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In The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, Tolkien discusses the tengwar runes that are used in compass roses.

The names of the letters most widely known and used were 17 n, 33 hy, 25 r, 10 f: númen, hyarmen, rómen, formen=west, south, east, north (cf. Sindarin dûn or annûn, harad, rhûn or amrûn, forod). These letters commonly indicated the points W, S, E, N even in languages that used quite different terms. They were, in the West-lands, named in this order, beginning with and facing west; hyarmen and formen indeed meant left-hand region and right-hand region (the opposite to the arrangement in many Mannish languages).
The Lord of the Rings - Appendix E - "Writing and Spelling" - "Note"

As you can see, the directions began with West, and then South and North corresponded with the meanings for right hand side and left hand side.

We can see some related instances to this in Tolkien's writing:The main compass direction is West. This is the direction of Valinor, and Númenor, and has extreme spiritual and cosmological significance.

eldar ataformaiti epetai i hyarma ú ten ulca símaryassen úsië, an cé mo quernë cendelë númenna, ve senya i hyarma tentanë Melcorello ar cé mo formenna tentanes Amanna

The Elves were ambidexters; consequently, the left hand was not to them evil in their imaginations. On the contrary. For if one turned the face westwards as was usual, the left hand pointed away from Melkor (in the North), and if northwards, it pointed towards Aman (the Blessed Land).
The Nature of Middle-earth, Part 2, Chapter 3, "Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals" (and also Vinyar Tengwar No. 49.)

As to how anyone would know which way West was, we can look at the etymology of the words. Númen, "West", is associated with sunset, and Rómen, "East", is associated with sunrise.The elvish words for West and East are also related to the motion of the Sun. Númen, "West", is associated with sunset, and Rómen, "East", is associated with sunrise.

[Númenor] is a construction from the Eldarin base √NDU 'below, down; descend'; Q. núme 'going down, occident'; númennúmen 'the direction or region of the sunset' +nóre 'land' as an inhabited area. I have often used Westernesse as a translation.
September 1965 Letter to Dick Plotz - Letters of JRR Tolkien #276

  • andúnë   ‘sunset, west’ in Andúnië, to which corresponds in Sindarin annûn, cf. Annúminas, and Henneth Annûn ‘window of the sunset’ in Ithilien. The ancient root of these words, ndu, meaning ‘down, from on high’, appears also in Quenya númen ‘the way of the sunset, west’ and in Sindarin dûn ‘west’, cf. Dúnedain. Adûnaic adûn in Adûnakhôr, Anadûnê was a loan from Eldarin speech.
  • rómen   ‘uprising, sunrise, east’ (Quenya) in Rómenna. The Sindarin words for ‘east’, rhûn (in Talath Rhúnen) and amrûn, were of the same origin.

The Silmarillion - Appendix "Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names"

With West as the main compass direction, North and South follow as Right and Left.

The names of the letters most widely known and used were 17 n, 33 hy, 25 r, 10 f: númen, hyarmen, rómen, formen=west, south, east, north (cf. Sindarin dûn or annûn, harad, rhûn or amrûn, forod). These letters commonly indicated the points W, S, E, N even in languages that used quite different terms. They were, in the West-lands, named in this order, beginning with and facing west; hyarmen and formen indeed meant left-hand region and right-hand region (the opposite to the arrangement in many Mannish languages).
The Lord of the Rings - Appendix E - "Writing and Spelling" - "Note"

[Quenya:] eldar ataformaiti epetai i hyarma ú ten ulca símaryassen úsië, an cé mo quernë cendelë númenna, ve senya i hyarma tentanë Melcorello ar cé mo formenna tentanes Amanna

[English:] The Elves were ambidexters; consequently, the left hand was not to them evil in their imaginations. On the contrary. For if one turned the face westwards as was usual, the left hand pointed away from Melkor (in the North), and if northwards, it pointed towards Aman (the Blessed Land).
The Nature of Middle-earth, Part 2, Chapter 3, "Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals" (and also Vinyar Tengwar No. 49.)

  • North points towards the Big Dipper
  • South points to the sun
  • West points to the Pelóri, the Mountains of Valinor (see this painting of Mount Taniquetil, made just one year earlier)
  • East points to the Gates of Morn, where the sun emerges from every morning, (described in the Book of Lost Tales as "a great arch ... all of shining gold and barred with silver gates")

In The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, Tolkien discusses the tengwar runes that are used in compass roses.

