Wide World

A name occasionally used for Middle-earth, the mortal lands eastward of the Sea, as opposed to the Undying Lands of Aman in the West. Long before the first Men appeared in the world, the Elves awoke by the shores of Cuiviénen in the far East of the Wide World. Many of these Elves made a Great Journey, crossing the Wide World and the Great Sea beyond to reach the distant West, where they dwelt beside the Powers in Valinor, and remained in bliss for many ages.

That bliss came to an end when the treachery of Morgoth drove the Noldor, the Deep Elves, to abandon their lives in the West and make the perilous journey back into the Wide World. Led by Fëanor and his sons, these Noldor returned to a world inhabited by their distant kin, and troubled by the creatures of Morgoth. Centuries of warfare followed, in which the Noldor first besieged Morgoth before being driven back, until eventually the Valar relented and gave their aid, defeating Morgoth but laying waste to the western lands of Beleriand.

Eastward beyond the Blue Mountains, the Wide World still remained, and as the Second Age began, many of the Elves began to make their way into the lands farther into the East. Others, meanwhile, began to weary of the mortal lands, and boarded ships that would carry them back across the Great Sea, abandoning the Wide World for the Blessed Realm in the West.

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The 'Wide World' is a rare term, seen only The Hobbit. In Tolkien's broader works, the distinction between the mortal world of Middle-earth and the Undying Realm of the Valar is an important theme, but in The Hobbit this greater theme is barely touched upon. Nonetheless, the book does contain a brief account of the history of the Elves, and in that account Aman in the West is given the old name of 'Faerie', while the 'Wide World' describes Middle-earth. It is notable, in fact, that the familiar term 'Middle-earth' is not to be found anywhere within the pages of The Hobbit.