The Atlas of Middle-Earth (Revised Edition) [Paperback]

Karen Wynn Fonstad (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2001

Karen Wynn Fonstad's THE ATLAS OF MIDDLE-EARTH is an essential volume that will enchant all Tolkien fans. Here is the definitive guide to the geography of Middle-earth, from its founding in the Elder Days through the Third Age, including the journeys of Bilbo, Frodo, and the Fellowship of the Ring. Authentic and updated -- nearly one third of the maps are new, and the text is fully revised -- the atlas illuminates the enchanted world created in THE SILMARILLION, THE HOBBIT, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
Hundreds of two-color maps and diagrams survey the journeys of the principal characters day by day -- including all the battles and key locations of the First, Second, and Third Ages. Plans and descriptions of castles, buildings, and distinctive landforms are given, along with thematic maps describing the climate, vegetation, languages, and population distribution of Middle-earth throughout its history. An extensive appendix and an index help readers correlate the maps with Tolkien's novels.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The publishing world is full of Tolkien spinoff products, some trivial and ephemeral--but some, like this thoroughly researched atlas, are genuinely classy. Karen Wynn Fonstad is a qualified geographer and cartographer who first mapped Middle-Earth in 1981 and has since added much new detail based on those endless volumes of drafts, abandoned passages, alternative versions, and laundry lists published since Tolkien's death. She fills in gaps and details in the familiar Third Age maps from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, goes back in time to map Middle-Earth's First and Second Ages, and reconstructs the route and timescale of every important journey in the stories. There are local maps of key places like the Mines of Moria, Lothlorien, Isengard, Minas Tirth, the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and the volcanic Mount Doom. War maps cover the saga's notable battles, up to the hopeless last stand at Mordor gate and the tiny later skirmish known in Shire records as the Battle of Bywater. Thematic maps show Middle-Earth's distribution of climate, geological features, vegetation, people, and (most importantly to Tolkien) languages.... It's all done tremendously seriously and would make a fine gift for enthusiastic Tolkien fans, except that they'll have bought it already. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Tolkien loved maps and geography played a great importance in his books. In the paperback revision of a hardcover that is out of print, cartographer Fonstad here details that aspect of these stories.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; Rev Sub edition (April 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618126996
• ISBN-13: 978-0618126996
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.7 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,644 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > History & Criticism

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

148 of 153 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Your official tour guide to Middle-earth.. May 14, 2000

By Charles Pinney

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you've ever been one flipping to the maps in "The Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings" , or "The Silmarillion" to see where the action is taking place, then this book is for you.

Karen Wynn Fonstad has done a remarkable job of mapping Middle-earth. The atlas is broken down into various sections, each easy to navigate to find what you're looking for.

The First Age section is perfect for readers of "The Silmarillion", all the important places are mapped along with ample notes and observations.

The Second Age deals with the fall of Numenor, a worthy companion to those reading "Unfinished Tales".

The majority of the book deals with the Third Age. This is where "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" takes place. There are maps showing the kingdoms of the Dunedain as well as the migration of the dwarves and the hobbits.

There are regional maps detailing the Shire, the Misty Mountains, Eriador, and Mordor. Two lengthy sections are devoted to the Hobbit and LotR, showing all the key places in the books. Fantastic maps to look over again and again.

Towards the end of the book are included the thematic maps. Very interesting. These show the landforms, climate, vegetation, population and languages spoken.

Overall, if you're remotely interesting in learning more about Middle-earth, or you're just interested in great maps, pick this up. Enjoy.

127 of 131 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Geography as it should be done October 11, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

The Atlas of Middle-Earth is an excellent work of geographic reasoning in the great tradition of Eratostenes. The attention to detail, the realism in the drawings, and the breadth of topics in this book are difficult to measure. I am a professional geographer, and I understand how labor-intensive the completion of this book must have been. Literally thousands of decisions made by Mrs. Fonstad had to fit with Tolkien's descriptions and intentions. That Tolkien's descriptions can stand up to such scrutiny of accuracy and internal consistency is a testament to Tolkien's magic (many authors' designed worlds do not).

I also wish to dispell a misconception by an earlier reviewer. The review by Linards Ticmanis from Germany is in error about Mrs. Fonstad's portrayal of the world maps. He suggested that her maps show a world "only half as large as the real earth" and that Tolkien has designed Arda to be Earth (although Tolkien denied that Middle-Earth was Europe in The Lost Road, p. 25). However, the radius of the planet can be calculated from her maps by placing an orthographic projection diagram with lines of latitude and longitude on top of her maps (her world maps are orthographic projections). When a degree of longitude or latitude is compared to its ground distance (supplied by reading Tolkien), it is quite easy to calculate the radius of the planet, approximately 4200 miles (6770 km). This compares to 3963 miles (6378 km) radius for the earth. These two measurements are very similar, and the idea that Mrs. Fonstad's maps show a world that is "only half as large as the real earth" is in error. In any case, the Atlas of Middle-Earth is about as "Tolkien Purist" as you can get; and this adds to its value immensely.

