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See the Sketches J.R.R. Tolkien Used To Build Middle-Earth (wired.com)
Esther Schindler writes: In addition to writing the story of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien drew it. The maps and sketches he made while drafting it "informed his storytelling, allowing him to test narrative ideas and illustrate scenes he needed to capture in words," reports Ethan Gilsdorf at Wired. "For Tolkien, the art of writing and the art of drawing were inextricably intertwined."
It's all coming out in a new book, but here we get a sneak preview, along with several cool observations, such as: "If Tolkien's nerdy use of graph paper feels like a secret message to future Dungeons & Dragons players, then so does his 'Plan of Shelob's lair.' Tolkien's map of tunnels stocked with nasties—here, a spider named Shelob—would be right at home in any Dungeon Master's campaign notes. He even marks the place for a classic dungeon crawl feature: 'trap.'"
It's all coming out in a new book, but here we get a sneak preview, along with several cool observations, such as: "If Tolkien's nerdy use of graph paper feels like a secret message to future Dungeons & Dragons players, then so does his 'Plan of Shelob's lair.' Tolkien's map of tunnels stocked with nasties—here, a spider named Shelob—would be right at home in any Dungeon Master's campaign notes. He even marks the place for a classic dungeon crawl feature: 'trap.'"
480,100 and some words, that's at least 480 pictures.
TFS only has one image:
Map of Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor.
It is fascinating, but it also looks like a clever way to get the copyrights on his works out in a form that will take longer to get into the public domain. A nice way to insure that the family can keep control over a dead man's works for a very very long time. Well played.
TFS only has one image
It's one of these magic new interweb things. You click the arrows at the sides and different pictures appear, like in the Mirror of Galadriel.
For me, the js broke at slide 5/8. What losers.
While I hate it, I at least understand forcing a slideshow to cause bogus inflation of ad impressions. The same stupid js bs without ads on the page? They smoke some strong stuff over at wired; that they do.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Why are these articles being posted? This is not tech news. Nerds/Geeks - let's move on. I like Star Trek too - I don't want to see articles about that either. Go ahead, I'm sure folks agree - maybe you're reading this now, agreeing, yet you will take the counter argument if/when you choose to reply to this. I won't be checking for replies on this, I am not attempting to introduce flame bait here. While I'm at it, I really can't get over how lame some of the tech is on here lately too. I need to break the habit of coming here as I do a couple of times a day. Maybe I'm ranting - maybe it's that time of the month for me.... I don't know. Perhaps I'm outgrowing most of the content on here these days. Maybe I'm just let down by /. these days. Apologies for my outburst.
It's one of these magic new interweb things. You click the arrows at the sides and different pictures appear, like in the Mirror of Galadriel.
Slashdot has long felt obligated to post warnings about linked sites that require registration or use Flash. Maybe they need to add notices for NoScript users "Warning - won't work without JavaScript".
#DeleteChrome
"Stuff that matters"....indeed.
I could have sworn this was a site about technology at one time....
What's next, a review of Bristol Palin's Wordpress blog?
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I hit a blank advertising slide between 6 and 7. Also, if you feel the urge to avoid the java script, you can just look at the source - links to all images are there. The caption to the first image is "Map of Rohan, Gondor, and Mordor".
The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head
I know you're just a stupid troll, but actually, yes there is. Middle Earth is an old Norse term for Earth (as opposed to Asgard or Jotunheim, which were to the north and south, respectively). That's right, Middle Earth is meant to be a version of the real world. In interviews, Tolkien said it was set around 9000 years ago. The Shire is Oxford, and Mordor is somewhere around Bulgaria. Obviously, the English Channel doesn't exist yet. The underlying message of the Hobbit and LotRs is, "We might be short, fat, and lazy; but we're tough, so you better not underestimate us!"
Anyways, some of the corollaries of this are:
Englishmen (Numenoreans) are inherently superior to all others due to superior breeding.
The king of England (Arnor) is the rightful king of all of western Europe.
And yes, the one you're looking for: Everyone to the East and South are dirty savage barbarians.
It's the inspiration for D&D's original development maps NO TIME FOR THAT!!!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I know that Tolkien did some rough sketches of some questionable quality in the early stages of the Hobbit and the LoTR, but his son, Chris, did most of the maps and drawings once he was a teenager, if not before that. I call shenanigans! Tolkien himself admitted--in Letters if not other commentary--that he was no artist and that Chris did most of the artwork associated with the maps and early sketches that went with his work.
J.R.R. Tolkien's Rings trilogy was originally published in 1954-55, relatively obscure until an American pulp publisher 'Ace' just went to press without even asking, never mind the money. Tolkien battled them for rights and royalties, and things dragged along slowly until a cadre of deep fan American readers took on the cause with verve that Ace could scarcely have imagined, and sent them reeling. Ace eventually offered an arrangement that was accepted by the Author and formal truce was declared.
Meanwhile (1960s) popularity of the books had taken off considerably in the United States and Britain. So with new interest Ballentine Books approached the author with intent to produce an 'authorised' paperback edition -- with some revision -- and they would do the cover. From Humphrey Carpenter's J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography,
[After some delay] they decided that they could not wait any longer. In order to get at least one Tolkien book into the shops they published The Hobbit in the original text without waiting for Tolkien's revisions, which they planned to include in a later edition. They sent him a copy, and he was astonished by the picture on the cover. Ace Books for all their moral 'piracy' had employed a cover artist who knew something about the story, but Ballantine's cover picture seemed to have no relevance whatever to The Hobbit, for it showed a hill, two emus, and a curious tree bearing bulbous fruit. Tolkien exploded: 'What has it got to do with the story? Where is this place? Why emus? And what is the thing in the foreground with pink bulbs?' When the reply came that the artist hadn't time to read the book, and that the object with pink bulbs was 'meant to suggest a Christmas tree', Tolkien could only answer: 'I begin to feel that I am shut up in a madhouse.'
Late in 1965 the `authorised' paperback of The Lord of the Rings was published in America in three volumes, with Tolkien's revisions incorporated, and with the emus and the Christmas tree on the cover of the first volume, though this picture was later removed and one of Tolkien's own drawings was substituted; two more of his pictures were used for the second and third volumes. Each copy carried a message from Tolkien: 'This paperback edition and no other has been published with my consent and co-operation. Those who approve of courtesy (at least) to living authors will purchase it and no other.'
Purple Emu Fellowships are now rare. I used to have one.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
"For Tolkien, the art of writing and the art of drawing were inextricably intertwined."
Well, he was raised in a time where people had a proper drawing room in every respectable house.
Thanks for the direct link. I couldn't see anything, because there's 100+ scripts from all over the world needed to see the pages, and i've blocked them.
Because Hobbits, Ho-bbits, don't like being laughed at and will go for the low hanging fruit if you anger them.
There are no errors on my Chrome, desktop variant.
No arrows for me, but I found I could drag the picture to the side and another popped in.
a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
Maybe they need to add notices for NoScript users "Warning - won't work without JavaScript".
That's pretty much assumed these days.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Lovely stuff!!!!
And that's a HUGE piece of graph paper too, its Imperial, the major squares are 1" working out as a piece of artwork 18" x 14" plus margins.
A bit more work, and a knowledge of the map scale, and it's an Ordnance Survey map, ideal for shelling Mordor.......
140079 - Bang! Got Gorgoroth!!!!
YOUR Chrome? Since when are you Google?