Concept Details

Beyond Middle Earth is structured in the format and semblance of a ‘botanica’, this being an encyclopaedia of plants, with the visual concept being that of an ancient book of plant learning. Its construction has been approached with the same rigour that would be applied to a reference book of non-fiction. Plants are listed by family, just as in real botanical treatises. It uses the explanation of each plant’s name to introduce aspects of history, mythology, peoples, places and ecology. In effect, the scientific names of each plant are used as gateways to a broader realm of peoples, lands and natural lore.

To achieve this Beyond Middle Earth draws on real plants and animals, and real ecological processes, as well as actual political, psychological and military models – but these have been moulded and transformed to fit within a partly fictional landscape and an alternative time. The textual entwining of real plants, and those that have been artificially created within its pages, veils the boundaries of fiction and non-fiction.

However, within the constraints of the botanica format, the bulk of the text reads from beginning to end like a world history and mythology, and an historical novel – whose lands, events, characters and their lives, progressively build in detail and complexity, until Beyond Middle Earth ends with a conventional climax. But hidden within and throughout the work (and the structure and meaning of individual words) are numerous cryptic allusions to times and things past, and so later re-readings, and the interpretation of plant names, expose details that first were undetected.

Large blocks of easily read text have been introduced. These follow on from the brief introductory paragraphs that accompany each plant. Occasionally, some aspects of the text may verge on the technical, but this is done so as to convincingly establish the book’s format and purported function.

 

What does Beyond Middle Earth do in relation to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien?

Beyond Middle Earth simply does what J.R.R. Tolkien wanted to see achieved, for he hoped to create a mythology “that other people would take over, adapt and use…”.

But importantly, Beyond Middle Earth does not rework Tolkien’s realms and storylines. Neither does it impose new events within his created landscapes. Those events that unfold in Beyond Middle Earth take place in new lands to the east of his ‘Middle-earth’, in ‘Central Middle Earth’ (as here constructed), and in a time largely later than those that concerned Tolkien’s writing (he always supposed that additional lands and peoples occurred east of the Sea of Rhún but did not know of, or mention, their nature in his voluminous works).

Tolkien’s writings concern peoples, places and events that conclude with the end of ‘his Third Age’. The historical context of Beyond Middle Earth primarily concerns itself with the early centuries of the Fourth Age – the beginning of Tolkien’s forecast ‘Age of Men’, in which the knowledge and magnificence of the world’s first races, kingdoms and greatest achievements, slip from reality into the realm of myth and dim history. And the knowledge that the ancient races held falls to the preserve of the learned few, or is degraded into a macabre memory of what it truly once was; or simply becomes the thing of magic.

Tolkien’s preoccupation was with that of people and their various histories and languages; and those lands within which they dwelt. Only fleetingly did he mention the plants of Middle Earth. Yet these too were intimately embroiled in the events of his world, confronting the same forces of evil, and suffering the same torment and catastrophes. Consequently, Beyond Middle Earth overlays details of the plants, ecosystems, their ecological interactions, history, and their folk usage that are missing within his books.

Tolkien’s central themes were the tumultuous conflicts between the free peoples of Middle Earth with the powers of evil, of the great creation of the world, the cataclysms that befell all those caught within the first ages of its history, and the diminution of the grandeur of elves and men. Beyond Middle Earth is about that too, but in addition uses the artifices of forest and herb lore to bring into being aspects of the everyday life, culture and beliefs of those that inhabited Middle Earth – the humdrum things such as ‘what herbs were used as field dressings by the soldiers of Arthedain, the courtly poisons of eastern realms, those plants that brought delirium or the release of death, what made a good cottage vegetable stew, and the kinds of wood used in the making of shields or, that placed above the house hearth, kept ill-fortune from the newborn? Humdrum matters only to the powerful and holders of ancient knowledge, but central to the lives of ordinary people and rough-shod infantry.

 

Examples of Structure and Characters

There are no chapters as such. Instead a landscape of interacting subthemes and plots is progressively woven to establish a world where fact and fiction intertwine across the boundary of reality and fantasy. Layer upon layer of detail is introduced and built up. The result is an alternative reality, as richly endowed with natural, cultural and historical diversity as our own world: the waxing and waning of empires, cultural mores, epic sagas, myths, betrayal, plants that bring on dream-states or corporeal release, women of great purpose, and men of mean and evil intent…. .

