The Atlas of Middle Earth

J.R.R.Tolkien succeeded both in creating fabulous new worlds and rendering them utterly believable. Reading his trilogy has become a rite of passage for many in several generations. An updated atlas of Middle -Earth provides a definitive guide through hundreds of maps and drawings. (In advance of the movie Lord of The Rings scheduled for release in December, we'll be writing and talking about the trilogy itself as well as other works the original books have inspired.)

The Atlas of Middle Earth author Karen Wynn Fonstad pages 210 publisher Houghton Mifflin rating 8 reviewer Jon Katz ISBN 0-618-12699-6 summary The Geography of Middle-Earth

If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it's my wonder and delight in the earth as it is," Tolkien told an interviewer, "particularly the natural earth." He also wanted to provide a new, Brit-centric mythology for the world, so he took the literal earth and changed it just enough to make it "faerie."

With the cinematic trilogy of his books under production -- three separate films are scheduled for release over the next two years -- Middle Earth is going mainstream. These films will probably be nearly as big as Star Wars, if they're half as good, touching mythological and creative nerves that revolve around what we like to call science fiction in its varied forms.

As is often the case with culture The Lord Of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Silmarillion -- provided comfort, stimulation, and escape for a particular sub-set of the human species, especially young, enchanted brainiacs growing up apart from the mainstream and eager -- desperate, maybe -- for other worlds to explore.

If you want to enter Tolkien's world, the best way is to read The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and the The Silmarillion. For hard-core Tolkien lovers who have already done that, I'd highly recommend -- there's plenty of time before the first movie in December -- The Atlas of Middle-Earth (Houghton Mifflin), by Karen Wynn Fonstad, a University of Wisconsin cartographer who has drafted unbelievably detailed maps of Middle Earth from the First Age through the Third, including thematic and other maps, guides, places and events (the mapping of the The Silarillion is astounding).

Tolkien created the details of Middle Earth for himself, for his own creativity and intellectual exercise. He was, Fonstad writes, envisioning his world much as our medieval cartographers viewed our own.

Fonstad's descriptions of the pain-staking process she used to create these hundreds of details maps are almost as interesting as the stories upon which they're based. The atlas is a composite of the physical surface with the imprint of the "Free Peoples." A number of basic map types are included -- the physical, including landforms, minerals, and climate; the political (spheres of influence); battles; migrations (closely tied with linguistics); the traveller's pathways and finally, situation maps -- towns and dwellings, all arranged roughly in sequence. Fonstad even includes detailed pathway tables -- the distance Frodo spent on his pony on dozens of trips, the length of marches, the treks of elves, the flights of refugees.

Fonstad concedes that an almost endless series of questions, assumptions and interpretations were necessary in creating these maps. But each line has been drawn with a reason behind it, she says. And she explains the reasoning.

Middle Earth was the creation of a world, and is deserving of its own geography. Fonstad's atlas is well and clearly written, even for the casual fan of Tolkien. And the hundreds of maps she created offers a new prism through which to look at these works. This is by no means a book for everybody, and even die-hard fans of the trilogy might ask why they need to know so much. The hard-core fanatic will know.

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.

Comments

The Atlas of Middle Earth

[TomorrowNeverDies]

Re:I have this book!

[elh102]

(just got The Hobbit millenium edition, and the Lord of the Rings is on the way!)

Why would you buy The Hobbit Millenium Edition, when The Hobbit XP is going to be released in a matter of weeks?

The Atlas of Pern

[Buran]

... is another fine work by the same author. It's not quite as detailed and extensive, but this is caused in part by the "quality" of the source material. I enclose this word in quotes because I'm not saying that Anne McCaffrey doesn't write well; in fact, she's one of my favorite authors. But she was not an academic by training -- in fact, she dabbled in the performing arts before becoming a writer -- so the extensive notes that Tolkien created while working on his series don't exist for the Pern universe. (Tolkien was a linguist, which is part of why there's such polish in that part of the Rings series.)

Fonstad did a good job anyway, using as much source material as she could find and most likely author interviews as well. The resulting maps are well detailed and wouldn't look out of place in a cartography book.

Of particular interest to me (a die-hard space buff) was the section that showed Pern from space rather than the Mercator projection maps (which are notorious for distorting polar regions) and the section which depicted the landing craft that the settlers when they arrived from their colony vessels. Interestingly, the design looks like a lengthened Space Shuttle orbiter, which makes sense to a point (why reinvent the wheel?) but isn't what I'd choose for such a job; the Shuttle's not designed to make repeated trips in just a few short days. I would have instead adapted some of the designs I've seen for manned Mars flights. (Hmm, such a thing might prove of interest to Ms. McCaffrey or some of the Pern fan web sites out there. Note to self: Design landing craft.) Oddly, the image in the book is missing any kind of propulsion system... strange for a skilled cartographer to miss that detail, but then again, engineering drawings and maps aren't the same thing.

(The descriptions of the Shuttle in The White Dragon are well done -- for 1978, three years before Columbia ever flew.)

I have a copy of this book, acquired from the Sci-Fi Book Club some years ago, but it seems to now be out of print. Expect to pay at least $50 for one; I saw one on Amazon.com (used) going for $100!

Anyone else read this wonderful series and taken a look at the atlas? If so, what did you think?