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A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1971 (DOST Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Middil-erd(e, -ȝerd, Midle-earth, n. Also: middill-, myddil(l)-, mydl-, and -eird, -ȝird. [ME. middel-, middil-, myddel-erde, -ert (a 1225), late ME. or e.m.E. middle yorde, myddell yarde (15–16th c.), e.m.E. middle earth, ME. middelerþ (13th c.). ? Repr. an OE. *middel(ᵹ)eard (cf. OS. mittilgard, OHG. mittilgart), or by analogy f. early ME. middenerde, OE. middaneard, ? ‘middle dwelling’, earlier middanᵹeard ? ‘middle enclosure’.]

1. The earth, the world of mortals. Also attrib.As distinguished from Hell or the Underworld or Fairyland. c1500 Rowll Cursing 237 (B).
At hellis ȝettis … [they] sall mak sic reirding That it beis hard in middilerd [M. middill erde] 1513 Doug. vi. viii. 11.
Thar saw he als … In mydlerd oft menyt, thir Troianys … that into batale slane is Ib. xi. 4.
Sawlys … quhilkis war forto wend To myddil erd and thare in bodeis ascend 1576 Justiciary Rec. (Bks. Adjournal) MS. 16.
[Bessie Dunlop] declarit at he send hir to na creatour in middilȝird bot to William Blair 1576 in Crim. Trials I. ii. 57.
It was the gude wichtis that wer rydand in middil ȝerd 1588 Ib. 164.
How he wes careit away with thame out of middil-eird 1662 Ib. III. 609.
The man of the midle-earthattrib. 1691 Kirk Secr. Commonw. 69.
So are they seen to carrie the … coffin … among the midle-earth men to the grave

2. The middle of the earth. The gret se of myddill erd, the Mediterranean. —c1515 Asl. MS. I. 168/13.