The names of the letters most widely known and used were 17 n, 33 hy, 25 r, 10 f: númen, hyarmen, rómen, formen=west, south, east, north (cf. Sindarin dûn or annûn, harad, rhûn or amrûn, forod). These letters commonly indicated the points W, S, E, N even in languages that used quite different terms. They were, in the West-lands, named in this order, beginning with and facing west; hyarmen and formen indeed meant left-hand region and right-hand region (the opposite to the arrangement in many Mannish languages).
The Lord of the Rings - Appendix E - "Writing and Spelling" - "Note"

As you can see, the directions began with West, and then South and North corresponded with the meanings for right hand side and left hand side.

We can see some related instances to this in Tolkien's writing:

eldar ataformaiti epetai i hyarma ú ten ulca símaryassen úsië, an cé mo quernë cendelë númenna, ve senya i hyarma tentanë Melcorello ar cé mo formenna tentanes Amanna

The Elves were ambidexters; consequently, the left hand was not to them evil in their imaginations. On the contrary. For if one turned the face westwards as was usual, the left hand pointed away from Melkor (in the North), and if northwards, it pointed towards Aman (the Blessed Land).
The Nature of Middle-earth, Part 2, Chapter 3, "Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals" (and also Vinyar Tengwar No. 49.)

As to how anyone would know which way West was, we can look at the etymology of the words. Númen, "West", is associated with sunset, and Rómen, "East", is associated with sunrise.

[Númenor] is a construction from the Eldarin base √NDU 'below, down; descend'; Q. núme 'going down, occident'; númen 'the direction or region of the sunset' +nóre 'land' as an inhabited area. I have often used Westernesse as a translation.
September 1965 Letter to Dick Plotz - Letters of JRR Tolkien #276

  • andúnë   ‘sunset, west’ in Andúnië, to which corresponds in Sindarin annûn, cf. Annúminas, and Henneth Annûn ‘window of the sunset’ in Ithilien. The ancient root of these words, ndu, meaning ‘down, from on high’, appears also in Quenya númen ‘the way of the sunset, west’ and in Sindarin dûn ‘west’, cf. Dúnedain. Adûnaic adûn in Adûnakhôr, Anadûnê was a loan from Eldarin speech.
  • rómen   ‘uprising, sunrise, east’ (Quenya) in Rómenna. The Sindarin words for ‘east’, rhûn (in Talath Rhúnen) and amrûn, were of the same origin.

The Silmarillion - Appendix "Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names"

  • North points towards the Big Dipper
  • South points to the sun
  • West points to the Pelóri, the Mountains of Valinor (see this painting of Mount Taniquetil, made just one year earlier)
  • East points to the Gates of Morn, (described in the Book of Lost Tales as "a great arch ... all of shining gold and barred with silver gates")

The main compass direction is West. This is the direction of Valinor, and Númenor, and has extreme spiritual and cosmological significance.

The elvish words for West and East are also related to the motion of the Sun. Númen, "West", is associated with sunset, and Rómen, "East", is associated with sunrise.

[Númenor] is a construction from the Eldarin base √NDU 'below, down; descend'; Q. núme 'going down, occident'; númen 'the direction or region of the sunset' +nóre 'land' as an inhabited area. I have often used Westernesse as a translation.
September 1965 Letter to Dick Plotz - Letters of JRR Tolkien #276

  • andúnë   ‘sunset, west’ in Andúnië, to which corresponds in Sindarin annûn, cf. Annúminas, and Henneth Annûn ‘window of the sunset’ in Ithilien. The ancient root of these words, ndu, meaning ‘down, from on high’, appears also in Quenya númen ‘the way of the sunset, west’ and in Sindarin dûn ‘west’, cf. Dúnedain. Adûnaic adûn in Adûnakhôr, Anadûnê was a loan from Eldarin speech.
  • rómen   ‘uprising, sunrise, east’ (Quenya) in Rómenna. The Sindarin words for ‘east’, rhûn (in Talath Rhúnen) and amrûn, were of the same origin.

The Silmarillion - Appendix "Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names"

With West as the main compass direction, North and South follow as Right and Left.

