Places in Middle-earth
Sea of Rhûn
Type: Seas, Oceans, Bays
Region: Mordor/Allies
Meaning: Eastern Sea
Other Names The Inland Sea;
Sea of Rhunaer in HoMe VII, The Treason of Isengard, XV, The First Map
Location: Eastern Middle-Earth, in the Land of Rhûn, north of Mordor, but south of Laketown.
Description: "This must surely be the Sea of Rhun, where (features going back to the First Map to The Lord of the Rings, VII.305) there are hills on the south-western side and a forest coming down to the north-eastern shores; moreover the distance of two hundred miles across the sea agrees with the map."
There is an island in the eastern portion of the Sea, "coloured green on the First Map, and on the 1943 map is marked as wooded. "
Peoples of Middle-earth, Part 2, Ch XII, The Problem of Ros, Note 13
There is a suggestion that the Sea of Rhûn may be the remains of the Sea of Helcar from the First Age:
"In the texts of the post-Lord of the Rings period there is the statement in the Grey Annals (GA) §57 that it was 'in the midmost regions of the world'… and there is the new phrase in the revision of QS, 'in the midmost parts of Middle-earth beyond the Great River and the Inner Sea' ... one might indeed … wonder whether by 'the Inner Sea' my father was referring to 'the Inland Sea of Rhun' … but on the other hand, in the Annals of Aman (X.72, 82) from this same period the Great Journey of the Elves from Kuiviénen ('a bay in the Inland Sea of Helkar') is described in terms that suggest that the old conception was still fully present. Can the Sea of Rhûn be identified with the Sea of Helkar, vastly shrunken?"
The War of the Jewels, HoME Vol 11, Part 2, Chapter 9, Of Men
The inside cover map from Unfinished Tales shows the River Carnen (Redwater) from the Iron Hills and the Celduin (River Running) emptying into the Sea of Rhûn.
Contributors: Moriel 10May03
Lyllyn 6June03, 30Jan05
Elena Tiriel 1Sept04
