"A Map of Middle-earth" is either of two colour posters by different artists,

Barbara Remington Barbara Remington (23 June 1929 – 23 January 2020) was an American artist and illustrator. Born in Minnesota, she was probably best known for her cover-art for Ballantine Books' first paperback editions of J. R. R. Tolkien's novels ''The Hobbit ...

and

Pauline Baynes Pauline Diana Baynes (9 September 1922 – 1 August 2008) was an English illustrator, author, and commercial artist. She contributed drawings and paintings to more than 200 books, mostly in the children's genre. She was the first illustrator ...

. Adapted from

Tolkien's maps J. R. R. Tolkien's maps, depicting his fictional Middle-earth and other places in Tolkien's legendarium, his legendarium, helped him with plot development, guided the reader through his often complex stories, and contributed to the Impression o ...

, they depict the north-western region of the fictional continent of

Middle-earth Middle-earth is the Setting (narrative), setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the ''Midgard, Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf'' ...

. They were published in 1965 and 1970 by the American and British publishers of

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...

's book ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...

''. The poster map by Baynes has been described as "iconic".

Origins

All maps of

derive ultimately from

's own working maps, which he constantly annotated over the years, whether in English or in Elvish. He was unable to find the time to bring them into a presentable state in time for the publication of ''

''. The task was delegated to his son

Christopher Christopher is the English language, English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek language, Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or ''Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Jesus ...

. Neither of the maps known as "A Map of Middle-earth" cover the whole continent of Middle-earth; instead they portray the north-western region of that continent at the end of the

Third Age In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, the history of Arda, also called the history of Middle-earth, began when the Ainur entered Arda, following the creation events in the Ainulindalë and long ages of labour throughout Eä, the fictional un ...

, where the story of ''

'' takes place. Jonathan Crowe, writing on TOR.com, describes Christopher Tolkien's cartography as hugely influential on fantasy literature, setting the norm for "epic fantasy novels" which "were ''supposed'' to come with maps".

Barbara Remington

The earlier poster, signed "BRem" (

), was published in 1965 by

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

. It features border images adapted from Remington's cover designs for the 1965 Ballantine paperback edition of ''The Lord of the Rings''. Remington had not read the novel before designing the cover illustrations.

Pauline Baynes

The second version, by

, was published in 1970 by

George Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It became one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and established an Australian ...

in the UK and by

in the USA. It features ten small inset illustrations of important locations from the story. The poster is framed at the top by a row of nine figures representing the members of the "Fellowship of the Ring" setting out on their quest. At the bottom is an array of antagonists from the novel, including the nine

Black Riders Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''Psyc ...

Gollum Gollum is a Tolkien's monsters, monster with a distinctive style of speech in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth. He was introduced in the 1937 Fantasy (genre), fantasy novel ''The Hobbit'', and became important in its sequel, ' ...

Shelob Shelob is a fictional monster in the form of a giant spider from J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. Her lair lies in Cirith Ungol ("the pass of the spider") leading into Mordor. The creature Gollum deliberately leads the Hobbit pro ...

, and various

Orcs An orc (sometimes spelt ork; ), in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy fiction, is a race of humanoid monsters, which he also calls "goblin". In Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'', orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevol ...

. The poster has become iconic. Tolkien liked Baynes's illustrative style to an extent, but felt that it was too decorative to be used directly to illustrate the narrative of ''The Lord of the Rings''. He was however pleased with at least some of her vignettes on the poster map. Baynes's poster map helped to make the capital letter-only

Uncial script Uncial is a majuscule script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek scribes. Uncial letters were used to write Greek and Latin, as well as Gothic, and are the current style for ...

the standard for Middle-earth maps. MapTeranoevensmaller

In 1971, Baynes created another map for Allen and Unwin, entitled ''There and Back Again: A Map of Bilbo's Journey Through Eriador and Rhovanion''. It covers Bilbo's complete journey in ''The Hobbit'', including the parts west of the Misty Mountains, and was based on Tolkien's map of Middle-earth.

References

Sources

* *

External links

Map of Middle-earth
showing the movements of characters from both ''

'' and ''

The Hobbit ''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ...

'' film series by Peter Jackson
In the Beginning was the Word: How Medieval Text Became Fantasy Maps
tracing the roots of Tolkien's mapping influences to medieval prefatory textual practices. {{DEFAULTSORT:Map of Middle-earth, A Posters Fictional maps Ballantine Books books