Today is the last day to vote in Round 1 of Middle-earth Map March Madness! We’re using a slightly different voting format this year, and we realise that means you can’t see who’s winning the various polls as they unfold; so here’s some insight into Round 1 thus far…
The biggest leaders at the moment are Minas Tirith, beating Shelob’s Lair 92% to 8%; Valinor beating Falas by the same margin; and strongest of all, Gondolin is thrashing Hithlum, so far having 94% of the vote.
Readers may be surprised to know that the Brandywine Bridge is currently beating Bagshot Row, though there’s only 14% in it. Helm’s Deep is 12% ahead of Edoras, so get over there and vote if you don’t want the Golden Hall to go out in Round 1!
The closest fought battle right now is between Smaug’s Lair and the Elvenking’s Halls, with the fiery fellow currently beating Thranduil’s home by just 8%. Your vote could be the one which tips the balance!
Voting in Round 1 will close later today, so don’t delay! VOTE NOW! [Click here] Round 2 launches tomorrow!
Middle-earth Map March Madness 2019 launched yesterday! As you know by now, the four brackets for this year contain different locations from Tolkien’s world. We’re aware that for some readers, the Silmarillion locations may be less familiar than others; so should you need a little guidance, here’s our handy summary of Silmarillion sites (with thanks to staffer Joel):
Gondolin – The hidden city of the elves, surrounded by mountains, founded by King Turgon. The tragic and spectacular fall of this city was one of Tolkien’s earliest writings of Middle-earth.
Valinor – The blessed home of the Valar and Maiar, the greater and lesser angels of Tolkien’s legendarium. The elves were invited by the Valar to live with them in this land, but only some answered their call.
Angband – The many-dungeoned fortress of Morgoth, the great enemy of all that is good in Middle-earth. Sauron was but a servant of Morgoth. This fortress was captured by the Valar in an early defeat of Morgoth, but they failed to destroy it utterly, allowing it to be repopulated over time.
Thangorodrim – A trio of oppressively tall mountains, raised by Morgoth above Angband, to protect the latter. It was destroyed at the end of the first age in the War of Wrath.
Doriath – A forested land near the center of the lands that are part of the story of Middle-earth’s first age. Luthien is from here, daughter to Thingol, the elf, and Melian, the angel. Melian wove a misty wall of secrecy about the kingdom, known as the ‘girdle of Melian.’
Halls of Mandos – The souls of dead elves and humans reside here, kept separate from each other for no good reason other than ‘that’s how it’s supposed to be’. Elves linger in the halls until they are ready to be housed in a new body; the souls of men will not linger here and go elsewhere, to a location not known to the Valar or elves, and only guessed at by humans.
Nargothrond – A hidden underground elvish fortress ruled by Finrod. It was a place that had regular interaction between the races of Middle-earth: between the elves who lived there, the men Beren and Turin, who visited there and encouraged its people to fight Morgoth, the dwarves who helped expand its halls, and even the great dragon Glaurung!
Numenor – A star-shaped large island, raised from the ocean by the deity of Tolkien’s stories, Illuvatar, as a gift to the humans who helped fight Morgoth in the First Age. Mighty were its people, and mighty was the envy of it and hatred for its people by Sauron, who was slowly regaining his strength as the Numenorian people began conquering the lands on the Western shores of Middle-earth.
Tol Eressea – An island, near the shores of Valinor, that was home to many of the elves of Middle-earth who answered the call of the Valar to leave their homes for the Blessed Realm of Valinor. Like a giant pontoon, it was ferried back and forth between Middle-earth and Valinor to transport the elves who, at that early time, had not learned how to build ships.
Menegroth – Yet another underground elven fortress (so much for elves being forest creatures loving to sleep under the stars!) – this time the home of Thingol and Melian in their realm of Doriath.
Belegost – Along with Nogrod, one of two fortresses of the dwarves in the Blue Mountains, to the east of Beleriand, the land of Middle-earth with which the Silmarillion is concerned. After the War of Wrath, the Blue Mountains, just west of the Shire, were the only geographic feature of Beleriand that survived that war’s destruction.
Sauron’s Dungeons – During the first age, Sauron was the chief lieutenant of Morgoth. During this, umm, interesting, time, he occupied a castle in a scary land, could transform into a bat at will, and had servants who were werewolves and vampires. He also had many dungeons, with many famous occupants, including Beren, whom Luthien rescued.
Nogrod – Along with Belegost, one of the two fortresses of the dwarves in the Blue Mountains of Middle-earth. From there was created Nauglamir, a necklace that played an important (and as always, tragic) part in the later history of the First Age.
