Tolkien's Incredible Map of Middle-Earth | Great Maps Explained
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- Опубліковано 23 вер 2024
- The second instalment in the Great Maps Explained series, this time exploring JRR and Christopher Tolkien's general map of Middle Earth, published in the 1954 edition of Fellowship of the Ring. This map has been incredibly influential and is part of what defines the genre of modern day fantasy.
My goal with this series is to explore the amazing maps that humanity has created over the span of human history, and to use these as ways to connect with our ancestors. I hope you enjoy going on this journey with me, and please let me know if you like this format and if you want to see more videos.
A huge thanks to everyone that helped to contribute to this video and whose works are featured here, including:
Images and Art
Ralph Damiani (www.artstation...)
Rodrigo Garbini ( / enanoakd )
Jonathan Guzi (jonathanguzi.com/)
JP Coovert ( • How to Draw Mountains,... )
British Military Maps (www.nationalar...)
And of course the Tolkiens and others.
Audio
- Adventure by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
- Magic Tavern by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
- Bonfire by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
- Village Ambiance by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
- Tavern Loop One by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
- Beyond the Horizon by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
- Wonderland by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
- Neverland by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com),
Alexander Nakarada works licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 4.0 License (creativecommon...)
Research
Tor (www.tor.com/20..., www.tor.com/20..., www.tor.com/20...)
Mordor Pound: www.ga.gov.au/w...
Atlas of Middle Earth (www.amazon.ca/...)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.o..., en.wikipedia.o...)
And many more.
A nod to Great Art Explained ( / @greatartexplained ) for helping me come up with the idea for this series.
And of course, thanks to all the many hands along the course of history that created and shared such works, so we can all learn more from the past.
Love,
Victor
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All the videos, songs, images, and graphics used in the video belong to their respective owners and I or this channel does not claim any right over them. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
Always whenever I read the lord of the rings, I find myself keeping track of the adventures of the fellowship, whenever I had to close the book. Running my fingers over locations, rivers and mountain ranges; it makes you feel like a modest historian of middle earth. Long live Tolkien
I leaped into LotR with the big red collector's edition with the giant fold out map into the back. Before even reading, i freehand copied that quasi-topographical map. I fell in love with the world before i ever met its peoples.
I must have read it 5 or 6 times over the decades. I now mainly think of it as a travel book where I can follow the fellowship - together and the after they split up. I still finish it, because it is a wondrous story told wondrously - but i enjoy the Fellowship the most and the Two Towers next.
You would love exploring the Lord of the rings online. You can walk from the shire to Mordor as a chicken. It’s glorious.
Pretty sure he already died
The movie is inspired by Ethiopia; a country located in the horn of East Africa. Check the names of the places used in the movie against the name of provinces and places in Ethiopia. Guess what, You would be facinated by the result Gordor is Gonder, gorgoreas is gorgora, Bahir dar is also there and many many other. The mountains are quite the same with the map of Ethiopia. Isnt Utopia of Thomas Moore is the true history of Ethiopia.
As you pointed out, maps became standard in Fantasy novels. I was a kid in the '70s and when a new book hit the shelves checking out the map in it was a big part of deciding whether to buy it. The deciding factors were just as you described. There was an art to it and blank space was important - something akin to Tolkien not fully explaining Tom Bombadil, letting us wonder. I remember looking at a book and rejecting it because the map was so filled in, so complete, and surely the story couldn't include all these places and if it did it was going to be tedious.
Great point
It's a shame that the Shannara stories did not live up to the quality of the maps.
If a new book didn't have maps, I was not interested.
@@kevinsullivan3448 I thought the early ones did. I went off them as the stories got darker.
@@TheWood005 If a new book did have maps I was not interested. "Ho, hum, another Tolkien clone".
I am so glad you mentioned _The Atlas of Middle Earth_. There aren't enough people who know about this wonderful book, and reading the novel with this atlas open is an incredibly fun exercise.
Yep, thanks for that. I have decided to put it on my "to buy" list.
I also have Karen Wynn Fonstad's _Atlas of The Land,_ (1985) based on _The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant_ by Stephen R. Donaldson. Sadly, since Donaldson took such a long time (about two decades!) to return to that series, her atlas only covers the first six books in the series. I'm not sure how many people know that she has made atlases for several fantasy novels, including:
- _The Atlas of Pern_ (1984)
Pern, based on the _Dragonriders of Pern_ series by Anne McCaffrey
- _The Atlas of the Dragonlance World_ (1987)
Krynn, based on the _DragonLance_ stories by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis (among others)
-The Forgotten Realms Atlas (1990)
The Forgotten Realms, a setting for _Dungeons & Dragons_ designed by Ed Greenwood
Sadly, Karen Fonstad passed away at the young age of 59 in 2005. The works she left us are downright amazing and VERY detailed. For example, in the Middle-earth atlas, I recall how she talked about how she agonized over how Tolkien drew his maps as "flat" (rather than being on a globe/sphere) and how his world _was_ indeed initially flat until Valinor was sundered/hidden from mortals and the world was made round. She goes over that and more in great detail in the atlas.
