, and the article already mentions these things. Chiswick Chap (talk) 09:29, 14 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your continued attention and your replies. 2604:3D08:5D89:6400:51EA:FB0D:D22B:9FB3 (talk) 14:28, 14 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]