Central European castles in the air?
Journal: Deeds and Days
Year: 2011

Central Europe, as it is known today in English, stems from the German term for this region, Mitteleuropa. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the first British and American authors who took the cue to comment on this part of the continent closely followed the German coinage, and spoke of Middle Europe. I wonder whether it might have been an influence on J. R. R. Tolkien’s invention of Middle Earth as the setting for his mythic epos, The Lord of the Rings.