Note: there is a revised version of the Middle-earth atlas that came out in 1992 that takes into account new (at the time) information that Christopher Tolkien unearthed in his tireless studies of his father's work. Unless one is a collector, be sure to get the latest edition of that work.
(Pro-tip for italics in UA-cam comments: if you have a period, comma, etc. that comes right after the last word in an italicized group of words, be sure to put it _before_ the last underscore. Otherwise, it won't italicize anything. The same goes for *bold.* 😎🤘☮)
I completely agree. I had the pleasure of meeting Karen Fonstad back in 2003. Her son Mark was a professor at Texas State University at that time where I was working on my PhD. Mark arranged for her to come and talk to one of my classes about her Middle Earth maps. Her care for the world was evident.
@@jklier66 Wow. I wish I had the pleasure of meeting her. I'm so thankful that someone from such a niche field took an interest in applying their skills and artistic ability to a lucky handful of fantasy worlds.
I can't say which of her books I bought first, but I did get all of them. When I read the books her atlas books are from, I like to stop and see the maps.
In a weird way, this a perfect way to explain Tolkien's genius.... The story, the plots, the characters, the themes, the languages and lore, the rich world building...
He also created the arch type fanatasy map. He was ALSO badass at creating a fictional map.
All of these things add up to put Tolkien in his own class.
He was never "badass" at anything. That is orc-speech. ; )
I helped to embroider these maps onto a tablecloth for a friend's custom van around 1978. Only thing I ever sewed. It was a project for anyone who stopped in and it took weeks.
I wish I could see it -- it sounds fantastic.
Oh, that’s way cool!
2:29 As a kid in the 70s, this map was like a real world map to me. I used to just sit down and gaze at this map.
I grew up in a time when rarely anybody had a television, and even if they had, there where only a few hours of program every day (Germany in the 60s). I spent hours with my grandparent's 14th edition of the Brockhaus Encyclopedia, fascinated by the many illustrations and maps, which carried on into a lifelong fascination for maps in general and fantasy maps in particular. Tolkien's Middle-earth map was probably the first fantasy map I encountered.
As a kid in the 90s, I did exactly the same thing
Same
me too
This map is so beautiful, I made it a centerpiece of the art in my library. I ordered the largest copy I could find, had it framed and it proudly takes up most of one wall in my library, surrounded by other, smaller works of art by cover artists I enjoy (including Tolkien artist Alan Lee).
Where can you buy this map? Thanks.
One wall to rule them all!
I love that you said it feels like Tolkien is just the first explorer and the person destined to share the stories written by Frodo, Bilbo and Sam (to a lesser degree) with us, maybe with the intention to show that despite all peril and evil forces against us there is hope and things we can do to influence the world for the better.
sounds to me like you want others to change and alter and create new things for something you didnt create i hate it when people later on try to remake someone elses creation or idea and revamp it ugh why cant people create there own shit. its the same reason people hate all this inclusion bullcrap cant leave something be people have to insert there own personal ideas into someone elses creation its always the things that are perfect as they are leave them alone we dont need to add on or influence the fake made up world leave it be the great creation Tolkien made
Tolkien said he was hoping to create a larger world that others might add to.
Trouble is, few have his talent, and dedication to detail.
You have highlighted the two greatest strengths of Tolkien, along with the meaning and philosophy behind it- which is Tolkien's extensive attention to detail in a coherent picture of a world, and his soft, poetic inviting warmth, like a warm fire in a hobbit-hole by the side which stories are told.
Tolkien's maps have both of these qualities to a wonderful degree!
One more thing: I appreciate even more how much Tolkien's son Christopher did for us: not only editing together his father's writings for posthumous publication, leaving his father free to simply write more and more in his later years, knowing that his son Christopher could edit it together in a publishable form for him, but also these wonderful maps, which I have always loved!
I love maps, and Tolkien's maps are a wonderful part of the experience of Tolkien's work!
As a would-be author myself, having just as much trouble and fascination with fantastic cartography, it is reassuring to know that even the best fantasy author struggled with maps. Making maps is incredibly hard work.
Done well it's worth every moment.
I'm in the same boat. I never would have guessed how real and relatable his struggles were with it. It really humanizes a near-mythological figure into someone not so different from us
@@Wyrmshield Indeed, I'll admit that I myself underestimated the scope of Tolkien's achievement until I tried to replicate it. It is no understatement to say Tolkien is perhaps one of the best writers of all time.
