There is a small wooded area that is located behind where I live and I see and associate it very much with the Shire. No matter what I can walk back through those woods and everything washes away and I am at peace, and comfortable.

My son sees it too...
 

For Father's Day, I received another homemade T-shirt, and was more pleased with that than a plasma screen TV. These homemade shirts, I must also note, are much better than ties, which rarely see the light of day. Anyway, this shirt, like some in the past, has the kids' (and dog's) handprints next to each child's name in bright colors on the back. My wife, who supervises the project, says that the kids really enjoy getting to cover their hands with paint and not getting in trouble for making a big gooey handprint on something.

Anyway, this shirt was a little different. My son took it upon himself to decorate the front with a hand drawn picture. How he describes it, when I asked, is that it's me there in the yellow, on a brown bridge, throwing a black sword at a dragon who flies over a lake. Not sure where he got the inspiration, as I know of no cartoon or movie that may have contained the same images. I did, however, since he was a small child, give him the short version of the Hobbit before he'd fall asleep at night...

Anyone else see Bard and Smaug?

Appropriately, there are some nice hills around the Parbold area (where I live) that were, a while back, covered in mist and fog. My first thought? "Hmm its misty." But my second was far more interesting, "WOW! Fog on the Barrow Downs!"
I would have taken pictures but I didn't have one to hand at the time. :( But ever I will wait for the time of the misting upon the hills!

Also, there is a restaurant in the near by town of Wigan, called, "The Morgul Tandori" I wonder what kind of food you get there? Orc burgers?

In Wigan? Meat & Tater Pie Vindaloo, no doubt.

Just be careful not to go on Croston Moss at night when it's foggy because that's when the White Lady goes a-walking and she's an omen of doom! :eek:

Finally the weather is beginning to stabilize. Sure, the temperature has changed 50 degrees Fahrenheit in one day, but you take what you get, and the trend is lending to warmth and even somewhat dry (or less wet). Anyway, so this weekend I took the kids for a hike, our first one of the season, and for some reason Tolkien was on the mind.

With four small kids, it was if I were Aragorn with the four hobbits, size-wise (though I always tend to think more of myself as Gandalf). A ways into the woods a little stream fed an even smaller waterfall, yet the sound was pleasant, and I was reminded of the FotR and Nimrodel. We walked up a hill after hopping two muddy streams (no, I was not reminded of PJ's bridge scene), and after a small rest at the top (hills are mountains to little legs), we found a BMX track that some teenagers (teenagers can at times be like orcs) constructed within the wood.

They must have spent many hours making the sharp "^-shaped" mounds, and they made a circuit that my kids thought of as one big dirt obstacle course. Again, being taller, I could hop from ^-top to ^-top, and then it came to me that this is how Tom must feel, sans yellow boots. Within the circuit was a burnt trunk of a hollowed tree, and it may have been able to house one to two of my kids.

Waiting for the kids to assemble that we might begin our journey home, I looked down below where I stood into a scooped out hollow and there were four white barked trees, not together, but near each other. I couldn't decide whether they were ents or scions of Celeborn.

There's a lot of places in South-west Victoria that I think look rather Middle-earth-ish. Here's a couple.

One of these is the view from a hill near my family's house. I forget exactly where the other was taken.

"dreamtime place, a spirit's glad release"
 

*sighs* part of my heart will belong in Victoria forever ......

The great ocean road could be part of ME's coastline surely .. and I remember being taking to Gippsland and finding it looked very "familiar".

I've always thought so– and now I've actually managed to find some seascapes that don't have me in front of them (my mother's the family photographer, and, well, she thinks a lot of me...:rolleyes:)

These places have definitely influenced the way I picture Middle-earth.

That last photo of the coastline reminds me of a coast in Odsherrede (herred(e) being the Danish version of (The)Shire), unfortunately I did not have my camera with me when i was there last time. . . and the sky was ever so enchanting !

I live close to the quiet fields and little rivers of The Shire on one side and to Mordor on the other.

My home area once had very dirty industies: coal and iron mining, iron smelting and steel making, pottery and brick manufacture. The mining and iron works have now gone and the ceramics industry uses cleaner energy for its kilns.
The desolation caused by pollution and coal waste and slag heaps is begining to green over, sometimes naturally and sometimes with the help of mankind. It will be many, many years before the clean-up is finished but I like to think of my home town as Mordor recovering after the fall of Barad Dur.
.

Langstrand on the Gondor coast I'd say - I think Lindon needs the Celtic bluish greh stone of Brittany or Cornwall ... hmm must see if I can scan some pictures in - I am still using film and besides when I was in Aus the first time there was no alternative...

