Arda
In Tolkien’s cosmology, Arda means the Earth, as well as the sun and the moon and the stars. It is not Eä, all which is, because it does not include the realms of the Ainur (angelic/godlike beings) and Eru, the One. In the beginning times, Arda was flat, and there were no heavenly bodies. All was dark, until Aulë the Smith created the Two Lamps to provide light. At that time, Arda became green with growing things. After the Two Lamps were cast down by the treachery of Melkor, Arda was plunged into darkness; but after many ages, first the stars, and then the sun and moon were placed in the sky. During the great war in which Melkor was captured and chained, Arda was broken and curved into a sphere, as it is today.
In Tolkien’s linguistic world, Arda is a word in Quenya, the first and purest language spoken by anyone in Middle-Earth. Quenya was devised by the Elves when they first awakened, and it is said that their first word was el, an exclamation of awe at the sight of the stars. The generic word arda means “region” in Quenya. Given Tolkien’s linguistic expertise, it can hardly be a coincidence that arda is so similar in sound to yard and garden, both of which derive from Proto-Germanic garda, “area”, “enclosed space”. He may also have been trying to suggest Earth (cf. Gmc. Erde). The sound of Arda suggests deep and strong connections to the Source energy — it both arises from it, and returns to it again — and decisions, doorways, which reflect its abiding transformations, as well as its transformative influence upon those who dwell within it.
