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The Maps of Tolkien's Middle-Earth

j.r.r. tolkien john howe

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Best-selling Tolkien expert Brian Sibley (The Lord of the The Making of the Movie Trilogy and The Lord of the Rings Official Movie Guide) presents a slipcased collection of four full-color, large-format maps of Tolkien's imaginary realm illustrated by John Howe, a conceptual designer for the blockbuster films directed by Peter Jackson. The set includes a hardcover book describing in detail the importance and evolution of geography within Tolkien's epic fiction and four color maps presented with minimal folds, including two (Beleriand and Númenor) never before published in this country.

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1,1994

This edition

Format
80 pages, Hardcover
Published
October 2, 2003 by William Morrow
ISBN
9780618391103
ASIN
061839110X
Language
English

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About the author

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j.r.r. tolkien

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John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: writer, artist, scholar, linguist. Known to millions around the world as the author of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien spent most of his life teaching at the University of Oxford where he was a distinguished academic in the fields of Old and Middle English and Old Norse. His creativity, confined to his spare time, found its outlet in fantasy works, stories for children, poetry, illustration and invented languages and alphabets.

Tolkien's most popular works, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are set in Middle-earth, an imagined world with strangely familiar settings inhabited by ancient and extraordinary peoples. Through this secondary world Tolkien writes perceptively of universal human concerns – love and loss, courage and betrayal, humility and pride – giving his books a wide and enduring appeal.

Tolkien was an accomplished amateur artist who painted for pleasure and relaxation. He excelled at landscapes and often drew inspiration from his own stories. He illustrated many scenes from The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sometimes drawing or painting as he was writing in order to visualize the imagined scene more clearly.

Tolkien was a professor at the Universities of Leeds and Oxford for almost forty years, teaching Old and Middle English, as well as Old Norse and Gothic. His illuminating lectures on works such as the Old English epic poem, Beowulf, illustrate his deep knowledge of ancient languages and at the same time provide new insights into peoples and legends from a remote past.

Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892 to English parents. He came to England aged three and was brought up in and around Birmingham. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1915 and saw active service in France during the First World War before being invalided home. After the war he pursued an academic career teaching Old and Middle English. Alongside his professional work, he invented his own languages and began to create what he called a mythology for England; it was this ‘legendarium' that he would work on throughout his life. But his literary work did not start and end with Middle-earth, he also wrote poetry, children's stories and fairy tales for adults. He died in 1973 and is buried in Oxford where he spent most of his adult life.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 49 votes)
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16(33%)
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49 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Xtrazi
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I wasn't terribly impressed with this one. The maps are beautiful, but the little book that comes with them isn't terribly necessary. For each map, there are a couple of pages of how it came about, and then a location-by-location rundown of the plot that concerns the map. I think this is pretty skippable to all except for perhaps a Tolkien scholar who may want the map history or the maps themselves.
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shlomiardan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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If you are a Tolkien collector, an admirer of John Howe's superb Middle Earth paintings or a lover of beautiful books, then you will love this. But be warned, if you want highly detailed maps of Middle Earth overlaid with route plans and information, then you will be disappointed. If you want detail, instead buy Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle Earth or Barbara Strachey's Journeys of Frodo.
This package is beautifuly presented containing howes 4 Middle Earth maps in a hardback folder (the maps are Middle Earth, Beleriand, Numenor and the Hobbit map) with an informative hardback book by Brian Sibley explaining the role of maps in Tolkien's creations and containing a gazetter of place names for each map.
The whole lot is bundled into an attractive slipcase.
Howes maps are not over detailed, and are bordered with representations of scenes from the books painted by Howe. However, the maps contain as much detail as the maps drawn by JRR and Christopher Tolkien.
Howes purpose was not to create detailed cartography surpassing the original maps in detail and annotation, but to create artistic interpretations of the maps.
In other words, view the maps as art rather than detailed guides to Middle Earth and then you will not be disappointed.
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BlueMoon01
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I found this while browsing Half Priced Books. These maps are amazing. Tolkien's maps, drawings and descriptions bring his world to life. Being a geography nerd, I love maps political and natural. For anyone who may have a hard time with placing what and where these maps will make Middle Earth three dimensional.
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Elveeve
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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This is a gorgeous bit of work: a slipcase with a hardcover book of information on the making of the maps and what they depict, and a book-cover type folder which contains the four maps, folded up but completely separate (so if you wanted to frame and mount them, that’d be possible). It’s a beautiful collection, and the book itself is gorgeous too. The type-set is the same as most copies of The Hobbit I’ve seen, which I liked, and the layout too. Various illustrations — sketches and full colour — are included, with Brian Sibley describing the events and locations on each of the four maps.

It’s not hugely informative if you’re familiar with the geography and history of Middle-earth, but looking at things laid out like this can be different, and it’s a gorgeous collection, too.
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yonellow
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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You could tell the author and illustrator are fond of the source material. Attached to this copy are 4 great maps - one of Middle-earth, of Wilderland (the eastern part of Middle-earth, more so focusing on BB's adventures), one of Beleriand (Western realm sunken after the First Age), and one of Numenor (Island-star sunken after the Second Age).

All in all, the book was nice, and I paid 32 euros for it - was it worth the money? I think so and so, considering I had bought 'The Silmarillion' and similar books within this hardback series for about 10 euros less. I guess here you have the four poster-maps, and I grant you they are of good quality and feel good in the hands, but was very sad when I saw a lack of bookmark ribbon that usually is found with these types of books. Nevertheless, this is a book for the die-hard Tolkien fans and happy to have it in my collection
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GIF_with_a_J
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Not worth the time. If you want a glossary of terms, get a book by David Day. I was hoping for the words of John Howe, and explanations and inspirations of his work, but only got about a singular page of that. Rather disappointing.
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aori12
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I'd say 3 of the 4 maps are beautiful enough to be frame-worthy while one map (Numenor) only suffers because there isn't a lot of detail from Tolkien's original written descriptions to work with. The text volume of material gathered by Brian Sibley is illuminating and brings to life the locals on the maps. This material is for Tolkien geeks like me and those loving artistic fictional maps.
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