Since none of those who took the pictures have posted...
 

When Brinniel was in Finland a couple of weeks ago, we showed her around Helsinki, and to our surprise discovered also new things about places we have known for long. The following pictures were taken by Volo in Suomenlinna, a sea fortress just off Helsinki.

The Barrow-downs
The Barrow-Downs II
The Dead Marshes
Orc-tunnels in the Misty Mountains (originally we thought them to be Moria, but then I was luckily helped to realise that they're most definitely not made by dwarves)
Orc-tunnels in the Misty Mountains II

I think that "the Barrow-Downs II" could also be abandoned (movie-style) hobbit holes.

Nah, dwarves never build such feeble things.:D Seriously, these pictures are amazing!

Those pictures of barrows stir my imagination. They suggest that a hobbit hole was surprisingly and interestingly not necessarily very different from barrows. Both are holes in the ground. :eek:

And note that these Finnish barrows are seaside barrows. If you have to spend centuries in a tomb, why not have a sea view? ;)

The second barrow picture does have similarity with abandoned Hobbit holes! Here's a photo to compare: movie Hobbiton site in Matamata, NZ

Indeed.

So are they barrows or hobbit-holes? Maybe we need a poll.

Very cool pictures anyway, Agan!

location, location, location
 

Does that view come with visits from Ulmo?

I'm curious about the reference to orcs, oops, Steeler fans in LA and their similarity with Tolkienists.

Cleveland Brown

That's probably better handled via PM, but for the rest of the world, think that most would consider both Cleveland and Pittsburgh suburbs of Mordor (but at least we have a real football team ;)).

Well, last year I went to this place called Puzzle Wood, and it reminded of certain areas:

The Old Forest
The Old Forest 2
The Old Forest 3

Mirkwood

My own Misty Mountains
 

Ok, so when I read The Hobbit the first time in Romanian I was still living in Romania in my home town of Brasov. Perhaps some of you know of it, it is after all one of the most important cities of the country. Anyways, close to the city (about 40 km) there is a wonderful mountainous region called Piatra Craiului (King's Stone) and immediately after I visited it I not only fell in love with the region, but also imagined that is how the Misty Mountains might look like.
To give you an idea of what I am talking about, here are pictures of the area on the site of the region: http://www.pcrai.ro/engleza/fotografii.html

Actually, now that I took a good look at some of those pics, I've become quite melancholic and I miss seeing them in the distance. Anyway, if you ever happen to pass by (you can also find route info on that site), do make sure to check that out!

Local Barrow
 

Hi all,

Might, those are beautiful photos of the Romanian Misty Mountains!

Here's my local Barrow (near where I grew up not where I live now). Though it does have a bit of 'abandoned Hobbit hole' about it too,

http://www.jharding.demon.co.uk/inde...k/tinkwood.htm

reminds me a little of a town near my university. every time I drive around it all I can see is the Shire. I've actually been so compelled as to pull over and just walk through some fields simply for the joy of it :)

There is a lake next to my neighborhood and it has Middle-earthian qualities in the park. My little brother walked around it with backpacks and walking sticks barefooted last summer, we go some strange looks, we also quoted half of FotR...:o

Some of it looks like the Old Forest, other parts of it look rather like Lorien and some of it is very Shire-like. Plus it has one of the colleges in Anchorage right next to it, so it is kind of Long Lakeish, and the Chugach mountains in the distance, which sometimes can look very much like the Misty Mountains in the winter when there is snow.

Alaska can be very Middle-earthish sometimes...

Well, I live in Michigan. I know what you're saying: "Morth, what does Michigan have to do with Middle-earth (save for Detroit being the quintessential real-world epitome of Angband)?"

Actually, if you divorce yourself from the Mordor-like industrial mega-complex of southeast Michigan, the rest of the state is quite pastoral. For the geographically disinclined, the state of Michigan is broken up into two penninsulas, both surrounded by the Great Lakes (which would be freshwater 'seas' anywhere else in the world). If one goes to the Upper Penninsula, there is a bit of Middle-earth in a place called Tahquamenon (mentioned in Longfellow's epic poem 'Hiawatha'), and more specifically the Falls...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:T...non_Falls1.JPG

The water of the falls is stained brown from the amount of tannin from oak leaves (so it is rather like tea). The falls froths white at the bottom, so one gets the visual effect of the gods pouring root beer. It puts me in mind of the Baranduin (or Brandywine) River, which I'd always assumed was like in coloration (Baranduin was Sindarin for "golden-brown river").

