The Atlas of Middle-earth
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| The Atlas of Middle-earth | |
 Dust wrapper, first edition |
|
| Author | Karen Wynn Fonstad |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Middle-earth |
| Genre(s) | Atlas |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
| Publication date | 1981 |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 0-395-53516-6 |
The Atlas of Middle-earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad is an atlas of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional realm of Middle-earth.
It is a reference book for Tolkien's writings such as The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, and includes many detailed maps of the lands described in those books.
The maps are treated as if they are of real landscapes, drawn according to the rules of a real atlas. For each area the history of the land is taken into account, as well as geography on a larger scale and from there maps are drawn. Discussion includes suggestions as to the geology that could explain various formations, and points that are contradictory between multiple accounts.
City maps and floor plans for important buildings are also included.
The book was published in 1981, and in 1991 a revised and updated version was published, which took information from The History of Middle-earth series into account. It was, however, published before the final three volumes of The History of Middle-earth were published, and thus some maps are based on Tolkien's early works, which were revised in later writings.
Although the Atlas is beautifully drawn and remains the only comprehensive collection of Middle-earth maps in print, it is riddled with a variety of errors.[1] Partly this is because Fonstad did not have access to all resources, like the final volumes of the History of Middle-earth mentioned above. But Fonstad also tried to reconcile inconsistencies in Tolkien's text by adjusting the geography in questionable ways. For example, she departs from the official maps, shrinking the width of Eriador by over 100 miles, in a futile attempt to bring the journeys of Bilbo and Frodo across the troll country into accord. And in many places she imposed her own geographical ideas on the landscape in ways that depart from the text,[2] or simply overlooked geographical information in existing sources.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ [1] Michael Martinez, "Fonstad's numerous errors have NOT been corrected", Review on Amazon.com, June 3, 2001, downloaded Mar 15, 2008.
- ^ One example: the downs that Aragorn follows north while tracking Merry and Pippen clearly parallel the Entwash in the text, while Fonstad draws them in an east-west line as an outlying ridge of the Wold.
- ^ For example, Tolkien's Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings, available in Lobdell's A Tolkien Compass, published in 1975 and referenced in Fonstad's Atlas, contains information not reflected in the Atlas.