Vinyamar – an elvish settlement on the shores of Middle-earth, founded, and later abandoned, in the early part of the First Age. However, left there by the king who later founded Gondolin, were a set of armor and a sword, later found by a man who, with his son, changed the course of the world.
Falas – A seaside elven kingdom ruled by Cirdan, the same one who built all the ships that ferried elves to Valinor during the Third Age (the pontoon-island of Tol Eressea having been firmly anchored down ages before).
Hithlum – the land between the polar-ice of the Helcaraxe, and the land of Beleriand, where most of the First Age’s action occured. Hithlum was chilly and rainy, but crops grew there, and it was regularly under attack by Morgoth. Yes indeed, Hithlum was the fun capital of the First Age.
Ready to make some Silmarillion choices? Voting in the first round runs until March 22, so don’t delay – VOTE NOW! [Click here]
Middle-earth Map March Madness 2019 begins today! As promised, the four brackets for this year are all locations from Tolkien’s realm, divided into sites which appear in The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and a fourth bracket just for the many wonderful spots in The Shire and Bree.
All you have to do to take part is vote for your favourite in each of the pairings! We start with 64 competitors; by next round we’ll be down to 32, then 16, and so on until we have a final showdown between the two locations which make it to the grand final. How you choose which way to vote for each duel is up to you; logic, chance or emotion can be your guide! All that matters is that you cast your votes!
Unsure of some of the locations? We’ll be bringing you a few posts to help you sort your Brandywines from your Barad-durs, so stay tuned! Meanwhile voting is officially open NOW! Want to see The Last Homely House take on Cirith Ungol in the final? VOTE NOW! [Click here]
Blast from the past, Middle-earth March Madness circa 2012
TORn staff have been busy mixing things up a little bit this year. With Amazon Prime floating all these versions of Middle-earth Maps, we decided it would be fun to take some familiar and some not so familiar Middle-earth locations and spread them out in a Bracket and let you readers decide which destination is your favorite. This year’s madness will be known as Middle-earth Map March Madness for this reason, so you may want to pull out your books and start looking at your maps. Sure, we’ll have some handy little guides to help remind you of some of the more obscure locations, but in the end, this will help you get ready for Amazon’s series, if their teased maps are any indication.
We’ve decided upon a rather simple format of divvying up by books, giving one quarter draw to locations within Silmarillion, one to places found in the Hobbit, and one to locations found in the Lord of the Rings. To fill out the fourth quarter draw, we separated the Shire from the other books and gave it a place of it’s own. So, our final Four will include one location from each of these draws, but will your favorite Middle-earth locations even make the cut? We are still finalizing the draw, which basically consisted of various staff members tossing out loads of names until we had a good 20-25 from each segment, then we began voting to narrow each Quarter draw down to just 16 selections. We hope to have things ready to go in the next few days, so make sure to vote and keep track of the game as it moves through each round.
AP – Elizabeth Jones, “Betty,” Ballantine, passed away on Tuesday, February 12 at her home in Bearsmouth, New York. She was 99 years old. Together with her husband, Ian, who passed away in 1995, they Founded Bantam Books and Ballantine Books, expanding and mainstreaming the market for paperback books in the U.S. Of course, the name ‘Ballantine Books’ is near and dear to readers of J.R.R. Tolkien. What lover of Tolkien’s books doesn’t have several beloved, dog-eared Ballantine editions of “The Hobbit” and/or “The Lord of the Rings” on their bookshelves?
Great news for lovers of Tolkien-inspired art. TORn’s good friend Donato Giancola is to release a new collection of his incredible Middle-earth paintings, Middle-earth: Journeys in Myth and Legend. Published by Dark Horse, the volume will be available in April.
Giancola shares some insight into the development of the book on the blog MuddyColors; click here to read more.
To preorder the book, visit Giancola’s website, here. For those who’d like to splash out on a Limited Edition, Giancola and Shawn Speakman (of the SignedPage.com) are offering signed and embossed books; the emboss is the sigil of the Kings of Gondor. Click here to order one.
If you aren’t familiar with Donata Giancola’s work, you have a treat in store. He is an astonishing artist – and also a very nice guy, whom TORn followers may have met at past TORn events. Don’t miss out on getting a copy of this fabulous book – and check out some sneak previews of content, above right and below:
Today is the last day to vote in Round 1 of Middle-earth Map March Madness! We’re using a slightly different voting format this year, and we realise that means you can’t see who’s winning the various polls as they unfold; so here’s some insight into Round 1 thus far…
