Middle-earth is the central continent and setting of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
The name refers to the inhabited lands where most of the events involving Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, and their allies take place. It includes regions such as the Shire, Rohan, Gondor, Mordor, and Mirkwood. Tolkien’s Middle-earth is not the entire planet; it is a part of the larger world he called Arda.
Valinor lies in the Undying Lands to the west, while Númenor was an island kingdom that existed in an earlier age. Beleriand was another major region, but it belonged primarily to the older First Age setting and was later destroyed or reshaped. These distinctions explain why “Middle-earth” is broader than a single kingdom or country.