@@Wyrmshield I like the way you described it.
Right? I've gone through so many iterations of maps for my world, and they're all so different. Making just the right map is so damn hard.
Morgoth raised the Misty Mountains to hinder Orome from roaming around freely. Sauron raised the mountains around Mordor as defence and for "privacy".
It's such a marvelous map 😊 It inspired me to make my own maps, although by using a program not by hand drawing.
I had no idea Sauron raised the Mordor mountains! I always thought they looked unnatural because of how straight they were with right-angled corners and now I know why. Thank you
It's a testament to Morgoth's lack of imagination that he thought a wanderlusty explorer would somehow be deterred by an unexpected mountain range. Illuvatar was always playing the long game ;)
@@BushcraftMatt The Tarim Basin is pretty rectangular, as are parts of the Carpathian mountains, so it's not that unnatural.
Then there's just the fact that it's a hand drawn map. If you look at old maps, like say Ptolemy's world map, you will see a lot of sharp and square angles that don't exist in reality due to the limits of what you can do from ground level and with second hand information.
yep, i already knew melkor raised the misty mountains but i didn't remember why, until you wrote this.
@BushcraftMatt Sauron did not raise the mountains around Mordor. It's written in the Two Towers that Shelob had been living in the Ephel Dúath long before Sauron came to Mordor.
I´ve drawn the third age map by hand and to scale and I can say that it is incredibly detailed. I´m starting to draw a map combinig 1st and second ages and maybe later I´ll draw even more Micro maps of areas like the Shire.
These maps are a treasure and I feel like they actually land the fantasy world on a ¨possible¨ and ¨tangible¨ manner. Almost as if you could study it.
You should post these on UA-cam
@@rexneilson6048 I tooke pictures of the whole process so maybe one day I´ll edit them into a video and post it here! Who knows jaja.
Have you seen Karen Wynn Fonstad's _Atlas of Middle-earth_ (latest revised edition, 1992)? You might be interested in her discussion of how Tolkien drew his maps "flat" and how she struggled trying to make the various distances work out. I would definitely love to see your work someday! I think most if not all Tolkien fans love maps! 😉
I've been world-building and drawing maps of the places I've imagined for over 40 years of my life. This map, created by Tolkien & Son was the template that started me. Your video warms my heart and makes me feel a connection to Christopher, drawing these imagined worlds with pen on paper.
One of my favorite details of these maps is Beleriand under the sea, hearkening back to medieval legends of the drowned realms of Ys and Lyonesse.
There is also an Ancient Greek legend of a lost land that got a little wet.
Tolkien referred to it in a supplement, that Numenor became known in myth as Atalante, the Downfallen.
As a lifelong enthusiast of both Tolkien's works and maps in general, I was always fascinated by the Sea of Rhun, which I always thought resembled the head of a lynx in shape. I was mildly disappointed that no part of the story went to that region to reveal more information about it.
You and me! But I was glad to read in the History of the Middle-Earth series that the ancestors of the Edain stayed by its shores on their journey westwards. I think there was something about one group dwelling on one shore and another on the other shore. Later I've imagined Easterling towns and cities on its shores.
Ok, I checked TolkienGateway, and indeed the folk of Beor dwelled on one shore and the folk of Marach on another. Also, the Teleri seems to have first begun their ship building ways on its waters. Interesting
One thing that has differentiated you in this very moment from others who speak of the writings and the work artwork of JRR Tolkien, is that you have not only included Christopher in your mentions but you give them credit as the Tolkiens. They were indeed a team. Although j.r.r. started this and wrote the basics all of the history all of the details, it was Christopher it was Christopher who did as much work as his father.
That reminds me of something Terry Pratchett once said in an interview: "You don't start by drawing the Cliffing Mountains and the Winding River. The start consists of creating a world and fleshing it out with ten or more books. Then (when the fundamentals are there) someone is going to gain a bunch of money collecting all details in a map." (paraphrase)
Pratchett felt that drawing a map would limit future ideas... but then experienced the opposite when he created the map of Ankh-Morpork with Stephen Briggs, as well as the Discworld Companion with its maps.
Tolkien had a bit of that experience, too. His mythology mostly had generated places for elves and dwarves of old, but now had to give place for the realms of men. And eventually, by writing the story, he had enough stories to fill the appendixes... and to spend of his lifetime thinking how those new places fit in with his old ideas.
I totally agree, the maps are crucial and I love going over them again and again, comparing different ones... some people have made absolutely amazing maps.. all credits to them!
