Mapping Middle Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad
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8/9/2019 Mapping Middle Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad
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MAPPING
MIDDLE EARTH
Karen
Wynn
Fonstad
During the l a te 1960s
the
works of J . R R
Tolkien,
The
Hobbit
and
The
Lord
of the Rings,sHept across
America
a t t rac t ing
thousands of fans.
His
Hrit ings are
s t i l l
popular and are often
on
required reading l i s t s in high schools
as
well
as
col leges.
The
genre of
epic quests ,
especial ly
in fantasy
l i t e ra tu re has
been strengthened over the more. than twenty-f ive years since
Tolkien's works
were f i r s t published. Over
the
past three years
alone, Del Rey Books ( the science f ic t ion/fantasy
division of
Ballantine) has
published
seventy- three
books of
t h i s type,
th i r ty-seven of
which include maps
(Del
Rey
1983). Geography
ins t ructors a t
secondary and univers i ty levels
have the
opportunity to
ut i l ize
th i s
continuing
populari ty
by
designing
perceptual
map exercises based upon one or more of these
books.
The
purpose
of
th is
paper
is
threefold:
1)
to
underscore
that
l i t e ra ry works can be used as
teaching vehicles;
2) to
share a procedure I developed while designing The Atlas of
Middle-earth (1981); and 3) to
encourage
geographers
to
capi ta l ize
upon
the current
l i t e ra ry
map
vogue as
an excit ing
teaching medium.
Literary ,.,orks as
teaching
vehicles
In 1980
Gary
ElboH and Tom Martinson, in the i r
a r t i c le
Science
Fiction for Geographers: Selected Works, advocated
use
of
f ic t iona l
works
as
a medium
for
catching student
imagination via vivid imagery.
In
implementing
such
a s t ra tegy
Elbm;
and
Mart inson highly recommended Tolkien' s works, and
hopefully
my Atlas
of i d d l e ~ e a r t h can
also
become a valuable
teaching tool . In
addition to
using th is a t las as a pedagogic
vehicle,
the synthesizing procedure developed for transforming
a few small-scale maps
and thousands
of
writ ten clues into
a
ser les
of reasonably
complete
and accurate large-scale maps
may
be
helpful to cartography students .
Mapping Middle-earth
1 he opportunity
to
pr'oduce an ent i re a t las of
mental maps
was
ad
mi t ted ly somewhat unique;
but
whether the end resul t was
one map or
two
hundred, some of
the
same
procedural
steps
were
required
to produce
each map.
Ny
procedure was
discovered
y
48
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49
t r i a l
and error , and I may
have
reinvented
the
wheel
unknowingly.
In i t i a l ly ,
i t seemed i t
would be
best
to draf t
the large scale
maps
f i r s t - - the c i t i e s and
bat t le s i tes-- then
to
incorporate
them
in to regional maps unt i l f inal ly a l l the calculated detai ls came
together neat ly into a
world
map l ike so many puzzle pieces.
This
was, t seemed to
me,
how
the mapping
of
our own
world was
done
at
f i r s t - p i e c e by piece
as information
became avai lable .
Therefore, I began with
the
most
major
and most completely
described
c i ty -Minas
Tir i th--a
walled
ci ty of seven levels
bui l t
on a h i l l a t the
end
of a mountain range with a
major
r iver
flowing
a t
i t s
feet (Figure 1).
s
Tolkien (1965: 24) described
i t :
To
his r igh t ,
great mountains reared t
hei r heads,
ranging from the West to a
s teep
and sudden end, as
i f
in the
making
of the land the
River had burst
through a great bar r ie r . They
walked proudly
up the
winding road. For the fashion
of
Minas Tir i th was
such
that
i t was bui l t on seven
levels ,
each
delved
in to the h i l l , and about each was
set
a wall, and in
each wall was a gate
. . . and each
time the
road
passed
the l ine of the Great
Gate
i t
went
through
an
arched
tunnel , piercing a
vast
pier
of rock--a
tm-lering
bastion
of
stone
whi£h
rose, even to
the level of the
topmost
c i rc le ,
and
there
was
crowned
by
a
battlement,
so that those in
the Citadei
might, l ike mariners in a
mountainous
ship,
look
from i t s peak
sheer down upon
the gate seven hundred
feet
below . . . A narrow
shoulder
joined
the Hill
of Guard
to t _he mountain
mass,
and was
hedged
with great ramparts
r ight
up to the precipice
tha t overhung i t s western end.