In winter:
http://www.exploringthenorth.com/tahqua/falls4a.gif

The 'Brandywine' color:
http://www.superiorsights.com/pictur...s/21010023.jpg

This sounds like Copper Falls in northern Wisconsin (where the water is that reddish brown from the iron in it). www.gowaterfalling.com/waterfalls/copper.shtml I suspect they may be part of the same larger geological system. It's been a LONG time since I visited the falls, but that part of the state and its forests always made me think of "This is the forest primeval." One could almost imagine an Ent or three among the trees and streams.

I live considerably farther south in Wisconsin, near the farms and rolling hills (and pastures and cheesemakers, of course :D), which have made me think of the Shire since I first read LotR some... oh, 44 years ago. But no pictures, alas. Perhaps I should take a few en route to my birthday vacation this weekend. :)

Recently I walked parts of the Camino de Santiago, and old Pilgrim route in Northern Spain. We started in St. Jean Pied De Port in France and often I felt I was trotting along in Middle Earth.

(Sorry if the images are a bit large)

Rivendell (St. Jean Pied De Port):
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...e/DSCN1563.jpg

Rohan (Crossing the Pyrenees):
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...e/DSCN1602.jpg

The Barrow-Downs (Crossing the Pyrenees):
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...e/DSCN1607.jpg

More Images:
 

The Old Forest (Crossing the Pyrenees):

The Hobbit similarity is purely incidental. That's a fully grown man with a poncho and a backpack.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...e/DSCN1621.jpg

Minas Tirith (12th century monastery in Estella):
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...e/DSCN1721.jpg

The Road Goes Ever On (that's me with the straw hat):
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...e/DSCN1784.jpg

Veery nice pictures, skip! Although here shows, as always, the difference in imagination among different people, because I wouldn't label the pics like you did, although I'd definitely label them as from Middle-Earth. But: #1 - not Rivendell, but obvious Buckland; #2 - Barrow-Downs, #3 - Hollin (or these barren lands north of it), #4 - some forest near Mitheithel, simply the scene from The Hobbit just before meeting the trolls.

But once again: fabulous!

Thanks, Legate. When I was in St. Jean Pied de Port I didn't think of ME at all but looking at that picture the first thing that popped up in my head was Rivendell. Of course, Tolkien never described Elrond's abode in any detail neither architechturally or geografically but this is much like my mental image of the place. Buckland? Nah!;)

Anyway, here's another picture from another recent holiday. Obviously the description isn't dead on here either but I certainly think it's Middle Earth-ish enough.

View of the Grey Havens: (Edit: I forgot to mention, this is a pic from the island Senya in the north of Norway)
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...e/DSCN1419.jpg

Hence the location in my sidebar profile... ;)

Actually, I was going to post something about the industrial areas around here. On a foggy night, the Rouge Steel complex in Dearborn looks exactly as I would imagine Utumno or Gorgoroth. It also reminds me of Saruman's Isengard as he girded for war against Rohan.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/...0d20de.jpg?v=0

I like Legate would have placed the labels differently, but this one I think you have spot on.

Yes, that is sooo Isengard. Especially, at first glance, the two... whatever... columns... on the right, I thought them to look exactly like Orthanc. On second sight, of course, not, but still, had their division into two (as it is shown on the picture) been somewhere further up, it might look indeed like Orthanc.

And skip, with this one I must agree, too - this is so Grey Havens! Or, maybe eventually some port in the Bay of Belfalas, especially while there were still Elven ships flowing from there.

Wonderful pictures Skip, truly amazing. :) That last picture looks very much like I imagined the port city of Pelegir, with the Anduin river curving northward.

I swear I saw the Shadow of Mordor coming over my school building a couple days ago! Coming over the highway, I knew highways were evil...

The Emley Moor transmitter, AKA Orthanc:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyjs/1149353003/

Wow, definitely - so BIG, compared to the houses below, that it's almost scary... (Well, why almost... it IS scary.)

I have one Orthanc pretty close to where I live, it is smaller, but in a way more Orthanc-ish, I think. Maybe I could take a photo of it and post it here. Also there are some other things I can think of...

Yesterday while going to church, all of Anchorage was covered in fog, we don't get much fog at all. I swear I was in the Old Forest! It's fall so all of the leaves on the trees are turning yellow and brown plus the trees could honestly come alive any second and drag somebody into a river! It's not very hilly here, just the mountains... I don't suppose you could call the mountains the Barrow-Downs could you?