An Atlas of Tolkien Read online

  An Atlas of

  Tolkien

  To my father, Alan Day.

  Thunder Bay Press

  An imprint of Printers Row Publishing Group

  10350 Barnes Canyon Road, Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92121

  www.thunderbaybooks.com

  Volume copyright © Octopus Publishing Group Ltd 2015

  Text copyright © David Day 2015

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Printers Row Publishing Group is a division of Readerlink Distribution Services, LLC. The Thunder Bay Press name and logo are trademarks of Readerlink Distribution Services, LLC.

  All notations of errors or omissions should be addressed to Thunder Bay Press, Editorial Department, at the above address. All other correspondence (author inquiries, permissions) concerning the content of this book should be addressed to Bounty Books, a division of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, Carmelite House,

  50 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0DZ

  An Hachette UK Company

  www.hachette.co.uk

  www.octopusbooks.co.uk

  eISBN: 978-1-62686-516-7

  This book has not been prepared, authorized, licensed, or endorsed by J. R. R. Tolkien’s heirs or estate, nor by any of the publishers or distributors of the book The Lord of the Rings or any other work written by J. R. R. Tolkien, nor anyone involved in the creation, production or distribution of the films based on the book.

  An Atlas of

  Tolkien

  by David Day

  Contents

  Preface

  Map of Númenor

  Map of Middle-earth in the Third Age of the Sun

  A Chronology of Middle-earth and the Undying Lands

  Chapter 1: The Creation of Arda

  The Vision and Creation of Arda Map of Arda, Years 1–5,000 The Beginning of the World The Ainur The Great Lamps Map of Arda, Years 5,000–10,000 Map of Valinor The Ages of the Lamps

  Chapter 2: The Undying Lands

  Map of Arda, Years 10,000–20,000 The Ages of the Trees The Trees of Light Map of the Undying Lands including Eldamar and Valinor The Haven of Alqualondë The City of Tirion The Darkening of Valinor The Flight of the Noldor

  Chapter 3: Middle-earth

  The Ages of Darkness Morgoth Balrogs of Utumno The Ages of Stars Map of Arda, Years 20,000–30,000 The Rekindling of the Stars The Awakening of the Dwarves The Awakening of the Ents The Breeding of the Orcs

  Genealogy of the Races of Elves

  Chapter 4: Beleriand Kingdoms in the First Age

  Beleriand Map of Beleriand The Thousand Caves of Menegroth The Awakening of Men Map of Arda, Years 30,000–30,601 The First Age of the Sun The First Dawn Huan of Valinor The Battle of Sudden Flame Quest of the Silmaril Gothmog the Balrog The Fall of Gondolin Destruction of Angband

  Wars of Beleriand

  A Genealogy of the Races of Men

  Olvar: Flora of Arda

  Kelvar: Fauna of Arda

  Chapter 5: Númenórean Empire in the Second Age

  Map of Númenor in the Second Age Númenor The Second Age of the Sun Map of Arda, Years 30,601–34,042 The Black Númenoréans

  Second Age of the Sun

  Chapter 6: Dúnedain Kingdoms in the Third Age

  Map of Arda, Years 34,042–37,063 The Third Age of the Sun The Dark Tower of Mordor Sauron The Third Age of the Sun The Migration of the Hobbits The Battle of Azanulbizar

  A Chronology of the Kingdoms of Middle-earth in the Ages of the Sun

  History of the Kingdoms of the Dúnedain

  Chapter 6, Part i: The Quest of Lonely Mountain

  The Company of Adventurers Gollum and the Goblin Caves The Forest of Mirkwood Smaug the Golden The Destruction of Lake-town The Battle of the Five Armies The Eagles in the Battle

  Chapter 6, Part ii: The Quest of the Ring

  The Shire The Barrow-downs The Ford of Bruinen The Last Homely House East of the Sea The Mines of Moria Zirak-zigil and Durin’s Tower The Golden Forest of Lothlórien Argonath, The Gates of Gondor The Rauros Falls The Golden Hall of the Rohirrim Saruman The Battle of the Hornburg The Walls of Isengard The Dead Marshes The Window of the Sunset Shelob the Great The Mountains of Mordor Minas Tirith Dunharrow and the Dwimorberg Minas Morgul The Witch-king The Pelennor Fields Eowyn and the Witch-king The Cracks of Doom The Destruction of Mordor The Fourth Age of the Sun The High King of the Reunited Kingdom The Departure of the Ringbearers

  History of the Rings of Power

  A Map of Middle-earth and the Undying Lands (1970s)

  Index

  Battles of the War of the Ring

  Acknowledgements

  Preface

  An Atlas of Tolkien has been created as a geographical and chronological guide for readers of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings who wish to know more of the vast imaginary world in which these books are set. It is also meant as a useful compass to encourage those who wish to navigate the somewhat deeper waters of The Silmarillion and Tolkien’s many other posthumously published texts.