Christopher Tolkien was born in 1924. My guess is that he probably read Arthur Ransome's Swallow and Amazons series (first book published 1930), which always included maps and a lot of the stories over the 12 books in the series were about mapping and map creation. Secret Water, which was published in 1939, is basically about the children protagonists exploring and mapping a location in SE England (most of the rest of the books take place in England's Lake District). You can see some hints from S&A maps in Christopher Tolkien's work, so possibly an influence.
I can't imagine the bizarre geologic events that would produce such a peculiar topology.
Yeah right, it's almost as if some god-like forces had battled and shaken the entire continent to its foundations and reshaped the land thousands of years earlier...
We cqn always fall back on Melkor and the Valar fighting over continents in pre-historic times
Look at a map of the Pacific Northwest sometime. Glaciation combined with a couple of micro-scale tectonic plates has done some wild stuff. Including a river (the Columbia) that passes through not one, but two mountain ranges, and a rain shadow "desert" less than 100km from one of the wettest places on earth.
What sticks out as perculiar?
The bizarre geologic events in this case are gods and archangels waging wars in the ancient past.
I recently restored and framed my college dorm room Map of Middle Earth. It now residues alongside a framed poster of artwork from The Hobbit on our kitchen wall. The colors and detail have always been a delight, and I’m so glad it could be salvaged. Thank you for bringing me back to a time when I immersed myself in that world (including the Appendices), with an excellent deep dive into the backstory of the map.
This was really well done. I wholeheartedly agree that these are really important maps. I spent many summer in my child hood trying desperately to recreate these. Especially the Hobbit map. Then I started making my own maps of my own worlds and places. These all had their own stories and characters. Many are lost to time in my memory.
I do remember the first time I cracked open my dads copy of Fellowship and seeing the love, and care and awe that these maps looked like they had imbued into them. The feeling of "discovering" an old map of a far off land that had endless adventures hidden in it's ink.
Thanks for putting such a nice spotlight on these amazing maps, also the Atlas of Middle-Earth is an amazing book!
Thanks for watching and the comment! Keep an eye out, a video on the Hobbit maps is coming soon! :)
Never realized how important the red labels are to clarity and just overall artistry in the original vs the smaller inserts you mentioned; it really does change the whole feeling of the map and accentuates the grandeur of Tolkien's world
What a superb video. So much information and a lovely measured pace and tone.
The examples of the maps from other books that could have influenced Tolkien, were simply fascinating. That is proper first rate scholarship.
I was surprised, but absolutely should not have been, to find out how much work and sweat went into the maps, and the degree of collaboration.
I also profoundly agree with Tolkien's notion of an idyllic day: gardening in a Cotswold summer, the sound of someone typing coming through an open, screenless, window.
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I'd heard people gripe about the positions of mountains in the Middle Earth maps before, and I had also always thought that a good look at the Carpathians should shut a lot of that down.. Anyone who enjoyed Dracula as much as Dracula should be enjoyed, should have taken a jolly good look at a map of that crescent shaped range. (That's as close as Stoker ever got to them.)
Or all the ranges around the Taklamakan desert
As for rivers cutting through ranges, that happens not infrequently. Indeed the Danube cuts through the Carpathians. All these things just require that geological development of the land occurs in particular stages. The earth does all sorts of remarkable things, much of which we still don't understand. We haven't even really figured out why the Rockies are where they are.
This was a tricky video to watch. I found myself staring at the map blankly at times as my thoughts turned back decades ago. Nearly half a century reversed to my first buying the LOTRs and unfolding that map. I was mesmerized to the extent that hours went by on my first day of ownership before I started reading the first chapter lotr. I was sucked into Middle Earth like water spirels down the drain.
I have always loved maps of all kinds. They have their own tales and history. I especially like very old maps with their inaccuracies, pictures, fears and mythologies. Every map leaves room for adventures.
As I grew up i learned to read maps as a Boy Scout, as a hiker, camper or as a soldier would. I learned to use compasses, read the stars, make sense of latitude and longitudes. I've seen maps from sll over the world, famous maps, silly maps, sailing maps, star maps. I took astronomy courses in college and received my astronomy merit badge.
LOTR led me into reading fantasy which led me into Dungeons and Dragons and role playing. When I started to create my own fantasy gaming world I knew I had to start with a map. I spent two years on that task. Friends used to visit me asking to look at the maps I'd made and when the game would start. I had to create my own map system because one sheet of paper wasn't good enough nor did it really work. I tiered my maps like a series of zoomed views from far away to close with more details, but not away from art, or a Tolkien like style of drawings.
When I watched this video i knew it was all correct and true brcause I've lived this process as JRR did. I consider maps a requirement for many reasons as the content creator mentioned. They pull you into stories and possibilities. They give information, form a foundation, make story telling evolve, become richer.
