11/10/2023 0 Comments Middle earth world map![]() The Ered Luin mountain range on its right-hand edge approximately matches the mountain range of that name on the left-hand edge of the main map in The Lord of the Rings. There is a large fold-out drawing of Beleriand. The first edition of The Silmarillion contains two maps. The map of the Shire is the only one to include political boundaries, in the shape of the divisions between the administrative districts or Farthings. Shippey notes that many of the places mapped are never used in the text. I had to devote many days, the last three virtually without food or bed, to drawing re-scaling and adjusting a large map, at which then worked for 24 hours (6am to 6am without bed) in re-drawing just in time. Father and son worked desperately to finish the map in time for publication: The finished map faithfully reproduced the contours, features and labels of his father's design, but omitted the route (with dates) taken by the Hobbits Frodo and Sam on their way to destroy the One Ring in Mount Doom. His son Christopher drew the contour map from the design. He made a detailed pencil, ink and coloured pencil design on graph paper, enlarged five times in length from the main map of Middle-earth. ![]() The paper became soft, torn and yellowed through intensive use, and a fold down the centre had to be mended using parcel tape. The map had many annotations in pencil and a range of different inks added over the years, the older ones faded until almost illegible. Tolkien worked for many years on the book, using a hand-drawn map of the whole of the north-west of Middle-earth on squared (not graph) paper, each 2cm square representing 100 miles. The maps are a large drawing of the north-west part of Middle-earth, showing mountains as if seen in three dimensions, and coasts with multiple waterlines a more detailed drawing of "A Part of the Shire" and a contour map by Christopher Tolkien of parts of Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor, very different in style. The Lord of the Rings contains three maps and over 600 placenames. The city of Minas Tirith (lower left) with its large encircling wall (the Rammas Echor) and the ruined city of Osgiliath astride the River Anduin nearby are shown. Tolkien's design for his son Christopher's contour map on graph paper with handwritten annotations, of parts of Gondor and Mordor and the route taken by the Hobbits with the One Ring, and dates along that route, for an enlarged map in The Return of the King Detail of finished contour map by Christopher Tolkien, drawn from his father's graph paper design. This line represented the printed delineation of the margin of the school paper, which came with the printed instruction "Do not write in this margin". Both maps have a heavy vertical line not far from the left-hand side, the one on the map of Wilderland marked "Edge of the Wild". The map is overprinted with placenames in red. Mirkwood is shown as a mixture of closely packed tree symbols, spiders and their webs, hills, lakes, and villages. The Misty Mountains are drawn in three dimensions. The other is a drawing of " Wilderland", from Rivendell in the west to the Lonely Mountain and Smaug the dragon in the east. The first is Thror's map, in the fiction handed down to Thorin, showing little but the Lonely Mountain drawn in outline with ridgelines and entrances, and parts of two rivers, decorated with a spider and its web, English labels and arrows, and two texts written in runes. In the view of the Tolkien critic Tom Shippey, the maps are largely decorative in the "Here be tygers" tradition, adding nothing to the story. The Hobbit contains two simple maps and only around 50 placenames. Further information: Tolkien's artwork and Geography of Middle-earth The Hobbit
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