mapping middle earth by karen wynn fonstad

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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h ~ I I ~ ~ l I

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ross

sect ion

of t h e

walled

c i t y of

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.


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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).


5/10

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


6/10

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


7/10

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 .


8/10

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


9/10

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.


10/10

57

Tolk ien J . R. R. The

wo

Towers .

Boston:

Houghton

Mifflin

1965

.

Tolkien J . R. R. Unfinished Tales . Boston: Houghton Mifflin

1980.

mapping middle earth by karen wynn fonstad

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