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Description

For the past few weeks I have been working on a composite map which resolves the placement of all of the different landmasses and geographical details described in the Silmarillion, The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings, over the thousands of years covered in Tolkien's life's work. As reference material I sourced every map I could find, searched references in the books published by Tolkien's estate and online, and then enlarged, stretched and distorted the often contradictory and incomplete maps to create a whole that more or less works. Is it accurate? Somewhat. Many of the places never existed simultaneously, as vast swathes of Arda were destroyed and remade. Using artistic license, I also enlarged important areas to allow them room to contain the wealth of detail necessary, and shrank others of lesser importance. Is it geographically correct? As far as possible, considering a lot of the detail was only ever described in text, but I also left out some remoter outlying areas to keep the project manageable. Is it flawed? Absolutely. Trying to make a comprehensive two dimensional map of something so fluid and mutable in both time and space is a pretty stupid idea to begin with, and often when faced with a dilemma, I just made a call and went with it, so it is a very personal undertaking. Is it useful? For me, yes, very, as I have been looking for something like this for a long time, and never found anything that satisfied.

Description

For the past few weeks I have been working on a composite map which resolves the placement of all of the different landmasses and geographical details described in the Silmarillion, The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings, over the thousands of years covered in Tolkien's life's work. As reference material I sourced every map I could find, searched references in the books published by Tolkien's estate and online, and then enlarged, stretched and distorted the often contradictory and incomplete maps to create a whole that more or less works. Is it accurate? Somewhat. Many of the places never existed simultaneously, as vast swathes of Arda were destroyed and remade. Using artistic license, I also enlarged important areas to allow them room to contain the wealth of detail necessary, and shrank others of lesser importance. Is it geographically correct? As far as possible, considering a lot of the detail was only ever described in text, but I also left out some remoter outlying areas to keep the project manageable. Is it flawed? Absolutely. Trying to make a comprehensive two dimensional map of something so fluid and mutable in both time and space is a pretty stupid idea to begin with, and often when faced with a dilemma, I just made a call and went with it, so it is a very personal undertaking. Is it useful? For me, yes, very, as I have been looking for something like this for a long time, and never found anything that satisfied.