Places in Middle-earth
Walls of the World
Type: Other Constructions
Region: Other Arda
Other Names Ilurambar, Walls of Night
Location: The outermost edge of the World, beyond which is the Timeless Void
Description: "To begin from the Outside: beyond the Walls of the World lies 'the Void, the Night without form or time', … The Walls of the World, Ilurambar, are the unbroken, uninterrupted shell of a vast globe; they are cold, invisible, and impassable save by Ando Lómen, the Door of Night."
The Shaping of Middle-earth, HoME Vol 4, Ch 5, The Ambarkanta: Commentary
"About all the World are the Ilurambar, or Walls of the World. They are as ice and glass and steel, being above all imagination of the Children of Earth cold, transparent, and hard. They cannot be seen, nor can they be passed, save by the Door of Night."
The Shaping of Middle-earth, HoME Vol 4, Ch 5, The Ambarkanta, Of The Fashion Of The World
"But Morgoth himself the Valar thrust through the Door of Night beyond the Walls of the World, into the Timeless Void; and a guard is set for ever on those walls, and Eärendil keeps watch upon the ramparts of the sky. …"
The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Ch 24, Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath
"The Walls of the Night have not been named elsewhere: but it is hard to see, especially in view of the sentence cited from §23, how they can not be equated with the Walls of the World."
Morgoth's Ring, HoME Vol 10, Part 2, The Annals of Aman, Commentary on the first section of the Annals of Aman.
Etymology
IL- all. Q ilya all, the whole. ILU- universe: Q ilu, iluve: cf. Iluvatar, Ilurambar Walls of the World.
RAMBA- Q ramba wall, cf. Ilurambar; N rhamb, rham, cf. Andram 'Long Walls'
The Lost Road and Other Writings, HoME Vol 5, Part 3, The Etymologies
Contributors: Lyllyn 3Jan04