  This Atlas is a compilation of specially commissioned and created art from some of the most talented fantasy artists of the past four decades. It began with the enormous investment in original full-colour art exclusively commissioned for the publication of A Tolkien Bestiary (1979) as the first ever fully-illustrated reference work on JRR Tolkien. Subsequently, new original artwork was created for Tolkien: the Illustrated Encyclopedia (1992) and for The World of Tolkien: the Mythological Sources of Lord of the Rings (2002).

  And now, this new Atlas – whose conception is due to the vision and persistence of Bounty’s publisher, Samantha Warrington and its project editor, Anna Bowles – brings all this work together.

  In An Atlas of Tolkien, I am pleased to be able to reveal this treasure trove of art to a new generation of readers. The Atlas contains dozens of pages of maps, chronologies, and genealogical charts; and more than 80 pages of full-colour illustrations of landscapes, cities, events, battles and incidents in the evolution of Tolkien’s world from its creation until the aftermath of the War of the Rings.

  This Atlas also concerns itself with the origin of things: the first appearance of the stars, moon and sun in the heavens; the ‘awakening’ of the races of Elves, Dwarves, Ents and Men; and the breeding of Orcs, Dragons and Balrogs.

  The aim of this Atlas is to reveal something of the imaginative sweep and splendour of Tolkien’s epic world. It is a vehicle of entry into – and travel through – the complex geography and mythology of Middle-earth and the Undying Lands.

  Time is as essential to the mapping of Middle-earth as geographic location. This Atlas gives a chronological context for events because in Tolkien’s world maps are only valid if they are located in time as well as place. His world of Middle-earth and the Undying Lands constantly evolves through time.

  However, let us make clear just what this Atlas is – and what it is not.

  An atlas, traditionally, is a book of maps, tables, charts, and illustrations about a specific place or subject. Often it is a road map and illustrated guide for anything from the geography of the world to the anatomy of the human body.

  This Atlas will give a geographic and chronological context for the narratives of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, but it will not offer the narratives themselves. For that, one must go to the actual novels.

  This Atlas locates and illustrates the fair Lúthien Tinúviel singing bef
ore the iron crown of Morgoth in the Quest of the Silmaril in the First Age. You will discover where and when in the Third Age, Bilbo Baggins encounters Smaug the Dragon in the Quest of Lonely Mountain. During the Quest of the Ring, you will also learn where – and in which crucial battle – the Witch-king and the Shield-maiden are locked in combat.

  However, the Atlas will not tell you what happened after Lúthien stopped singing, or how Bilbo fared in his contest with the Dragon. Nor does it reveal who won the duel between the Witch-king and the Shield-maiden.

  The Atlas is intentionally full of cliff-hangers. It is not – nor is it intended to be – a substitute for reading the actual stories in The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or The Silmarillion. If you haven’t already read the books, you will have the pleasure of discovering what happened next when you do read them.

  Throughout the Atlas, the outcomes of events and battles are only told if their results relate to the geographical evolution of Arda. The reader will find the Atlas is a useful compass in the exploration of Tolkien’s world, and it will give a sense of the deep history that motivates actions and deeds – for both good and evil – in all his characters.

  With this Atlas, you won’t need to be an expert in Elvish to find your way around Middle-earth and the Undying Lands. It has been written and organized in a way that is both informative and accessible to the general reader. The book is mostly written for those who have read at least one of the books – or have seen the movies, and would wish to read the books. Or, more commonly, for someone who, having read one book, might wish to have a guide to make the transition to the next book.

  One reason for the sustained fascination with Tolkien’s novels is to be found in the complex and detailed cosmology behind the stories. However, the cosmology is also one of the obstacles to understanding certain basic ideas in his creation of Middle-earth. In fact, many of these obstacles are geographic and cosmological in nature, and our hope is that some obstacles may be resolved by the overall view provided by this Atlas.

  In the 1950s, in one of his letters, JRR Tolkien acknowledged that the location of his world often confused people, and he stated: ‘Many reviewers seem to assume that Middle-earth is another planet!’ He found that a perplexing conclusion. In his own mind, he had not the least doubt about its locality: ‘Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. The name is the modern form of midden-erd>middle-erd, an ancient name for the oikoumene, the abiding place of Men, the objectively real world, in use specifically opposed to imaginary worlds (as Fairyland) or unseen worlds (as Heaven and Hell).’

  A decade later, Tolkien gave a journalist a more exact location: ‘the action of the story takes place in the North-west of Middle-earth, equivalent in latitude to the coastline of Europe and the north shore of the Mediterranean … If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence. The Mouths of the Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy.’

  The trick of Tolkien’s world is not so much the where, but the when: ‘The theatre of my tale is this earth, the one in which we now live, but the historical period is imaginary’. And in another letter: ‘I have, I suppose, constructed an imaginary time, but kept my feet on my own mother-earth for place.’

  That imaginary time is a mythical one, just before the first recorded human histories and the rise of any recorded historic civilization. It begins with a new creation myth which results in the making of a flat planet within spheres of air and light. It is inhabited by the godlike Valar, and eventually Elves, Dwarves, Ents and Orcs. According to Tolkien’s own reckoning (in his Earliest Annals of Valimar), we are 30,000 years into the history of this world before the human race appears. Another 3,900 years pass before the cataclysmic destruction of the Atlantis-like culture of Númenor, resulting in this mythical world’s transformation into the globed world we know today. The events of the remaining 4,000 years of Tolkien’s annals were then intended to lead ‘eventually and inevitably to ordinary history’.