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fonstad's Atlas as a work of Interpretation and Criticism December 29, 2009

By Evan T. Burchfield

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

A few previous reviewers have attempted to sully this product with claims of inaccuracy; one in particular (Mr. Martinez) has stayed on this item's main page for years and is considered helpful by 85% of responders. He rants in two separate reviews and with multiple paragraphs that Fonstad didn't do her homework and that this is overall a "bad" piece of work. Despite these claims staying largely unsubstantiated even after Mr. Martinez's second review (he names a few of these errors in both reviews, but claims there are too many errors to tabulate), many other reviewers have referenced Mr. Martinez's review as if it is authoritative; that, along with the fact that many hundreds of others have clicked the little button that says Mr. Martinez's comments have been helpful to them (indicating perhaps that they have not purchased this book thanks to Mr. Martinez) is what urges me to write this review.

Since I am not a cartographer nor a Tolkien expert I cannot comment on the veracity of Mr. Martinez's claims; his overall picture, however, is so negative that once I had this item (the only one like it on the market currently) I spent some time comparing the book to the Lord of the Rings itself, and used it as a guide on my first complete read-through of The Hobbit since I was a child. I have walked away totally satisfied by Fonstad's book, with only a few minor criticisms. As a Tolkien fan who is working his way through a casual Tolkien survey, I can say that Mr. Martinez's vitriolic critique is totally wrong-headed. His error lies in his presuppositions: 1) that Middle-Earth is a complete and real thing, not something created by a man; he therefore assumes that Middle-Earth is always consistent and requires no interpretive work as regards its geography, and 2) that the only audience for this book is scholarly, and therefore scholarly exactitude is required in marking its worth.

On the first point, Mr. Martinez assumes that there is a "right answer" to the geography of Middle-Earth, and that clearly Fonstad has not got it. Fonstad is sweeping in her scope and level of detail, but she is upfront about her assumptions and guesses, never presenting herself as anyone more than a skilled cartographer trying to make as much sense of this varied world as possible. The amount of time Tolkien spent creating his universe, from the early 1900s to his death, should indicate that HIS errors were unavoidable without major revision. See also The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion for details on Tolkien's mistakes (geographical and otherwise), which do not destroy his work, but nonetheless do exist.

Fonstad's book is in many ways putting pieces together that weren't made to fit, and for this it should not be considered authoritative unless considering the absence of any competing atlases. Certainly someone should make a competing Atlas, but considering the contradictions inherent in Tolkien's works, it would be no more "correct" on many points than Fonstad's (though I'm sure many errors could be removed). It is in this sense that any atlas of Middle-Earth (as any illustration of Middle-Earth) should be considered "interpretive."

As for the second point, Mr. Martinez rates the product as 2 out of 5 stars and says "Tolkien readers need a new cartographical reference. Hopefully, one will come along some day that doesn't look this bad." Here Mr. Martinez is specifically speaking about Tolkien readers, not scholars; he writes his review as if the average or even enthusiastic Tolkien reader could not garner any joy from this book. Fonstad doubtless has made mistakes, especially considering that she published her revision prior to Christopher Tolkien releasing the entire "History of Middle-Earth" series. I noticed one or two general mistakes myself, though nothing that has destroyed my confidence in the general quality of her book; I must again reiterate that Fonstad consistently states where she draws her conclusions from, and therefore the reader is encouraged to test her words against Tolkien's text. Mr. Martinez's time would be better spent listing and compiling these mistakes rather than dissuading readers from consulting the only available Middle-Earth atlas.

Fonstad's book really is a work of criticism, pointing out the grandeur, the consistency, and occasionally the mistakes in Tolkien's work. When shining a light on The Hobbit, Fonstad's book shows us how truly inadequate its geography and timeline is when compared to the Lord of the Rings, where Tolkien was much more consistent. It is immeasurable how valuable Fonstad's book has been for readers like me. This is without mentioning that the scholars Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull reference her work three times in their authoritative The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion.

The best "negative" review on Amazon about this work is by Wade West "Glorfindel" who offers a highly critical four-star review that is qualified by his endorsement to purchase the book. To say it clearly: if you need a LotR map or want help visualizing Tolkien's world, get this book. Like everything else written on Tolkien, it is a start, not an end.