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Middle-earth is the main continent of Earth (Arda) in an imaginary period of the Earth’s past, ending with Tolkien’s Third Age, about 6,000 years ago.[T 1] Tolkien’s tales of Middle-earth mostly focus on the north-west of the continent. This part of Middle-earth is suggestive of Europe, the north-west of the Old World, with the environs of the Shire resembling reminiscent of England, but, more specifically, the West Midlands, with the town at its centre, Hobbiton, at the same latitude as Oxford.
Tolkien imagined Arda as the Earth in the distant past.[16] With the loss of all its peoples except Man, and the reshaping of the continents, all that is left of Middle-earth is a dim memory in folklore, legend, and old words.[17] The outlines of the continents are purely schematic.
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