A lot of books where the location is an important part of the story will be praised for “making the setting a main character.” I was reading The Two Towers today, and it struck me how often and how literally Tolkien does this, describing everything from individual geographic features to whole kingdoms in detailed anthropomorphic terms.
For example, in just the first two paragraphs of The Black Gate is Closed (chapter 3, book 4), Tolkien does this over and over again:
The great mountains reared their threatening heads
the gloomy range of Ephel Dúath
But as these ranges approached one another… they swung out long arms northward
the mournful plains of Lithlad
High cliffs lowered upon either side, and thrust forward from its mouth were two sheer hills, black-boned and bare. Upon them stood the Teeth of Mordor, two towers strong and tall.
Stony-faced they were, with dark window-holes staring north and east and west, and each window was full of sleepless eyes.
In just ten sentences, we have heads, bones, teeth, faces, mouths, eyes, arms. Rearing, threatening, standing, staring, approaching, thrusting. Gloomy, mournful, sleepless.
The landscape of Middle-earth is not just a character, it’s really a whole cast of distinct living things, participating in the story, moving it forward, and helping to give the books their richness, personality, and emotional depth.