When the maps were done the game was ready to play. The most important thing to start was showing my players my first general player map. They sat around the final version in awe and I smiled as the questions started. They were hooked like every great adventurer. It took all day to create characters, give some details of how to play, and let them read a few brief descriptions of the history of my world. The next day, Sunday, we started and they were excited, waiting at my front door, munchies trady, even a few new AD &D books ready in hand. I ran that game each weekend for two years and no one left while others joined. We had to find larger accomodations than the eight person dining table. But meeting in a hugh school conference room did give me more room to hang the maps of the day and even use an overhead projector. Funny, but the English teachers tended to pop in from time to time.
Maps are to me the greatest aid to fantasy as they create imagination and desire to seek what's out there. 😊
Thanks for sharing this! What a great story ... a life through maps! It really is amazing how many stories and characters can arise in our imaginations just by staring at a fine map. To some of us, it's almost all we need. I particularly like the idea of you buying LOTR, and then staring at the map for hours before even reading a thing!
You may like some of the other "Great Maps Explained" videos I'm making -- I plan to explore all kinds of different maps, from cosmological to European medieval to Asian maps. Have a great day!
@@learnwithmapster I subbed your fine channel after watching that last video. I will gladly be viewing what more comes or has already. I find maps fascinating. It's like starting with a blank canvas to paint on. It can be anything one imagines or sees. I have a powerful imagination. That table top group became one of the first online fantasy games and grew to about fifty full time international players at a time when the only search engine was Altavista or Lycos. My sight ranked 1 through 3 in the world on the first version of the internet that supported images and chat, not just text. It all started with two years of creating maps based on being a child, then Boy scout plus a personal adventure lifestyle.
Take care and we'll talk over time.
The cool thing about Tolkien's maps is that if something looks unnatural, like the mountains around Mordor, it's because it is and there's a lore explanation for it. The map tells the story of the world.
It is unnatural. Mountains form from shifting of plates. This is very random
@@NemeanLion- That's what I mean. It makes you question why and then when you look into it, you find out that there is lore behind why the mountains formed unnaturally. The map itself tells a story.
@@shmeebs387 what was the lore? All I heard was a theory by the video creator.
@@NemeanLion- He presents it is sort of a theory, but it's pretty much accepted as the most likely scenario. Melkor (Sauron's old master) battled the Valar and caused massive volcanic eruptions and raising mountains. Just looking at the map, people deduce that the volcano is Mount Doom and the mountains are the border of Mordor. It's also theorized that the Lonely Mountain is one of those volcanoes.
@@shmeebs387 Well, with all due respect, if Tolkien didn’t say so, then these are just fan theories. And when it comes to fantasy one can pretty much make up whatever they want. Just like with the eagles not taking them to Mordor.
"The map is somehow cozy ... is something that could have been made by Hobbits, busily snacking in a warm Hobbit Hole while adding details and telling stories." Wonderfully said.
Tolkien wrote, "give me a name and it produces a story." Draw a map and stories emerge. Same is true if you draw the layout of a castle tower--suddenly a window to look out is always there at the top of the stairs, creating new possibilities.
This video is a gem. A welcome respite as I am (figuratively) finding my way through a rough patch.
Great info! I just checked my 1965 edition, it has the original map. I don't know why anyone would get a hardcover version without the foldout. There are lots of them out there in old bookstores.
Fonstad was also very open about changes in Tolkien's conceptions and where and when and how she made decisions.
Another example of right-angle mountain ranges-the Uintah range and the Wasatch range in Utah, USA (both part of the greater Rocky Mountains)
Nicely made, the maps and this video. :) i thought of the mountains as the skeleton of a giant dragon with mordor being the hips and thigh bones
Cool idea:)
You made me look! My edition, 1979 Unwin paperback, has the "messiness" with the Mirkwood label. I _like_ the Mirkwood label!
I was thrilled when the film opened with the real map: a promise of authenticity that they honoured very well. (Yes, of course there were some changes - almost all obviously necessary.)
Excellent video & commentary. Made & delivered in just the right spirit & tone. I enjoyed it very much.
13:22 That is a map of the 4th Division objectives on the Ancre front for the Battle of the Somme on July 1 1916. Except for one exception, none of the objectives were achieved and the Division was back where it started, minus 5800 casualties.
Thanks for the information on this! Keep an eye out and one day I'll be doing some WWI-specific maps, I expect.
I'm glad you mentioned divine powers having an influence on the mountain ranges. I feel like people who criticize the map of Middle-earth are ignoring the fact that this is a fantasy world. Geography is not always going to follow the geological rules of our world. The mountains of Mordor likely look that way because Sauron raised them as a barrier around his kingdom.
fantastic video! I would love to see a similar video on the map of the "A Song Of Ice And Fire" books, cheers!!
