Which fictional region is the setting of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth stories?

The fictional region at the center of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth stories is called Middle-earth.

Middle-earth is the main inhabited continent or region depicted in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and much of Tolkien’s wider legendarium. It contains places such as the Shire, Rivendell, Gondor, Rohan, Moria, and Mordor.

The name is related to the Old English term middangeard and the Old Norse miðgarðr, traditional words for the human world. Tolkien’s Middle-earth is therefore not simply another planet or a completely separate universe; it is presented as a mythic version of the distant past of our own world.

Readers sometimes use “Middle-earth” to mean the entire fictional universe. More precisely, Tolkien’s wider world also includes places beyond it, such as Valinor and Númenor, depending on the period being discussed.