Many readers are unaware that Tolkien set the events of Middle Earth in our own world approximately 6000 years ago. The name Middle Earth was not his invention but the translation of the word Midgard in Old Norse and was essentially the known world of these Nordic peoples in what is now Northwest Europe. What Tolkien never explains though is how these great cities and advanced civilizations of Elves, dwarves and humans could have seeming vanished without a trace. He may have left a clue however, when Smaug the Magnificent, fell into the deep water by Lake-town where it could only be assumed he perished. Tolkien stated that he intended to rewrite a 'more adult' version of The Hobbit to better complement the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and perhaps he had bigger plans for Smaug in that world than in the 'happy ending, children's fairy story' which was The Hobbit. If Smaug had survived, this may explain why the various races like Elves and Dwarves along with their monumental buildings vanished without a trace. It might also explain why early human cultures around the world worshipped dragons as their gods, during the centuries after the cultures of Middle Earth vanished, including one of great fame who fits Smaug's description perfectly! This story begins near the ending of The Return of the King, on the morning after Bilbo, Frodo and Gandalf set sail on a Swan Ship to the Valinor, the Undying Land of the Elves. Could Valinor be the Atlantis of the Greeks? They were both considered advanced civilizations located west of Europe in what we now call the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantis was said to be destroyed by a great calamity. Could it have been destroyed by that 'Greatest of Calamities', Smaug the Magnificent?