The names of the letters most widely known and used were 17 n, 33 hy, 25 r, 10 f: númen, hyarmen, rómen, formen=west, south, east, north (cf. Sindarin dûn or annûn, harad, rhûn or amrûn, forod). These letters commonly indicated the points W, S, E, N even in languages that used quite different terms. They were, in the West-lands, named in this order, beginning with and facing west; hyarmen and formen indeed meant left-hand region and right-hand region (the opposite to the arrangement in many Mannish languages).
The Lord of the Rings - Appendix E - "Writing and Spelling" - "Note"

[Quenya:] eldar ataformaiti epetai i hyarma ú ten ulca símaryassen úsië, an cé mo quernë cendelë númenna, ve senya i hyarma tentanë Melcorello ar cé mo formenna tentanes Amanna

[English:] The Elves were ambidexters; consequently, the left hand was not to them evil in their imaginations. On the contrary. For if one turned the face westwards as was usual, the left hand pointed away from Melkor (in the North), and if northwards, it pointed towards Aman (the Blessed Land).
The Nature of Middle-earth, Part 2, Chapter 3, "Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals" (and also Vinyar Tengwar No. 49.)

  • North points towards the Big Dipper
  • South points to the sun
  • West points to the Pelóri, the Mountains of Valinor (see this painting of Mount Taniquetil, made just one year earlier)
  • East points to the Gates of Morn, where the sun emerges from every morning, (described in the Book of Lost Tales as "a great arch ... all of shining gold and barred with silver gates")
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enter image description hereenter image description here

On this compass everyone, it seems to agree that North is the big dipper, and south the sun, though there is some disagreement on what Tolkien meant here with east and west.

In 1987, Christopher identified them with the misty mountains and the gate to the Elvenking Halls.:

The device at the top of the map apparently represents the points of the compass, with the seven stars of the Great Bear in the North (the black spots to the left of the stars are merely marks on the paper), the Sun in the South, the Misty Mountains in the West and (I think) the entrance to the Elvenking’s halls in the East.
Christopher Tolkien's 1987 Foreword to The Hobbit

  • North points towards the Big Dipper
  • South points to the sun
  • West points to the Pelóri, the Mountains of Valinor (see this painting of Mount Taniquetil, made just one year earlier)
  • East points to the Gates of Morn, (described in the Book of Lost Tales as "a great arch ... all of shining gold and barred with silver gates")

OtherThis is the identification agreed upon by most Tolkien scholars, notablyScholars, including John Rateliff, Douglas Anderson, Christina Scull, and Wayne Hammond, have identified these with the mountains of Valinor and the Gates of Morn.

The pattern on top is clearly meant to represent the Big Dipper (the dark marks to the left of the constellation as reproduced in the Frontispiece are simply stray stains and splotches on the Ms.), and thus indicates north: the shift in orientation to turn the map on its side and place East at the top would not occur until much later. To the South is the sun. East is indicated by the sun rising above some sort of archway or gate, probably the Gates of Morn mentioned in ‘The Tale of the Sun and Moon’, which is described as ‘a great arch . . . all of shining gold and barred with silver gates’ (BLT I.216). West is marked by a three-tiered mountain, possibly meant to suggest the as-yet-unmentioned Misty Mountains (which do indeed lie west of the Lonely Mountain) but more probably the Mountain of the World, Taniquetil, in the Uttermost West. Only some two years earlier Tolkien had painted the magnificent picture of Mount Taniquetil ... This famous painting shows Taniquetil as a tall peak surrounded by lesser heights which, in profile, would look very like the small icon on the compass rose.
The History of the Hobbit - I(a) iii - "The Geography of the Tale & The First Map"

A compass in the center shows the seven stars of the Great Bear (called the Big Dipper in North America) to the north, with what is apparently the sun to the south. The symbols to the east and west may reflect elements from Tolkien's "Silmarillion" writings of the 1930s—the Gates of Morn to the east, and the Mountains of Valinor to the west.
The Annotated Hobbit - Introduction

A lot of this debate hangs on whether this very first six page draft was meant to However it should be associated with the Silmarillion material or not, and whethernoted that Christopher Tolkien already had in mind later elements fromhas a different interpretation for the story in mind when drawing this mapEast and West pictures. (See here for some additional back and forthMore about thisthat here. (I think the evidence points quite clearly towards Christopher being wrong, but it is notable that he held his ground on this when challenged.)

enter image description here

On this compass everyone seems to agree that North is the big dipper, and south the sun, though there is some disagreement on what Tolkien meant here with east and west.