  Tolkien was consciously inventing a cosmology comparable to the Norse, Greek, Finnish, German and Celtic traditions. The enormity of this undertaking is staggering. It would be as if Homer, before writing the Iliad and the Odyssey, had first to invent the whole of Greek mythology and history. What is most remarkable is that Tolkien actually achieved his ambitions to an extraordinary degree.

  The mapping of Tolkien’s world through time presents a considerable challenge that is complicated by a number of quite unique problems. Although Arda is almost a biblical creationist world that does not entertain the idea of Darwinian evolution, it is definitely a world that embraces the ideas of Charles Lyle’s geological evolution – and the later theory of continental drift – with a vengeance. The movement of continents in our primary (real) world took place over hundreds of millions of years; in Tolkien’s world their movement takes place in the relatively rapid measure of many thousands of years.

  Still, the mapping of Middle-earth and the Undying Lands requires the charting of a shifting geography over tens of thousands of years. Accepting this, the task of this Atlas was to discover a way to present the evolution of Tolkien’s world coherently in texts, maps and illustrations. This task was not made easier by the fact that there are aspects of Tolkien’s world that are incomplete, inconsistent and at times self-contradictory. Indeed, Christopher Tolkien, in his editing of The Shaping of Middle-earth, observed that although geographical and chronological concerns became a central preoccupation in his work, his father ultimately ‘never achieved a complete and coherent structure’.

  However, the incompleteness, inconsistency and self-contradictory aspects of the Norse and Icelandic mythology, for instance, have not been an obstacle to the many speculative reconstructions of the world of the Scandinavian gods. And just as there have been many manuals, guides and maps of ancient Greek, Egyptian and Babylonian cosmologies, so here with An Atlas of Tolkien we have created a geographic and chronological guide to Middle-earth and the Undying Lands.

  The hill of Cerin Amroth

  Any such undertaking, of course, should require a warning that to greater and lesser degrees, there is an aspect of subjective interpretation involved. We are not dealing with the laws of physics here, but an imaginary literary world.

  JRR Tolkien gives numerous systems of measuring time and several hand-sketched maps of Arda in the posthumous The Shaping of Middle-earth that are not consistent with those in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. In this Atlas, we have taken as many clues as we can from his writing to give a consistent overview of the geographic and historic evolution from the creation of his world to the time of the War of the Ring.

  To clarify, and give a framework for understanding the vast stretches of time that preceded the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as well as giving them a historic and geographic context, I have chosen to adopt a convention not actually used by Tolkien and speak of the ‘Ages of the Sun’. This is to differentiate systems of time and place (at times these systems overlap) before the appearance of the sun in the heavens. These vast passages of time before the rising of the sun, I have similarly called: ‘Ages of Creation’, ‘Ages of the Lamps of the Valar’, ‘Ages of the Trees of Light’, ‘Ages of Darkness’ and ‘Ages of the Stars’.

  These ages are fairly consistent with Tolkien in his earliest annals account: ‘the First Ages of the World were ended and these are reckoned as 30,000 years or 3,000 years of the Valar.’ And after the rising of the sun, he observes: ‘from this time are reckoned the years of the Sun … And after came measured time into the World.’

  In the years just before the publication of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien wrote that – in his most extravagant imaginings – he hoped others might involve themselves in his world: ‘I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. These cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and
yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama.’

  Once again, Tolkien achieved those aims to an extraordinary degree: many ‘other minds and hands’ have subsequently been at work. His writing has inspired artists, musicians and dramatic renderings. And as can be observed in this Atlas, Tolkien has certainly inspired the artists ‘wielding paint’ who place his tales in a context ‘linked to a majestic whole.’

  THE CREATION

  OF ARDA

  The Vision and

  Creation of Arda

  In the beginning, the great spirits called the Ainur were bidden by Eru, the One, to create a Great Music, and out of the music came a vision like a globed light in the Void. Eru Ilúvatar gave this vision life, and it became Eä, the ‘World That Is’. The Ainur looked on it and were amazed and many, for love of this new place, entered it. They became the powers that were named the Valar and the Maiar; Men later thought of them as gods. These were the beings that shaped the World, which was called Arda. Into Arda the Valar and Maiar brought many things of beauty, but also there was strife: one of the mightiest among them rebelled against Ilúvatar and his brethren and there was war.

  Arda is formed amid the Timeless Halls

  Years 1–5,000

  The Beginning

  of the World

  When Arda was first created, the earth was a flat disc enclosed within spheres of air, light and ether. These spheres were sealed within the invisible Walls of the World, and set in the infinite Void. There was one vast supercontinent upon which the Valar, or Powers of Arda, continued the shaping of the world. But one of the Valar revolted and this led to the First War. In the conflict the ideal symmetry of Arda was ruined, and the continent was broken apart.