Middle Earth

Born in Bloemfontein, spending his childhood in Birmingham, before going to University in Oxford, then fighting in the Somme during World War 1. Where exactly did Tolkien find the inspiration for the mountainous land of Mordor in the eastern extremity of Middle Earth in the Lord of the Rings?

Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves were never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea,
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on,
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone,
Turn at last to home afar,
Eyes that fire and sword have seen,
And horror in the halls of stone,
Look at last on meadows green,
And trees and hills they long have know.

First published in 'The Hobbit' by JRR Tolkien in 1937.

The road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet,
And whither then? I cannot say.

Published in 'The Fellowship of the Ring' by JRR Tolkien in 1954.