: The events that take place were not mean't to have taken place in our world, therefore you cannot place them in real world history. Remember its a story, it doesnt have to have anything to do with the real world.

Ummm, I'm not disagreeing, but a lot of fans look at it as an alternative past for our world. Middle-Earth was created as a form of mythology for England, as it's Celtic heritage had been all but lost. Tolkien embarked to make a mythology for England, so we can kinda assume that Middle-Earth is our world.

In fact, a couple of ppl have posted messages on this board claiming that they believe that Middle-Earth DID in fact exist, and Tolkien was merely a medium through which the story was channeled.
This is obvious nonsense, as everyone here knows that Tolkien was a small....
=)

I may be completely wrong here of course, as the geography wouldn't really work out, but my impression is that Middle-Earth is our world, set around the same time of the Norse myths.

All my opinion, of course.

Gandalf