The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien
Dates
Inaccessible to mortals after the Downfall of Númenor in II 33191
Location
Surrounding Arda beyond the Encircling Sea, separating the world from the Timeless Void beyond
Settlements
The house of Nienna was said to look outward from these Walls
Gates
The Door of Night in the West, and presumably also the Gates of Morning in the east1
Other names

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 28 April 2022
  • This entry is complete

Walls of Night

The ancient boundaries of Arda

Map of the Walls of Night
The Walls of Night encircling Arda (somewhat conjectural)2
The Walls of Night encircling Arda (somewhat conjectural)2

The extraordinary walls that surrounded Arda in ancient times, beyond Ekkaia, the Encircling Sea. In the west and east of the world, Ekkaia was wide, and the Walls were a great distance from land. In the north and south, however, the Encircling Sea was much narrower. This was how Melkor returned into the world during the time of the Lamps of the Valar, coming secretly over the Walls of Night into the north of Arda, and building there his fortress of Utumno beyond the knowledge of the Valar.


Notes

1

It is far from clear what happened to the Walls of Night after the cataclysm that destroyed Númenor and changed the shape of the world. We can be sure that the Walls existed during the Second Age (we have a description of Númenórean explorers finding their way to the Gates of Morning in the distant East). After the world was made round, however, there could be no possible place for the Walls to stand (and so from a mortal perspective, they would essentially have ceased to exist). The Elves, however, could still travel the Straight Road into the West, and so from their perspective the Walls may have remained in place, at least after they left the Bent World behind them.

2

The map shown here combines elements from sketch maps by Tolkien that are reproduced in volume IV of The History of Middle-earth. These original sketches are the only maps we have showing the entirety of the world as he conceived it. They are, however, rather rough in nature, and belong to a very early phase of Tolkien's work, so they cannot be expected to fit fully with the geography of the world as it was later worked out. For further details, see footnote 1 to the entry for Arda.

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 28 April 2022
  • This entry is complete

For acknowledgements and references, see the Disclaimer & Bibliography page.

Original content © copyright Mark Fisher 2003, 2020, 2022. All rights reserved. For conditions of reuse, see the Site FAQ.

Website services kindly sponsored by Discus from Axiom Software Ltd.
Prefer to use printed DISC questionnaires? Discus can print questionnaires in any of dozens of languages.
The Encyclopedia of Arda
The Encyclopedia of Arda
Menu
Homepage Search Latest Entries and Updates Random Entry