Does anyone one else live near Middle Earth?

[tookish-girl]

I live in East Yorkshire, which is universally agreed to have the weirdest places names ever. One of which is Wetwang, about 20 miles away.
It turns out Wetwang is in Middle Earth, its elvish name is Nindalf and it's just on the outskirts of Mordor in the marshland. Does anyone else live near somewhere actually in Middle Earth? Or am I the lucky one?


Interesting fact for fellow Brits: Richard Whitely off Countdown is the Mayor of Wetwang, that's the one in East Yorkshire, not Mordor!

[Kit Baggins]

I thought the name Wetwang sounded familiar !!
I live in England too (but not in Yorkshire- even though I was born there). We drove past Wetwang during the Christmas holidays, and I spent the rest of the day wondering where I'd seen that name before.
There's also a place in Derbyshire near where I live called Whitwell (which is also the name of a place in the Shire).

~Kit

[Mad Adski]

Well here was me asking where Middle Earth was( another thread), and it turns out it's right on my doorstep. (In American terms).

Strange World!

Mad Adski.

[Rushlight]

Wetwang! What a great name! Alas, here in California, many of our names are of Spanish origin. Either that, or places are given historical names referring to who discovered them and so forth. Mostly boring names. Since I also do a great deal of hiking and backpacking, I even looked on some maps to see if the Sierras or Grand Canyon (Arizona) had any good names of peaks, valleys, ridges, plateaus..........nope. No good Middle Earth names that I could find. But Wetwang.......now I do like that. The next unnamed peak I climb I believe I'll call it Mt. Wetwang.

Rushlight

[Wolfshead]

Just stumbled upon this thread whilst searching the forum and I would like to tell everyone I live in Middle-Earth. No, really. When I'm not away at uni the county I live in is called Sutherland. There's also a Sutherland in the very south of Tolkien's maps. It makes sense, though. The north of Scotland was inhabited by Vikings for a long time and they named this area Sutherland because it was south of Scandinavia. And the area in Middle-Earth is south of everywhere else

[Barliman Butterbur]

Unfortunately (in a narrowly defined Middle-earthian sense but no other) I live in a tiny little city within greater Los Angeles, California (a wild dangerous outlier on the edge of Bree), and the only trace of Middle-earth here (outside of the places which sell Tolkiana) within my reach are the books, movies and other goodies which reside on the revered Tolkien shelf in our living room. If this sounds strange or contradictory (it does to me!), so be it...

Barley

[Hammersmith]

My home is an afternoon's ramble from the merry village of Buckland. I also live a mere thirty minutes train journey from Lindon/London

[Gilthoniel]

Not really the same thing, but i live in Dorsetshire, which could be a possible Shire, were almost everyone seems to be four foot high, with hairy feet, and speak with broad accents. Aargh!

[Eledhwen]

I had a coffee in the Little Chef at Buckland last week. We don't have a Prancing Pony, but we do have a Trotting Horse and a Running Horse; and I live very near some Downs with barrows on them.

If you look at a map showing Oxford and London, you notice that the Chilterns were once a large forested area running from Luton to Newbury and Marlborough. Although the forest has been broken up, its outline is clear. Call Oxford Hobbiton, and London = Bree, and you can see that the Thames around Henley would be right for the Withywindle. I'm pretty sure Tolkien didn't base the map on this topography, but I had fun making it fit.

There are more substantial parallels from Tolkien's earlier writings. For instance, Warwick is Kortirion of the Elves (Book of Lost Tales).

[Urambo Tauro]

Hmm... I live in Lapeer, named after a river, named for the stone at the river's bottom- in French "Le Pierre"...
...Gondor = "Stone-land"...

I live in Gondor!

[Hobbit-queen]

I live in Hobbiton....right across from Bag End.

*angrily yells at neighbor* Darn it, Baggins! Get that Dwarf off my lawn!