Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy doesn’t leave much to be desired (thankfully), but there are a few mysteries still haunting his post-apocalyptic take on Middle-earth. Across three films, the Fellowship of the Ring quests through a realm that’s long fallen to ruin. The state of Middle-earth is more or less explained away by the prevalence of battles and the dark power of Sauron — but there are some corners of the continent that fell without much help from the Dark Lord.