Individual plots and themes in Beyond Middle Earth include the foundation of the varied human realms of ‘Central Middle Earth’, the history of Western Middle Earth (Tolkien’s ‘Middle-earth’) up to the overthrow of Sauron, the folly and despair of Men, and the ecology of plants and their everyday usage.

A major subtheme within Beyond Middle Earth is the foundation saga and later fate of Carnathia, the dominant Early Fourth Age power of Central Middle Earth. Commencing with the legendary flight of King Aenlard’s people from the Witch-queen Silethe, Carnathia begins its history as a kingdom born from out of the wreck of their ancestral homeland Lethboerg. The kingdom’s first years are ones of survival and the still present danger of the Witch-realm of Taranar, far to the north. In this time Aenlard’s grief is heightened by the loss of his daughter Heloitea. But Carnathia survives, only to be confronted by the folly of its later rulers and their own progressive corruption by power. But there are many who are wise, and who stand against the evil of Silethe, as well as the darkness that power brings to the hearts of men. Yet in time Carnathia, as all empires do, falls from grace and diminishes. And those that were not corrupted, but ultimately could not overwhelm corruption, turned their backs upon the affairs of men for all time. But kings held to their illusions, though they were lesser by the measure of their ancestors.

 

Examples of how this is achieved

In the Beginning: All things have a foundation, thus the opening pages of Beyond Middle Earth are crafted so as to give the ‘big picture’; the over-riding forces that built and govern all of Middle Earth, that war upon it, and that find place and moment within its diverse places. Thus, for example, ‘The Plants of the Valar’ and ‘The Plants of Morgoth’ serve to introduce some of the great spiritual conflicts between good and evil that brought about the wreck of the first crafting of the world. They also serve as examples of how different groups of plants are used in allegorical counter play, paralleling the lesser mortal conflicts fought by elves, men, dwarves and other races in Middle Earth. And so a stage is set, and ‘ornaments’ and detail are increasingly placed within it.

The ‘Aenlardiaceae’: The body of the manuscript is divided alphabetically into plant families, some of which are real and some, like the Aenlardiaceae, are as false as they come. This conceptual construct then is used to introduce overlays of plot and the progression of individual storylines (as under the Rubiaceae and the Rutaceae, where sequential listing of species allows the fuller telling of the history of the realm of Rundlund). It also is a means of encoding information which the reader can, with later re-readings, explore and find further meaning; for in part Beyond Middle Earth is a game of search and discover. Such a structure also allows the reader to reference uses that actual plants are put to, be they for the crafting of sword scabbards, strewing herbs, poisons, facial adornment, or cottage brews. The Aenlardiaceae, or ‘witch trees’, as a particular example, serve to introduce the legendary foundation of Carnathia and its later fiefs and adjacent lands. It also demonstrates how the accompanying text (for that and subsequent families) is frequently broken into blocks to allow uninterrupted reading. Thus we have a section titled ‘On the Founding of Carnathia’, a subtitle format common to many books of legends and history published in the 19th Century. Again, this is a device constructed and repeatedly embedded in the manuscript so as to convey the impression of an old book of lore and learning.

The Unreal within the Unreal: All cultures live within a world that is embellished by fanciful legend. Naturally therefore, in any alternative world there is also to be found a fair measure of myth and groundless folk belief: practices falsely believed to put cows off the production of milk, songs sung at high noon thought to cause vegetables to sweeten or sour, and creatures that walk at the far edges of men’s thoughts.

So too plants. Thus, among many more discussed in Beyond Middle Earth, we find ‘Trial Plants’, a particular assemblage of troublesome things whose wanderings within vegetable plots confound the best labours of gardeners, whose wood forever moans of fatigue if made to open and shut as gate frame, or as plough, tires easily and needs frequent carrying, exhausted, from the field.

The Real, the Unreal, and Tolkien: Central to the construction of Beyond Middle Earth is the stratagem of melding the works of Tolkien, with original fantasies and with the real world. Thus in the section of text associated with the willow family Salicaceae we are given an example of Tolkien’s world intertwined by folk use of actual species, a section comprising references to Tolkien’s characters only (e.g., ‘Old Man Willow’), followed by original text overlays that enrich the cultural world of Central Middle Earth, and a section on the real-world use that willow plants can be put to – then linked back into original fantasy. Just like the weaving of a basket.

