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		| unless the Great Sea should enter in and wash it with oblivion | 
	
   The flooding of parts of Middle-earth is not an unprecedented concept - see Númenor, for example, though that occurred primarily as a punishment.  I can't help but make a connection to the Biblical Great Flood of Noah's time, which had not only a punishing purpose, but was meant to cleanse the earth as well.  Perhaps that's what happened to the desolation surrounding Mordor?  It was washed away in the all-encompassing flood...
		
 
		
		
		
		
		
		
			
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				'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth..
.'