----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 
Darius Bartlett's examination of the geography of Tolkien's Middle Earth
caused me to recall something I forgot I did: back in the late '60s I was
one of the many who desired to wake up and find myself in Middle Earth
and STAY THERE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! To plan for that event, I
embarked on a scheme to make a series of topographic quadrangles of
Middle Earth. Inspired by the fine USGS 15 minute series, I blew up the
little cheapie Middle Earth map in the Ballantine paperback edition into
about 50 topo quads! I adopted a lot of the USGS style, but without the
scientific verification (!). Alas, there are no benchmarks to be seen - yet.
The final result is not as laughable as it sounds, but sophisticated it
ain't.
 
Brian Bach
Central Washington University Library
[log in to unmask]
 
On Fri, 21 Nov 1997, Darius Bartlett wrote:
 
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> At 12:28 20/11/97 -0500, Alberta Auringer Wood wrote:
>
> >At the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives meeting in
> >Saskatoon last May, one of our speakers was William Sarjeant of the
> >University of Saskatchewan who writes using his two middle names of Antony
> >Swithin.  He has created a series of novels about the island of Rockall.
> >[...].  The books are not fantasy, science or historical fiction - they are
> >examples of how maps can be interpreted by one's imagination and some
> >careful use of geological, geographic and social theory to build a
> >plausible theory of what could have been.
>
> MANY years ago, in my PRE-undergraduate days, I remember attending
> a fascinating talk by an academic geographer (from the University of
> Leeds in England I think?), who presented an astonishingly detailed
> analysis of "the geography of Tolkein's Middle Earth". His thesis was
> that, if you examine the maps and text of "Lord of the Rings" and the
> other Middle Earth sagas, you can build up an extremely plausible,
> multi-layered view of this imaginary place. And, furthermore, if you
> do undertake this sort of analysis, he suggested that various parallels
> emerge between the "geography of Middle Earth", and the actual geography
> of Europe at the time that Tolkein wrote. The more obvious examples were
> the location of Mordor in the east, behind a high and seemingly
> impenetrable barrier of mountains (analogy with the Iron Curtain of the
> time and the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union?); the "good guys"
> living in rural simplicity in "the Shire" (evoking an English, Anglo-
> Saxon sense of place: even the Hobbits' pubs have more than passing
> similarity to those of rural southeast England of the time!); and the
> "elves" and "dwarfs" occupying mountainous lands to the northeast
> (parallels with Scandinavia and myths of Trolls and so on?).
>
> I'm sure there were other examples, some much more subtle and based
> on deeper geographical ideas (the geographies of the social dynamics
> between the groups, for example; and the comparative descriptions of
> 'sense of place' as exhibited by the different cultures encountered
> in the yarns).
>
> Unfortunately, my own geographical education was not sufficient at that
> stage for me to really appreciate the subtleties of his argument, but it
> must have made an impression, for me to be able to still remember it
> over twenty years later! I wish I knew who the speaker was, and also
> if his ideas had been published anywhere? Does anybody out there know?
>
> An interesting topic for discussion. Over the years, I have first
> learned from you folks of many of the books that have since become my
> favourites. So do please continue throwing out pointers to
> particularly notable fiction (and non-fiction) from time to time as
> you have been!
>
> Have a good weekend!
> Darius
> ***************************************************************************
> Darius Bartlett                                             Darius Bartlett
> Department of Geography                              Roinn na Tireolaiochta
> University College Cork                      Colaste na hOllscoile Corcaigh
> Cork, Ireland                                                Corcaigh, Eire
>
> Phone: (+353) 21 902835                               Fax: (+353) 21 271980
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]                http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/geography/djb
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