Great video, made me appreciate the map I've already loved since I read the books more. I would love to see you explain the map of Beleriand as well.
Thanks for this great video Essay, as a lifelong Tolkien fan I have deeply enjoyed your explanation about a map I have looked at hundreds of times🧡
I'm awaiting your next video with impatience.
Great video! Please do more in this series.
The more I learn about Christopher Tolkien, the more I appreciate his work. I didn't know he had such a large part when making the maps. Not only he edited and curated his father's work for decades, he was also protective of the legacy of the Legendarium. Now that he's dead we're seeing how the owners of the intellectual property are not so scrupulous, selling the rights to projects that are subpar to JRRT's work.
I enjoyed the well-written narration very much. This was beautifully done.
Beautiful video. Thank you.
Too bad you didn’t mention anything about the map of Beleriand, which is a work of art, maybe even better than the general map
Interesting video - and he is right, Fonstad's Atlas Of Middle Earth is an astonishingly engaging work.
A magisterial presentation! Thanks for the effort!
This is super well done and insightful. I appreciate that. this video is something you can be proud of.
talking about the significance, the process, how you might understand it in different lenses. Its just well rounded and you can see your passion in it. things like noting possible geographic inconsistencies or other critics while also acknowledging its intents and the impressions it gives.
Good for you, going a bit viral! 👍👍
I was a Professor of Geography for thirty two years so like most geographers I have difficulties with the 90 degree angles of Mordor.
In Tolkien's defence he wrote his work before the confirmation of plate tectonics in the mid 1960's. However, he did have maps of mountains throughout the world that very rarely had such angles.
But, he never claimed to be a geographer so "latitude" should be given him for his maps. He was a writer who a depth of imagination that will appreciated in the ages to come.
Thanks for chiming in!
Never saw the larger map until recently and was blown away by how close Umbar was to Gondor. No wonder the corsairs w ere always an imminent threat and how Aragorn was able to pull off a successful raid in his younger days.
Great video! I remember reading the trilogy and always had a finger on the map page so I could bounce back and forth from the text
I'm glad that my copy of the Lord of the Rings [hardback, bought in the late '60s] has the full-size fold-out maps. I often have it unfolded whilst reading. No idea how many times I've read the LotR, but I think it's nearing time for another foray!
A WONDERFUL EXPLANATION OF THE MYSTERIES OF MIDDLE EARTH. PLEASE DO SOME MORE . CHRIS
I really enjoyed this video. Thank you very much for making this.
Love this. I feel like I knew all that stuff, when I read it but never put it into words. I remember pausing in my reading to consult the map. It made it more believable. Great job. Nerd.
I remember how as a boy and reading Lord of the Rings for the first time, wrestling with the map, turning it this way and that, and trying to make sense of it while I was still on the early chapters. It took me a long time to find the Shire, or work out where things were happening. But it was very eerie how no matter how I looked at the maps, Mordor seemed to keep standing out, clearer than anything. I did soon work it out though 🙂
Tolkien is probably one of the greatest creative minds of the 20th century
From the language to the history to the people to the vivid descriptions of the land, it’s like he’s been there.
Ever since I first read the LOR and the Hobbit in 1969, the maps have always been a great help in following the tale. They were a wonderful way of being “there.” Thank you very much of this video. Great job!
I loved this content. I poured over the maps when I read LOTR. Please create more!
The Tolkien Society and others in the 80s had articles about where the mountain-ringed Mordor might equate to in the modern era; the Po valley in Italy was the most likely candidate.
Thank you for the wonderful video! I first read LotR at the age of 11; and now, in my 50s, I've read it approximately 30 times. In fact, your video makes me want to read it again. I learned early on that following the maps was essential in keeping track of the characters' location, even if the maps were nonsensical even for someone like me who had almost no founding in geology. That was just how things worked in Middle-earth...or more accurately, in Arda.
I can't help hoping that one day you'll explore the map of Beleriand, and maybe even show how (sunken though it is) it still connects to Western Middle-earth.
Thanks again. Best wishes with your series.
Thanks for the nice comment:) Great to hear about your times in Arda!
I have a tapestry map of Middle Earth hanging on one of the walls in the main hallway of our house. I admire it daily.
Great video! I would always pour over the map and trace the fellowship’s journey every time I read the books. Always imagining and curious of the areas not explored in the books.
Imagine someone complaining about right-angled mountains in a set of books with dragons, sentient eagles, sentient rocks fighting each other, evil ghost-kings and an equivalent literal Satan..... Some people just can't seem to enjoy life
What a wonderful video! Another one about Beleriand would be appriciated too, although it would have a lot of similiarity to this one.
