Groovy maps

[The Gaffer]

Saw this and thought of Entmoot.

I did a search and couldn't find middle earth maps; can't believe that's the case. There should probably be a sticky with links to all the online maps out there.

Or maybe just the best ones.

http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/lotr-map.jpg?w=1536&h=612

[Varnafindë]

There used to be more maps around a few years ago - then apparently the lawyers of the Tolkien Estate told people to remove them for copyright reasons. Lots of the maps disappeared then ...

[Midge]

does this not work? (http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=map+of+middle+earth&aq=1&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=map+of+midd&gs_rfai=&fp=a86c207b1c79523e)

Ooh.. here's a leather map for sale (http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/mapsonleather/items/MIDDLE_EARTH_leather_map_LORD_OF_THE_RINGS_COLLECT IBLE). That's pretty cool.

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

Good links there, Midge.

By the way, we've been waiting for your quote in the quote game thread...

[The Gaffer]

I meant on Entmoot, not Tinternet

[Midge]

yeah... one second. I'm living at two houses and my books are rarely near me when I'm on the computer... except for RIGHT NOW.

[EllethValatari]

Brian Sibley's "The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-Earth" has a couple of huge poster-maps included with it...nothing special though :(

[The Gaffer]

I like this one:

http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/middle-earth.jpg

Middle-Earth merged into Europe.

[Midge]

Did Tolkien base the layout of Middle-Earth off Europe? If so, that map may be a LOT closer than it seems.

[The Gaffer]

I dunno, though clearly The Shire is supposed to be rural England. Wasn't LOTR his mythology for England?

I always wondered about the scale and distances. The use of "leagues" in the story made it hard to get your head around how far apart things are in ME.

But if The Shire is England then Gondor would be about 1,000 miles away in Southern Italy.

That would make the Slavs the Easterlings, Arabs/Moors in Near Harad, etc. Seems like a plausible suggestion.

[EllethValatari]

I dunno, though clearly The Shire is supposed to be rural England. Wasn't LOTR his mythology for England?

I always wondered about the scale and distances. The use of "leagues" in the story made it hard to get your head around how far apart things are in ME.

But if The Shire is England then Gondor would be about 1,000 miles away in Southern Italy.

That would make the Slavs the Easterlings, Arabs/Moors in Near Harad, etc. Seems like a plausible suggestion.

I don't know how well ME relates to England, but I do know that Tolkien did not mean for it to be read into that much. I have come to believe, from studying what little I have about J.R.R.T., that he believed that if you want to show something, by all means show it clearly. For he even said, "I dislike allegory in all its manifestations." I think that idea can be applied to the comparison of the maps; he clearly created another world, and if he wanted it to represent England, he would have said so or made it more clear.


Just a thought....

[The Gaffer]

Yet he described Tom Bombadil as "the spirit of the English countryside" or something similar.

[BeardofPants]

Started off as a mythology for England, morphed into something else entirely (HoME compacted down into one sentence).

[GrayMouser]

And I think the emphasis is that the hobbits are English, rather than the Shire being England- though typing this I recall a direct comparison being made somewhere between Anglo-Saxon history and the founding of the Shire. :confused:

Anyway, Tolkien definitely said the Hobbits are supposed to represent English villagers in the 19th Century. Source??

[EllethValatari]

Yet he described Tom Bombadil as "the spirit of the English countryside" or something similar.

Yes, but he also described TB as an enigma, and placed him in the story for no reason.

[BeardofPants]

I've probably posted this somewhere here, but if I didn't, this is a map I did for a cartography class a couple of years back - it's supposed to be a modern take on the middle-earth map (and yes, there are some issues with how I digitised and/or placed some of the data).


http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30911513&l=6983111b0c&id=1575529228

[The Gaffer]

I've probably posted this somewhere here, but if I didn't, this is a map I did for a cartography class a couple of years back - it's supposed to be a modern take on the middle-earth map (and yes, there are some issues with how I digitised and/or placed some of the data).


http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30911513&l=6983111b0c&id=1575529228
Check out the Scale! :eek:

[EllethValatari]

Nice job, BoP!

[BeardofPants]

Thanks!

Gaffer, never bothered too much with figuring out approp. scale for this exercise. There's tonnes wrong with the map, but that's ok, it was a learning exercise. :)