43. Little Broccoli Trees.

On cartography in Tolkien.

Jared, Oriana and Ned talk about Ned’s choice of topic: cartography. To
say that maps help define Middle-earth is to understate; besides the famous
map featured in The Hobbit and also given as a key visual element with the
book itself, one of two Tolkien drew for it, his own many other maps of
Middle-earth he created over time, finalized for publication by Christopher
Tolkien both before and after his father’s death, establish a visual sense of
what Middle-earth ‘looks’ like in a broad sense, to the point of spawning
numerous atlases, charts and online explorations of that wider world. But then
again, cartography in a modern sense is a very Eurocentric proposition, and
even the fantasy fiction cartography that Tolkien’s maps both drew on and then
subsequently influenced in a massive way is very much a product of that wider
influence, sometimes in very subtly skewed ways. How do maps function ‘in’
Middle-earth themselves, whether as plot device, something referenced casually
or even seemingly not needed at all, depending on the character? What about
the historical context of the British Empire and the sense of ‘discovering’
the world might have fed into Tolkien’s own views about how to create his own
maps and charts, as much as his own knowledge of medieval manuscripts and maps
in turn? How have the various visual interpretations of Middle-earth in other
media used maps in turn in their efforts and to what purpose? And how is the
long shadow of Middle-earth’s maps and their impact being interrogated by
creative artists around the world as newer worlds are envisioned and explored?
(And yes…we have some initial thoughts on a certain streaming TV series.)

Jared’s
doodle. We
cover the Middle-earth globe for you. (When it became a globe.)

Look we know, WE KNOW. For now we just recommend Gita Jackson’s piece “Whose
Fantasy Is This?” Fuck racists and then some.

Ned’s Twitter
threads on the
time compression problem in the series with specific regard to Númenor.

Jared’s Patreon piece on the show a few episodes in.

Cartography! It’s got
a history.

The Tolkien Estate’s map
section on its website.

The Tolkien Society’s closer
look at the annotations that Tolkien wrote for Pauline Baynes
regarding her poster map.

Jonathan Crowe’s two excellent pieces for Tor: “Celebrating Christopher
Tolkien’s Cartographic Legacy” and “Where Do Fantasy Maps Come
From?”

Barbara Strachey’s Journeys of
Frodo and Karen Wynn
Fonstad’s The Atlas of Middle-earth both remain
enjoyable reads, Fonstad’s volume being especially key.

Crowe’s Tolkien entries on his own
blog, The Map Room.

Stentor Danielson’s articles on
cartography
at the Journal of Tolkien Studies.

Sally Bushell’s “Mapping Worlds: Tolkien’s Cartographic
Imagination” from her book Reading and
Mapping Fiction (you’ll likely need library or academic access to read it
directly).

Nicholas Tam’s “Here Be Cartographers: Reading the Fantasy
Map.”

The British Library’s “What Is a Fantasy
Map?”

A 1999 New York Times piece
summarizing the increasing study and work being done throughout the decade
working against the Eurocentric cartographic approach.

A 2019 undergrad paper by Luke
Maxwell
on imperialism and Eurocentrism in fantasy cartography.

The 2021 Dream Foundry panel discussion, “Fantasy Maps and Worldbuilding from
a Non-Eurocentric Perspective,”
archived on YouTube.

Our episode on the Red Book of
Westmarch, a putative source of
the Lord of the Rings maps.

There are indeed many online Middle-earth maps and atlases – including as
mentioned the Minecraft Middle-earth. Other
examples include LOTRProject’s Interactive Map of Middle-earth
and Arda Maps.

On a psychogeographical tip,
Nowhere and Back Again might be of esoteric interest.

Support By-The-Bywater and its network, Megaphonic, on
Patreon. Thanks!