There is also "The Journey's of Frodo" by Barbara Strachey which is a cartographer's guide to Frodo and Companies journey. It is pretty interesting and shows the actual travel by Frodo and company. Where they were on the map during the story.
I was looking for this comment, because if it had been missing, I would have written it myself.I bought The Journeys of Frodo decades ago (published in 1998), and it is just wonderful!
I "third" this mention! This book may be the single greatest determinate of my becoming a professional cartographer. 😊
I have Strachey's book. It stands on my shelf next to Fonstad's Atlas.
Totally awesome! I sincerely hope you expand on this subject line. I have always wanted to create a map along the lines of Tolkien 's map, but it always seemed like an almost unobtainable goal, so more information on how this could be accomplished would be extremely interesting.
Take a look at modern map tools like Wonderdraft or Inkarnate. It's astounding how easy it is nowadays to achieve something similar to those classic fantasy maps within a couple of hours on a PC.
I love the maps and this video was a great way to think anew. They are still confusing but all have a perspective that is in the spirit of Tolkien, if not the cannon.
Tolkien himself said that Arda or Middle-earth was our own world but in a "different stage of imagination". Ending the LotR with the decline of magic and rise of Men is an attempt to link it somewhat to our current world.
I have spent some time gazing at, and constantly referencing the maps when reading Lord of the Rings, but never thought too much about it - until now. I have a much greater understanding about why, and appreciation of their beauty after watching this video. Thank you.
Like Bilbo, we share an innate love of maps. I just purchased a large canvas print of Middle Earth.
Beautiful descriptions, I am off tomorrow to get the coloured Large wall map!!!!
In the mid 70's my 10 years older sister had a poster of the Barbara Remington map from 1965 with the colorful border. I remember just being mesmerized by it at 5 or 6 years old. Probably the 1st map as art I'd ever seen outside of what was on the walls of my elementary school. It was my introduction to Tolkien. I think the Summer of '77 when I was 8 and had just completed 3rd grade she handed me "The Hobbit" and told me she thought I was ready for it. I stayed up reading it via flashlight until the birds started chirping. I kept flipping back to the map in the front of the book. I finished the book the next day and it was the biggest, longest book I had ever read but it was a map that intrigued me before I even knew there was a book and it was a map that I kept referencing while reading that gave me context.
Did you notice? It had runes marking places we now know, but did not then were the locations of the dwarven cities Nogrod and Belegost in the Blue Mts. To the west. Wonder how she found out?
19:00 Middle Earth didn't experience plate techtonics, it was created and then deliberately altered with purpose, in the case of Mordor by Melkor and then by Sauron. This is specifically stated in the Silmarillion. 21:00 I used to have her Maps of Faerun, which I stupidly sold in the late 90s, a huge regret.
That's very convenient from a fantasy story writer perspective that it just so happens that his lack of geological understanding is retroactively hand waved away by new story elements.....
@@alexjames7144 Just enjoy it you weirdo
@@prox3920 What is the point in critically analysing a piece of media if you're just going to pretend that it's faults don't exist. Utterly brain-dead take
@@alexjames7144 It is very convenient that Tolkien wrote those "new story elements" literal decades before writing Lord of the Rings.
@@mistersharpe4375 You cannot claim that any specific piece of lore was written before the other books, you literally don't know that.
Thank you so much for this presentation. As someone who holds a degree in physical geography and who has studied cartography extensively, I appreciated what you have done in pointing out both the extent and the limitations Tolkien's maps gave us about what he called his "sub-creation." The maps that both JRR and Christopher Tolkien created gave a new dimension to the science-fiction and fantasy genres that have made the works they accompany all the better and richer.
Thanks so much for watching! You might like other videos in the series... stay tuned for more! :)
Whst splendin channel and movie about maps! THank you a lot!
greetings from Poland!!
I love those maps but have never thought deeply about them except to ogle over their beauty. Thank you very much for this video, and your selection of music was delightful as well.
Love the Tolkien and Tolkien maps Since the 60s when I first saw them.🌟They work for most of us who entered middle earth. The most magical place ever imagined into life.
Yes please do more on Tolkien and Middle Earth, this was great
Thanks for watching! There's one on the Hobbit out now :) ua-cam.com/video/ecYKpaKTNAc/v-deo.html
@@learnwithmapster cool, thanks!!