In 1987, Christopher identified them with the misty mountains and the gate to the Elvenking Halls.

The device at the top of the map apparently represents the points of the compass, with the seven stars of the Great Bear in the North (the black spots to the left of the stars are merely marks on the paper), the Sun in the South, the Misty Mountains in the West and (I think) the entrance to the Elvenking’s halls in the East.
Christopher Tolkien's 1987 Foreword to The Hobbit

Other Tolkien scholars, notably, John Rateliff, Douglas Anderson, Christina Scull, and Wayne Hammond, have identified these with the mountains of Valinor and the Gates of Morn.

The pattern on top is clearly meant to represent the Big Dipper (the dark marks to the left of the constellation as reproduced in the Frontispiece are simply stray stains and splotches on the Ms.), and thus indicates north: the shift in orientation to turn the map on its side and place East at the top would not occur until much later. To the South is the sun. East is indicated by the sun rising above some sort of archway or gate, probably the Gates of Morn mentioned in ‘The Tale of the Sun and Moon’, which is described as ‘a great arch . . . all of shining gold and barred with silver gates’ (BLT I.216). West is marked by a three-tiered mountain, possibly meant to suggest the as-yet-unmentioned Misty Mountains (which do indeed lie west of the Lonely Mountain) but more probably the Mountain of the World, Taniquetil, in the Uttermost West. Only some two years earlier Tolkien had painted the magnificent picture of Mount Taniquetil ... This famous painting shows Taniquetil as a tall peak surrounded by lesser heights which, in profile, would look very like the small icon on the compass rose.
The History of the Hobbit - I(a) iii - "The Geography of the Tale & The First Map"

A compass in the center shows the seven stars of the Great Bear (called the Big Dipper in North America) to the north, with what is apparently the sun to the south. The symbols to the east and west may reflect elements from Tolkien's "Silmarillion" writings of the 1930s—the Gates of Morn to the east, and the Mountains of Valinor to the west.
The Annotated Hobbit - Introduction

A lot of this debate hangs on whether this very first six page draft was meant to be associated with the Silmarillion material or not, and whether Tolkien already had in mind later elements from the story in mind when drawing this map. See here for some additional back and forth about this. (I think the evidence points quite clearly towards Christopher being wrong, but it is notable that he held his ground on this when challenged.)

enter image description here

On this compass, it seems that:

  • North points towards the Big Dipper
  • South points to the sun
  • West points to the Pelóri, the Mountains of Valinor (see this painting of Mount Taniquetil, made just one year earlier)
  • East points to the Gates of Morn, (described in the Book of Lost Tales as "a great arch ... all of shining gold and barred with silver gates")

This is the identification agreed upon by most Tolkien Scholars, including John Rateliff, Douglas Anderson, Christina Scull, and Wayne Hammond. However it should be noted that Christopher Tolkien has a different interpretation for the East and West pictures. (More about that here.)

Source Link
ibid
ibid
  • 95.2k
  • 37
  • 498
  • 575

West was the direction of Sunset and Valinor and was the principle compass direction. One would face West and everything else would follow from that.

In The Lord of the Rings, Appendix E, Tolkien discusses the tengwar runes that are used in compass roses.

The names of the letters most widely known and used were 17 n, 33 hy, 25 r, 10 f: númen, hyarmen, rómen, formen=west, south, east, north (cf. Sindarin dûn or annûn, harad, rhûn or amrûn, forod). These letters commonly indicated the points W, S, E, N even in languages that used quite different terms. They were, in the West-lands, named in this order, beginning with and facing west; hyarmen and formen indeed meant left-hand region and right-hand region (the opposite to the arrangement in many Mannish languages).
The Lord of the Rings - Appendix E - "Writing and Spelling" - "Note"

As you can see, the directions began with West, and then South and North corresponded with the meanings for right hand side and left hand side.

We can see some related instances to this in Tolkien's writing:

They were led then to seats beside Faramir: barrels covered with pelts and high enough above the benches of the Men for their convenience. Before they ate, Faramir and all his men turned and faced west in a moment of silence. Faramir signed to Frodo and Sam that they should do likewise.

