Crossing the helcaraxe

[Rieno]

http://youtu.be/hC3VTgIPoGU

[T.S. Luikart]

Rieno - I will let this stand, but you have to explain to everybody why they should follow the link.

Hint (what happens after the Ring returns to the magma).

[Rieno]

In the Silmarillion, the elves cross the helcaraxe, and many die in the process. And, as you mentioned, the rings destruction brought about some geological changes. In fact, geological changes are such a common theme in Tolkien, but yet hard to imagine. In this video we see in realtime probably the largest geological event ever recorded and it is astounding and worthy of imagination of Tolkien's works.

[Otaku-sempai]

In the Silmarillion, the elves cross the helcaraxe, and many die in the process. And, as you mentioned, the rings destruction brought about some geological changes. In fact, geological changes are such a common theme in Tolkien, but yet hard to imagine. In this video we see in realtime probably the largest geological event ever recorded and it is astounding and worthy of imagination of Tolkien's works.

My impression was that any destruction wrought as a result of the end of the One Ring was fairly localized. I do imagine a major geological event reshaping Arda at or near the end of the Fourth Age to bring it geographically in-line with the modern world -- something akin to the world-wide flood of the Bible.

I do wonder if the late Karen Wynn Fonstad was too conservative in her illustrations of Arda in the Second and Third Ages in The Atlas of Middle-earth. At least the southern continent labeled both 'Dark Land' and 'South Land' should have probably broken up when Arda was reshaped by the Change of the World that also resulted in the destruction of Númenor. And perhaps new lands arose to extend the east coast of Middle-earth.