To the East

[Mad Adski]

For any of you who have 'the Tolkien Beastiary' you will have noticed the full map of Middle Earth and the Undying Lands - but it has ocurred to me that only a small corner of Middle Earth appears in LotR. While we have mentions of Ruhn and Harad, it makes me wonder if we have any mention of what is in the lands to the far east of Mordor, the Forests of Harad for example, or the great inland sea to the North East. I am aware of the Northern Wastes and Angband, but I do wonder if the East and Southern lands are known to anyone.

[Elfarmari]

Tolkien's 'history' was only concerned with the North-west of middle earth, and as far as I know did not write about events in other regions.

[Hama]

The only mention I can think of off the top of my head is the travels of the Numenoreans, who reached as far as the Dark lands. Take a gander of the Atlas of Middle Earth, which shows the journeys of the Numenorean ships.

[Thorin]

David Day's book "Characters from Tolkien", has a major map of all of ME and the Undying Lands, and the fortresses of Angband and Utumno. Some people have poo-pooed it in it's authenticity but I find it fascinating and a great visual aide to help in understanding the geography of ME that the maps in Sil and LoTR don't even show.

If shows the far south of the forests of Harad and the far North East beyond the sea of Rhun, which is Utumno where Morgoth dwelt. Here also it shows the mountains where the elves awoke in Cuivenen. One can then get a better idea of the route taken from the elves when they traveled and settled in Beleriand.