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I wonder who lives outside of Middle-earth and what is their life like? What are the names of the continents? Is there a big good map of Arda?

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The Earth which is known as Arda in the Lord of the Rings has a few continents. The stories mainly take place on Middle Earth, but there is also The Dark Lands, and Aman which is also known as the Undying Lands.

According to the LOTR Wikia..

Not much is known about this continent, except that it formed during Morgoth's marring of the world by breaking away from the main part of Middle-earth (Endor). No Elves or Dwarves lived there, but it is possible that wild Men may have lived there at some point. The Númenóreans probably visited it on their long journeys, although it is not known if they established dwellings there. Most of the continent is covered by vast dense forests bordering much of its shorelines.

The Atlas of Middle-earth pgs. 5 & 39

The Undying Lands is actually the place that most Elves and Ainur live.

It is to the west of Middle Earth.

In the wikia it states..

The Undying Lands were a realm inhabited by Ainur and Elves. The area included the continent of Aman and the island of Tol Eressëa. The ocean Belegaer separated the Undying Lands from the western shores of Middle-earth.

The history also states that

Originally, mortals were allowed to trade with those from Valinor in the Undying Lands, but were forbidden to sail west beyond the sight of Númenor. However, in SA 3319 (Second Age), the treacherous Sauron deceived Ar-Pharazôn, the last King of Númenor, to believe that the ruler of the Undying Lands would be granted immortality and persuaded him that this was man's right and he had but to claim it. To prevent the king's invasion, Ilúvatar destroyed Númenor beneath the ocean and set the Undying Lands forever beyond the reach of mortal Men. Elves were still permitted to sail across the sea to the Undying Lands, if they chose to (which most did).

The Silmarillion

Here is a depiction of what The Undying Lands and Middle Earth look like on a map

enter image description here

Just to be clear the above post is not a "canon" map but a depiction of what it's supposed to look like... from the research I have done there are no canon maps depicting places other than Middle Earth... the closest thing canon wise is.. which is pre-LOTR as well...

enter image description here

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  • I'm afraid that I have to -1 this for a David Day map, particularly since an actual Tolkien map (which looks nothing like this one) is available on the linked duplicates.
    – user8719
    Jan 27, 2014 at 17:38
  • Unfortunately I don't believe there are any legit tolkien maps that show the undying lands and middle earth... I could be wrong though
    – DoctorWho22
    Jan 27, 2014 at 18:15
  • The maps printed in History of Middle-earth 4 are legit and by Tolkien.
    – user8719
    Jan 27, 2014 at 19:40
  • I haven't read them but I would love to get my hands on them... Were they actually drawn by Tolkien himself or were the drawings renditions of what Tolkien thought the world looked like? When I say there are no canon maps of the undying lands and middle earth I mean both on the same map... The canon maps I have seen were drawn by Christopher Tolkien and usually only featured Middle Earth.
    – DoctorWho22
    Jan 27, 2014 at 19:44
  • The map you've now added to this answer contains Middle-earth and the Undying Lands, both on the same map, and was drawn by JRR Tolkien. I'm not sure what your difficulty is here; the map exists (it is in fact one of the only ones that exist) and is clearly the exact kind of map you're talking about.
    – user8719
    Jan 27, 2014 at 20:06

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