Tolkien 's descript ions were unusually deta i led , but as I began
sketching
~ l i n s Tir i th
a
whole
gamut of
reasonable assu
mp
t ions
and calculat ions immeniately became necessary. Elevation was given,
but to
determine the
radius of
the
h i l l ' s base and of each c i rc le ,
the
nature
of the
h i l l
i t s e l f
ha
d to be established. Was i t
conical , so
a l l the
circ les were uniformly circular? What might
the
slope be? Did
the climate
and
bedrock
indicate that the h i l l
was smoothed? What was the bedrock--granite? basa l t ?
lime
s tone?
Perhaps th i s bast ion
of
stone was a volcanic dike.
The answers to such
que
s
t ions were
not
easi ly avai lable .
Al though Tolk ien d id an excel lent job of describing his
landsca
pes
,
he certa inly did not provide nicely
categorized
Koeppen
climates
nor geological rock c lass i f ica t ions . These
data
had to
be
in f
erre
d . Hm,ever, as the clue s \.,'ere dravlD f r om an increasingly
l
a r
ge
r
lan
d
area
and
an
e q
ual l
y
accret ing
tex t ,
i t
q
uickly
became
a ppar'ent t
hat
the j i gsaw puzzle concept \·ms unHorkab
l e ,
fO l
th e smal l
areas
could not be l pped i n d
e ta i l
unt i l th e
worl
d-
·
;i de p
at terns
',;lere
establishe
d . Im agination and a fee l for
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50
c J
ttllll t/l.,.d
c ; ]
ButlJ11rg
==== MIlls
wit/ MAl''''
o
s
10
FEET
. . . . . . . . . - - - - - > - - - ~ £ .
.... . ,..
h ~ I I ~ ~ l I
V
It I
01
thlll,.
F "gure 1 C
ross
sect ion
of t h e
walled
c i t y of
Hinas
Ti r i t h
.
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5
the landscape were therefore
an
absolute necessi ty .
To
draw
a
c l i f f ,
especia l ly
in
a large s cale map such as Minas
Tir i th , i t
was
es
s
ent ia l
to know
whether
the
precipice
wa
s
exfol ia t ing
gran i t e , columnar basal t
or
a dense caprock overlying a crumbling
shale. Similar s i tuat ions arose a t every tu rn-was a
h i l l
rounded,
rugged
or somewhere between;
a
stream
braided
or
meandering.
Having se t t led
what
sor t s
of
information
thought would
be
necessary, began searching for what
was
actually
available.
The
process became somewhat
cycl ical
in nature:
1 read
the
tex t
to
determine what maps were desirable and what clues were
ava i lab le ,
2) organize research f i l e s to l i s t data gained,
3) re-read the
t ex t
to f ind specif ic Glues,
4)
check
with other
sources
to
f ind
corroborat ing
information and 5) recheck the
tex t to see
i f
the supporting information
was
pert inent
(Figure
2).
The next step a f te r t h i s
l i t e ra tu re
search was the actual
regional
map
draf t ing.
As a
s tar t ing point were Tolkien ' s own
ma
ps , yet they were not a
panacea.
His maps
in the f i r s t
and
th i rd
volumes of The Lord
of
the
Rings
did not match exact ly , nor
did some of his textual ly-s ta ted
or
inferred distances agree with
these maps. Solving such dis tance
and
loc a t ion questions were
obviously
imperative. A very rough sketch map was then made
incorporat ing
the
corrected loca t ions .
Yet
before
more
landform
de ta i l
could
be
a
dded
to
the
map,
the
nature
of
the
landforms
the
ms elve s had to be determined. Again,
only
a complex meshing
of
clue s
could
answer
these
quest ions: minerals ,
rock
color ,
caves, spr ings ,
vegetation,
stream pat terns (dendri t ic , disrupted),
landforms, glacia t ion (Tolkien
mentioned
several alpine glac i
a l
fea tures , fo r example,
horns
and t rou g
hs) ,
and climat e , which was
suggested
by
prec ip i ta t ion s
now,
ra in , types of
storms),
temperature, vegetat ion
and
winds. As with
the o ri g inal rough
ske t ch, a
chec
k and
recheck process
wa s ne cessary
to
assure tha t
the
v
arious clues
g
leaned could
f i t reasonabl y t0 8ether . Then
the map was actual ly drawn.
Perhaps an
example
would bet ter i l lus t ra te such a unified
landform analysi
s
tha t resulted
f r om a
synthe
s
i s of
m
an
y
ge
ograp
hic
clu es ye
t f rom
l i t t l e or no or i
g
in
a l map
information. Tolkien's
(1
965 :
406
map,
The
Downs,
Th
e I-Iold,
the
Brown La
nd
s ,
and
th e
E
myn
)
ui l ,
sh owed
tt
e
more th
an
th
e ma jor
r ive r
T
he Anduin)
f
lo\,in
g into a
la ke in the midst of
s ome
h i l l
s
Figure 3).