‘So we always do,’ he said, as they sat down: ‘we look towards Númenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be. Have you no such custom at meat?’
The Lord of the Rings - Book 4, Chapter 5 - "The Window on the West"

eldar ataformaiti epetai i hyarma ú ten ulca símaryassen úsië, an cé mo quernë cendelë númenna, ve senya i hyarma tentanë Melcorello ar cé mo formenna tentanes Amanna

The Elves were ambidexters; consequently, the left hand was not to them evil in their imaginations. On the contrary. For if one turned the face westwards as was usual, the left hand pointed away from Melkor (in the North), and if northwards, it pointed towards Aman (the Blessed Land).
The Nature of Middle-earth, Part 2, Chapter 3, "Eldarin Hands, Fingers and Numerals" (and also Vinyar Tengwar No. 49.)

As to how anyone would know which way West was, we can look at the etymology of the words. Númen, "West", is associated with sunset, and Rómen, "East", is associated with sunrise.

[Númenor] is a construction from the Eldarin base √NDU 'below, down; descend'; Q. núme 'going down, occident'; númen 'the direction or region of the sunset' +nóre 'land' as an inhabited area. I have often used Westernesse as a translation.
September 1965 Letter to Dick Plotz - Letters of JRR Tolkien #276

  • andúnë   ‘sunset, west’ in Andúnië, to which corresponds in Sindarin annûn, cf. Annúminas, and Henneth Annûn ‘window of the sunset’ in Ithilien. The ancient root of these words, ndu, meaning ‘down, from on high’, appears also in Quenya númen ‘the way of the sunset, west’ and in Sindarin dûn ‘west’, cf. Dúnedain. Adûnaic adûn in Adûnakhôr, Anadûnê was a loan from Eldarin speech.
  • rómen   ‘uprising, sunrise, east’ (Quenya) in Rómenna. The Sindarin words for ‘east’, rhûn (in Talath Rhúnen) and amrûn, were of the same origin.

The Silmarillion - Appendix "Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names"

In a somewhat earlier incarnation, in the very first surviving draft of The Hobbit (c.1929), we have a drawing of a compass rose with pictures for each of the points.

enter image description here

On this compass everyone seems to agree that North is the big dipper, and south the sun, though there is some disagreement on what Tolkien meant here with east and west.

In 1987, Christopher identified them with the misty mountains and the gate to the Elvenking Halls.

The device at the top of the map apparently represents the points of the compass, with the seven stars of the Great Bear in the North (the black spots to the left of the stars are merely marks on the paper), the Sun in the South, the Misty Mountains in the West and (I think) the entrance to the Elvenking’s halls in the East.
Christopher Tolkien's 1987 Foreword to The Hobbit

Other Tolkien scholars, notably, John Rateliff, Douglas Anderson, Christina Scull, and Wayne Hammond, have identified these with the mountains of Valinor and the Gates of Morn.

The pattern on top is clearly meant to represent the Big Dipper (the dark marks to the left of the constellation as reproduced in the Frontispiece are simply stray stains and splotches on the Ms.), and thus indicates north: the shift in orientation to turn the map on its side and place East at the top would not occur until much later. To the South is the sun. East is indicated by the sun rising above some sort of archway or gate, probably the Gates of Morn mentioned in ‘The Tale of the Sun and Moon’, which is described as ‘a great arch . . . all of shining gold and barred with silver gates’ (BLT I.216). West is marked by a three-tiered mountain, possibly meant to suggest the as-yet-unmentioned Misty Mountains (which do indeed lie west of the Lonely Mountain) but more probably the Mountain of the World, Taniquetil, in the Uttermost West. Only some two years earlier Tolkien had painted the magnificent picture of Mount Taniquetil ... This famous painting shows Taniquetil as a tall peak surrounded by lesser heights which, in profile, would look very like the small icon on the compass rose.
The History of the Hobbit - I(a) iii - "The Geography of the Tale & The First Map"

A compass in the center shows the seven stars of the Great Bear (called the Big Dipper in North America) to the north, with what is apparently the sun to the south. The symbols to the east and west may reflect elements from Tolkien's "Silmarillion" writings of the 1930s—the Gates of Morn to the east, and the Mountains of Valinor to the west.
The Annotated Hobbit - Introduction

A lot of this debate hangs on whether this very first six page draft was meant to be associated with the Silmarillion material or not, and whether Tolkien already had in mind later elements from the story in mind when drawing this map. See here for some additional back and forth about this. (I think the evidence points quite clearly towards Christopher being wrong, but it is notable that he held his ground on this when challenged.)