Because medieval maps were mentioned a little information about them: The way those were used is rather similar to how we use maps of tram networks in cities today: Medieval people did not need to know the exact geographical shapes. They used streets between cities, and just needed to know in which order the cities are aligned and where to take a turn onto another road. So the maps just needed to inform that in order to get from A to B, you would have to follow the road throug C and D and then take the next turn right and follow the road till B. The same thing with maps for sailors: River X is the third river when following the coastal line north from port A. You don't need to know how the coast is shaped, you just need to count the river mouths you pass. So even if the maps were not geografically accurate, they were still useful for travellers.
Tolkien's drawing of the The Lonely Mountain always reminds me of an upturned banana peel
Hobbit? Expanded lore of earlier maps? Yes please!
I frequently study the map of Middle Earth. It works so well. You can trace Bilbos', and the Fellowships' journey and it works, it makes sense. And reading The Silmarillion will have you going back to the map, to re orient yourself, although the topography of the world changed, from the FA to the beginning of the Fourth Age.
Good video. The reader has to interpret the maps through the text, which can give more detail than a large scale map. The misinterpretation of the LOTR maps that bothers me the most is the idea that the land between Minas Tirith and the Anduin is a big empty plain. The text calls this "the townlands," a land of rolling plains that run down from the mountains to the river filled with farms and villages, something like the bread basket of the capital city. The worst offender is the Jackson movies, where the area is not only a flat plain, but the grass is also neatly mown.
Thank you for this fantastic video!!
The map in Stevenson’s “Treasure Island “ drives the action.
A big part of my elementary school education, which began 60 years ago, was copying or labeling maps. I loved it. Sometimes you started with a mimeographed outline other times just a blank sheet of paper. My dad was a geologist with drafting skills. He showed me different lettering styles and let me have access to serious professional tools when I was in the 3rd grade. Of course I loved the LOTR when my friend loaned me the books in the summer before 7th grade. This video has brought back a rush of memories!
Thanks for sharing! That sounds like a lovely set of memories with maps :)
An interesting aspect about Tolkien's interpretation of his own world, is to look at which parallels he has drawn to old Norse/English folklore. The name "Middle-Earth" for example, is a more or less direct translation of the name "Midgaard", which was the old Norse representation of the realm of mankind, and the undying lands the Elves sail to, is directly comparable with Valhalla's great halls that would host any soul for the rest of eternity and honor their legacy. There are more parallels of course, but these are the most obvious ones, which is fitting considering how intertwined old Norse and old English folklore is.
Yeah, this part of the stories are so great. I'm a big history buff (obviously) so I always get a kick out of how Tolkien used his huge knowledge and interest in European mythology, particularly Norse/English as you mentioned, throughout LOTR. Thanks for the comment!
simply beautiful, thanks for making this.
I always loved the maps - the feel of them invited me into the fantasy. I recall even buying a book by a woman (Pam someone?) which was a page-by-page mapping of the entire journey of the fellowship.
Beautiful video, so well done. Really captures the whimsy of these books
I love this, thank you! And yes, I would love to see more on the maps of Middle-earth, cheers!
Stay tuned! :)
Thank you for this wonderful video! You put into words things that I've always felt about Tolkien's maps and world, so great to see it all presented so well.
Exception to the Rule shout out to Andrzej Sapkowski, author of The Witcher series. I read that he wrote the stories without regards to maps or geographic continuity (maybe this was mentioned in the In Deep Geek intro to the world), and just let the reader deal with it. And yet it works! Trying to imagine all the cities and towns and kingdoms and realms and features of the Witcher's world without a map is part of the fun. :)
That's definitely an interesting way to write it -- almost more like a view from the ground, and let confusion be part of the experience :)
@@learnwithmapster that’s also a perfect description of Dandelion, lol
Great video!
This video was extremely well put together and I really enjoyed it, thank you !
It's clear that Arda is our world. The whole legendarium is a restatement of Catholicism. Not in its flattened 19th Century version but more in line with Mediaeval Catholicism.
This was great. Yes,more Tolkein maps, please!
When reading LOTR, it was tempting to pore over all the maps in all the volumes.
Scale matters. And part of the fun is guessing where the characters are at any time in the story. Heck, every mountain has a name, but they are not all detailed on the maps: part of the challenge and reward of reading this series.
A major influence may have been the Ordnance Survey 1 inch to 1 mile maps used by walkers and the British army.
Great video. I vaguely remember obsessing over this map the first time i read LotR. Checking it out after reading a few chapters, being amazed at the vastness of the world and wondering what place would be like when characters finally visited there, and why. It was definitely a great add to the book and maybe even necessary, I wonder if LotR would be what it is today if these maps were never included...They greatly reinforced the logic and the wonder of the plot and fantasy world.
Great job! Thank you so much for the work you put into it, I would like to see more please! I would Love to learn more about the Shire and it's surrounding areas. Please and thank you in advance, Keep up the good work sir.