The Federation of Glaamdring is a titanic, efficient nation, renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, compulsory military service, and complete absence of social welfare. The hard-nosed, hard-working, democratic population of 12.693 billion Glamdringians are effectively ruled by a group of massive corporations, who run for political office and provide their well-off citizens with world-class goods and services. Their poorer citizens, however, are mostly starving to death while being urged to go out and get real jobs. The populace has reasonably extensive civil rights, although these are mostly aimed at allowing them to buy whatever they like.

The tiny, pro-business government juggles the competing demands of Education, Defense, and Law & Order. Citizens pay a flat income tax of 7.0%.

The thriving Glaamdringian economy, worth 788 trillion farthings a year, is driven almost entirely by the private sector, which is broadly diversified and led by the Gambling industry, with major contributions from Information Technology, Book Publishing, and Automobile Manufacturing. Average income is 62,131 farthings, but there is a significant disparity between incomes, with the richest 10% of citizens earning 219,927 per year while the poor average 12,673, a ratio of 17.4 to 1.

A large-scale revitalization of the education system is underway, scientists regularly clone human beings for research purposes, and the latest Harry Potter book is a bestseller. Crime is moderate, with the police force struggling against a lack of funding and a high mortality rate. Glaamdring's national animal is the orc, which can occasionally be seen sifting through garbage in the nation's cities.

Glaamdring is ranked 276,123^rd in the world and 198^th in ainulindale for Most Eco-Friendly Governments, scoring -4.47 on the Dolphin Recycling Awareness Index.