In the End: Numerous storylines run through the manuscript, however, the main one is that of the rise and fall of Carnathia (though this is but one realm whose story is told within the text), the despair and grandeur of its inception, and the madness and diminishing of its last rulers. Yet it is not a re-run of Gondor, more something like later Rome or Constantinople; but different still. In the concluding pages of Beyond Middle Earth, within the section subtitled ‘Of Mardrec’, the craving for dominion over free peoples by Mardrec, the ‘Last King’ of Carnathia, is finally brought to a conclusion: his downfall. And all that was clouded by delusion and the passing of wearying centuries, finds its end, and things long dismissed as worthless are gathered up and cherished anew.

Characters Too: Although the manuscript is contrived as a botanica, the artifice of scientific nomenclature and the frequent use of unbroken text allows the incorporation of a rich representation of individual characters; characters of great significance in the world of Central Middle Earth, as well as characters of lesser role who nevertheless find their place within the passage of events and the building of plots: a handful follow.

‘Silethe’: Silethe is a witch, or witch-like illusion, whose aggression dominates the foundation of Carnathia, and its ancestors. It is uncertain if she was crafted by greater powers, from a lesser creature of innocence, or whether a kernel of evil existed within her from her inception. Nevertheless Silethe is the bane of men in Central Middle Earth until the final moment of the Third Age. However, Silethe’s legacy of evil and infamy lived on in those she corrupted, and the lands she had devastated. The nature of this impact is fully told in the diverse stories that unfold within Beyond Middle Earth. Silethe lived on equally in myth, an example of this in the text being the ‘Silethe Tree’, whose pollen was said to be dispersed far beyond the borders of her dead realm, then to germinate “in the minds of men causing them to clutch at opportunity and power, to the detriment of others. But the only fruit born from the joining of tree and man are futile dreams and suffering”.

‘Aenlard’: Aenlard was the foundation king of Carnathia, a character who dances back and forth within the confines of history and the men-made boundaries of myth and legend. We are given only glimpses of him in Beyond Middle Earth, as befits all those fated to succumb to the tyranny of distant times and lack of long-surviving archives. But Aenlard did live, irrespective of the scepticism of some later Fourth Age scholars, his wisdom bringing his people first from the clutches of Silethe’s hordes, next to a safe haven, and finally in the wise ordering of a new country.

‘Segastra’: Segastra is one of many powerful female figures who fought against the enemies, within and without, of Carnathia. Though queen, she did not at first willingly accept the crown, for like her mother she shunned the world of men. Only the threat of civil discord and descent into general chaos brought her to the throne; and then only at the behest of others. She was tall in stature, her countenance grave, and with deep red hair that swept low across her back. As with her mother, Segastra’s skin was ghostly pale, and her eyes elongated in form. There was a carriage to the queen that was beyond the strength of men to oppose, causing many that might have found argument with her, to draw away, having found only silence in their tongues. Of great significance, however, was the long life given, as the gift of her mother, to Segastra. No other of the race of men in Central Middle Earth numbered such a treasury of years. But it was also a curse for she was made to reckon with the mischief and designs of many men; that a lifespan of more mortal duration would have saved her from. Consequently her original distrust of human affairs knew no tempering, rather each new ruler served only to reinforce the stance that she had originally held. Though Segastra ultimately withdrew from the politics of Carnathia, her gift of long life, and the powers she acquired, allowed her at last to stand as guardian of what Carnathia and its founders had once represented; overwhelming the evil of men that might otherwise have consumed the last vestiges of it. It was Segastra who held in trust the ‘Helm of Aenlard’, and within it the fabulous ‘Lightstone of Heloitea’; a thing that in the time of Mardrec, the ‘Last King’, was thought of little more than a quaint trinket from a distant time.

‘Richelan’: Within Beyond Middle Earth Richelan is a minor character and leader of men, getting scant mention and a quick exit from the manuscript. But he is an example of how Beyond Middle Earth is fashioned to allow future development of alternative themes and storylines – the building of later detail upon the diverse groundwork that Beyond Middle Earth represents. For Richelan is the central character within ‘The Richelanoidea’, a sequel of sorts to Beyond Middle Earth, and the foundation saga of the coming of the Amgarnians to Southern Middle Earth, and their finding of the dying First Age realm of Nalsarn. But this is another book altogether.

 

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