Welcome to The Encyclopedia of Arda

The Encyclopedia of Arda is a personal project - a tribute to and a celebration of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The site is intended to evolve into an illustrated hypertext encyclopedia of Tolkien's realms and peoples. This lies a long way in the future, though; if the regions of Eä are vast beyond the thought of Elves and Men, so too are the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

About The Encyclopedia of Arda

First, it needs to be emphasised that the site is nowhere near completion, and will probably never achieve this. The index on which it is based contains almost 5,000 headings, and writing and illustrating entries for all of these will probably take years. Having said that, there's already quite a lot to see - scroll through the indexes on the left to browse the site. Please bear in mind that many entries have only a short definition or description at the moment. This is a temporary situation: we're always working to expand the content of the Encyclopedia.

Context and Approach

The content of the Encyclopedia is written in the same context as Tolkien himself used; he presented himself simply as a translator, rather than originator of the tales. Hence, we try to describe his world from a 'historical' rather than a literary perspective, though this isn't always possible. Where relevant, you'll also find a few references to Tolkien's life or opinions, or to real historical or mythological parallels to events in his universe.

Although this is intended to be an illustrated encyclopedia in the fullness of time, you'll find precious few actual illustrations here yet. Rather, we've concentrated on trying to provide as much textual content in as short a time as possible. Having said this, you will find that many entries relating to specific places have a map attached.

About the Name ‘Arda’

Arda was the name given by the Elves to their World and all it contained, and so 'Encyclopedia of Arda' seemed a peculiarly apt title for this project.

Special Thanks

Thanks to Glyph Web for providing the Webspace for this project, and to Discus Online for providing the resources needed to expand and maintain the site. Thanks, too, to all those who've e-mailed us over the years with their suggestions, corrections, ideas and just general support.

But the real Special Thanks, though, belong to the memory of J.R.R. Tolkien for his extraordinary and unparalleled creation.