Geographical equivalent of the West Indies/Caribbean in ME?

[morwen edhelwen]

OK, this may be a bit weird,but bear with me:

I'm working on something inspired by the ideas in these threads;http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...k Of Westmarch
and http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthr...allel Universe

Basically, it's an urban fantasy scenario where ME is a parallel universe and Tolkien visited it several times in his dreams. Of course, he spent the longest stretches of time there when he was writing Hobbit and LOTR. In the more "modern" version of ME, there is steampunk technology and Orc terrorism, (yes really) which leads to mass migration to our world and the formation of an area where hobbits, elves etc live.

I also am fascinated by Afro-Caribbean folklore, so for some reason I thought some of the protagonists of this story could be from the equivalent of the West Indies/Caribbean.

What would be the nearest geographical equivalent to the West Indies/Caribbean in ME? On another forum that I read they mentioned the "Sunlands" near Tol Eressea as the equivalent to North America.

[jallanite]

From the “Akallabêth″:

For Ilúvatar cast back the Great Seas west of Middle-earth, and the Empty Lands east of it, and new lands and new seas were made; and the world was diminished, for Valinor and Eressëa were taken from it into the realm of hidden things.

Middle-earth is the Afro-Eurasian super-continent of our world. Presumably places east of it in the present world come from “the Empty Lands” and the “new lands” mentioned here. The Caribbean would be on the eastern coast of these “new lands”.

Note that this account presents the world being flat with Valinor and Eressëa being on its eastern edge up to the point of the sinking of Númenor. But Tolkien in his later writings took his early accounts of his world as being Mannish legend, often garblings of the truth. Valinor and Eressëa must be understood as being on the other side of some kind of inter-dimensional gateway. And the Americas and the Caribbean long before in their current locations.

The Sunlands in The Lord of the Rings refers to southern lands. See http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Sunlands . I suspect who ever wrote about “the ‘Sunlands’ near Tol Eressea” was just very confused.

[morwen edhelwen]

Originally Posted by jallanite

From the “Akallabêth″:

For Ilúvatar cast back the Great Seas west of Middle-earth, and the Empty Lands east of it, and new lands and new seas were made; and the world was diminished, for Valinor and Eressëa were taken from it into the realm of hidden things.

Middle-earth is the Afro-Eurasian super-continent of our world. Presumably places east of it in the present world come from “the Empty Lands” and the “new lands” mentioned here. The Caribbean would be on the eastern coast of these “new lands”.

Note that this account presents the world being flat with Valinor and Eressëa being on its eastern edge up to the point of the sinking of Númenor. But Tolkien in his later writings took his early accounts of his world as being Mannish legend, often garblings of the truth. Valinor and Eressëa must be understood as being on the other side of some kind of inter-dimensional gateway. And the Americas and the Caribbean long before in their current locations.

The Sunlands in The Lord of the Rings refers to southern lands. See http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Sunlands . I suspect who ever wrote about “the ‘Sunlands’ near Tol Eressea” was just very confused.

Thanks, jallanite! I admit that I don't own a copy of the Sil.