E
ven
his
l a r g
e r sc
a l e
ma
p gave mi t
ed in f
or
ma t ion about the
Emy n
t u
i
l ,
des
c r i b
in
g
only the two
r id
ges
on
the we s t mentione
d
in
th
e
tex t .
H
i s
Dap s d
id not
sh ow the dm-ms or
the wold
s ; y
et
dur
in
g
the
sou th ward journey t rave le r
s pa
sse
d down s wes t
of th
e r i
ve r ,
o
pp
os
i t e
wol
ds on
the
eas t ,
t
he
n h i gh
wol
ds
on
t he
we
s t
an
d
f ina l l
y
more downs on the west be f ore a r r i v
in
g a t the lake in the Emy n
Mu
i
l .
T
he
l
ake
,
in
c
id
enta
y , po u
re
d
th ro
ugh t
he hi
s
in
a ma j or
waterfa l l over a c l i f f
so
s t
eep
t hat po r t ag i ng was poss i b l e only
down a hand- c ut s t a i r F
igur
e 4).
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52
PROCEDUR L ME THUD
OU
t
i
ne rOOSed Haos
Research Literature and
Categorize References
Caves
Springs
Minerals
Bedrock
Vegetation
Ch k
ltance
: Rock Color, etc.
, .
I Stream
Patterns
__
~ t Landforms
r Regional I
Es tabll sh
Landscape
I
Morphology)
I ~ l a c l a t l o n
I Alpine, Continental)
t
I
Prec I patl
on
Draft
Rough
I (form, amounts)
Topographic Maps I CI
ima te r
Temperature
I establish F-Vegetatlon
I latitude) I--Wlnds
y ~ a n d f o r m s
I
I
I
Draft Smallest Scales M a P S l . l
l
i
Draft
Increasingly
I
Larger Sca I e
Maps I
(Working by Regions) I
J f
Draft Overlays Draft Final Topical Maps
Migrations, Battles,
etc.)
f
igure
2 P
rocedural
flow tor
m p
ping the At
las
of Middle earth
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53
.A c
R )){I1H
. E
, / -
'00 ,,5
m . f t l , . ~ )
Jlnt
£ ,1
EIIII
E_.t
,foodS,
Fora s,
4,-ido's
J t -.IIn,S,
ia ,f .s
lIooa 11I
a'
/ fa,.,/r
T/reKold
o
{
j
~ r r o ~ 4 , /
Soul; < W 1 ~
1411.,
Figu r e 3 .
T
he
.smyn t ;; Lil and :he An
du
in Ri ver .
H
IY- tl.11
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54
Figure
4 . l J at erfa t Rauros.
.; -
H HESTER
NGLISH
cn
BASIN
sOUTff
NORTf f
DOWNS
f f l f f
WeALD
DOWNS
LONDON
V LE OF
Figure
. 5 . Lobeck s
e a l ~
1n s
outhern
Engl
and
(
tobeck
1939
:
519 .
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55
A K
Lobeck
(1939: 519) discussed
and
i l lus t ra ted the
Weald
of southern England,
with
i t s
surrounding
lowlands
and downs, as
par t
of
an
ant ic l ine
extending across
the
English
Channel
into
Bri t tany (Figure 5).
The
s imi lar i ty
seemed
obvious,
e s
pecia l ly
since
Tolkien's Unfinished Tales
(1980:
260, 299) confirmed that
there
were
two
low
areas
cal led The Undeeps at the two
westward
bends of the
r iver . The di f f icu l ty was how
to
r e la te th is ant i
c l ina l
s t ruc ture
in the north with the Emyn Muil
hi l l s
far ther
south.
The
western part of the h i l l s
were
described as running
in two r idges with western faces s teeper than thei r eastern slopes.
East of the r iver was
a
strange, twisted knot of
hi l l s whose
outward faces
were
sheer,
high
and im
p
assable, frowning over the
plain
below.
Farther
north the
c l i f f looked
l ike
a
great
sea
wall whose foundations had shi f ted ,
leaving
great f issures and
long
s lant ing edg
es
(Tolkien 1965:
209, 212).
The key was
the
jescr ipt ion of
the western
hi l l s - - s teep west-facing scarps with
eastern backs lopes--hint in
g at
associa t ion with
the
downs
jus t
north. A case could be made tha t the Emyn Muil was a synclinal
s tructure with
the antecedent r iver Anduin damme
d
behind the
southern c l i
f f
in
a
synclinal val ley.
The
eastern h i l l s could
have
b
een
more
tumbled
because of the
nearby
mountains
of
Mordor.
Once
the
decision of landscape morphology was se t t led
upon, the
drawing
cotild be ea
s
i ly done.
