The following is a short essay from Ringer Squire. Do you agree? Disagree? Share your responses with our discuss or comment areas.
Headlined here yesterday, and discussed on the Main board just now is a link to an entertaining new interactive map of Middle-earth. It’s modeled on Google Earth, in that one can zoom out and see the whole subcontinent, or zoom in and see individual towns and towers close up. Of course it follows Tolkien’s own map, more or less exactly, but it has in fact been redrawn via computer by a new artist, Mr. Kris Kowal. And when you zoom in you see little bits that Tolkien could not or would not include in his original map, like icons representing the Argonath, the road to Isengard (see illustration below), and the ruined tower on Weathertop. Several place names have been added based on texts in Unfinished Tales, like the “Undeeps” of the middle Anduin, so the creators are clearly knowledgeable about their Tolkien geography.
Building on Tolkien’s map (left) and the story, Mr. Kowal’s map (right) shows the Road to Isengard.
I understand that it is a work in progress, so perhaps we may expect to see more of the details of the Shire in the future, based on the separate map that appears in Fellowship. But really, the power of zooming in, which is so much fun in Google Earth, is disappointing in this “Google Middle-earth”. There’s nothing to zoom in to for 99% of the world—and there never will be. Tolkien only drew on his map the specific places that were mentioned in his story; and for anyone to add anything else is, of course, just another form of fan-fiction.
This new map thus surprisingly reminds us just how poorly Tolkien detailed his physical world. The map, and several recent discussions we have had in the Reading Room about the distribution of hobbit-folk and the political organization of the Rangers, bring me back to an old question. Tolkien expressed his belief that one of the aesthetic virtues of The Lord of the Rings is that it contained hints of the earlier history of the world, but only hints. Continue reading “Why are there no ‘towers of a distant city’ on the map of Middle-earth?”
A New Zealand film website has declared, from its own independent sources, that Neill Blomkamp (District 9) will be directing a pair of movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.” It was also kind enough to point out that we broke the story as a possibility in June.
The Kiwi site isn’t known for rumor mongering so this is a definitely an interesting possibility that might be pointing to increased Hobbit activity and a semblance of leadership at MGM and a future for these potential gigantic hits (and fan favorites) to get made. Thanks to message board user Magpie for posting this in our forum and to Ataahua for alerting us to the post. You can read the original June forum response here. And, of course, stay tuned for the latest on all things Hobbit, Tolkien and Middle-earth.
September 2nd 1973 was a sad day as the world learned of the passing of J.R.R. Tolkien. To honor his memory, we hope you will join us in taking a moment out of your day to reflect on how this great man affected your life. Feel free to share via the discuss link or comment area below.
Marcin Przybys at behance.net has produced an interesting experiment in Elvish typography, a kind of Helvetica-styled Tengwar for the modern-day elf. Whether you like it or not (and whether or not you think that Tolkien would cringe at the notion of modernized elves producing sleek brochures with this typeface), it is certainly an interesting bit of art. [Read More]
The subject says it all folks. An interesting article from the LA Times comes our way this evening concerning James Cameron’s lofty quest to be mentioned alongside Tolkien, Star Wars and Star Trek.
“You’ve got to compete head on with these other epic works of fantasy and fiction, the Tolkiens and the ‘Star Wars’ and the ‘Star Treks,'” Cameron said. “People want a persistent alternate reality to invest themselves in and they want the detail that makes it rich and worth their time. They want to live somewhere else. Like Pandora.”
Check out the full article at the LA Times site. [Full Article]