This type of thinking process
was
repeated over and over
unt i l a l l
the regional maps
were draf ted, almost camera-ready.
O
nce
these bas e maps were complete, the la rger scale maps
were
then drawn. Each s i t e map was begun by
enlarging
the appropriat e
par t
of
the regional ma p and ref ining the
deta i l
s . Occasionally
some
addi t ional information
came
to
l ight \vhich
necessi tated
a l te r ing the base maps. Final ly,
when the small
and large scale
ma ps
were com p
l e ted , base
maps were
avai lable
on
which to overlay
the act ion map s - -ba t t les , m
igrat ions
and t raveler s pathways.
Ta ken in i t s
ent i re ty ,
th i s procedure seems a bi t over
whel
m
ing,
but
s te
p
by
step
i t
unfolded
in
a
ver
y
natural
way
and
became almost
a
ut
o
matic. I t
was cer ta in ly an
excellent exercise
tha t reinforce d
aw
areness of interact in g natural p
rocesses.
One
way ins t ruc tors
might
ut i l ize th is
cartographic procedure
would
be
to give the i r
students selected
quotat ions,
such
as
the
one
about
M
nas
T
i r i t h ,
and
have them
p
roduce
ma ps
based
on
the
text
prov
ided. An
intermediate
step
mi ght be a dded by re quir ing
s tu dents to s t not only the inform
a t
ion
availa
ble in
the quote
s
but
a l
so
q
uest ions unanswere
d but
nee
de d
to be le
a rned
fro
m
re
s
ea
r
ch e i
t
her
e l
s ew
here in
t he
bo
ok
i t se l f
or
from
some
g
eo
g
ra
ph
ic te
x
t .
I f
The
Atla
s
of
Middle-earth
were combine
d
with
quotes fro m To l k ien, r e f erenc es would be readi ly av a i lable
to
th e
in
s t
ru ctor .
Stu d
ent
maps thu s
could be
easi ly co
mp
ared
with th ose
in
t
he a t la
s and d
efende
d a s
neces
s
ar
y . E
mp
l oy
in
g
anot
h
er
a pp r oach , a
loc
a l middle- s chool t
ea
cher I know s elec t s a book or
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56
book ser ies (e .g. C S. Lewis' Narnia books) which has no maps and
combines a book report
with
a geography assignment by requiring
students
to
produce a locat ion map based on the t ex t .
Literary
map vogue
Outside the
classroom,
opportunitie& to
ut i l ize
my cartographic
procedure may be few, but the
current populari ty
of Tolkien's works
a ppears
to
have in i t i a ted a trend
in l i t e ra ture , especial ly
science
f ic t ion and fantasy works,
which
embraces the use of maps
so
the
reader may
bet ter follow
the narrat ive .
Readers
seem
to
love i t .
Tolkien
(1980:
2) himself commented
in
a
l e t t e r to
his son
about
th i s seemingly
insat iable
appet i te
for spat ia l de ta i l : , • • . while
many
l ike
you demand maps, others wish
for
geological indicat ions
rather
than
places.
I t
is
curious
tha t
a story, when
based
on
very
elaborate and detai led
workings
of geography, chronology, and
language,
tha t so
many
should clamor for sheer
' information' or
l o re .
While
novel is ts themselves are
obviously
the
most l ike ly
sources of
geographic information within
the i r
works, they
often
do not provide
i t .
These omissions,
however,
not only
present
l i t e ra ry
geographers
with superb opportunit ies for
spat ia l
in terpre ta t ion but also
with
an
exhilarat ing
teaching
tool . More-
over,
we can encourage
our l i t e ra ry friends to
include even
more
maps in the i r works and to use
geographic
insights in the i r
descr ipt ions, and we
can
help guide them
along
the way.
REFERENCES
D
el
Rey,
Judy
Lynn, Del Rey Books, Personal correspondence, 24
March
1983.
Elbow, G
ary
and Martinson, Tom Science Fiction for
Geographers:
Selec ted Works.
Journal
of Geography
79
(1980): 23-27.
Fonstad,
Karen
Wynn. The Atlas of Middle-earth. Boston: Houghton
r·:i f f l in , 1981.
Lobeck, A
K
Geomorphology:
An I ntroduction to the Study of
Landscapes. New
York:
McGraw-Hill, 1 939.
To
lk i en, J . R. R. The Fellowship of t he Ring. Boston: Houghton
i i f f l in , 19 65.
701kien , J .
R R
The Retu r n of t he Ring. Boston: Houg
hton
:
·li.£'flin , 19 65.
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57
Tolk ien J . R. R. The
wo
Towers .
Boston:
Houghton
Mifflin
1965
.
Tolkien J . R. R. Unfinished Tales . Boston: Houghton Mifflin
1980.